Crystal have released their Ski Industry Report 2009, which is the usual mix of facts, figures and PR. 2008/9 was not a great season overall for the UK ski industry despite great snowfall pretty much everywhere.

Crystal estimated the number of people taking a ski holiday to be 1,064,000 last winter, down from 1,227,000 (13%) the previous year. This follows seven years of small, but steady, growth. In truth, the UK ski market will never show amazing growth unless there is a growth in the schools market. At least this has remained steady with more than 140,000 young skiers travelling last year.

The number of UK skiers has been just above the 1 million mark since 2002, but it could well drop below that figure in 2009/10. The industry must be concerned by a 13% drop in numbers followed by another slow year. Once you lose skiers, with every passing year, it’s harder to get them back.

For 2009/10 the larger operators are taking a cautious approach, weary of carrying too many fixed costs into the season. This has mainly resulted in a reduction in the number of chalets on offer. Will the drop in capacity mean opportunities for independent chalet operators and the independent market? Crystal have said that they have managed to keep price rises down to around 3%, but smaller operators don’t have the same buying power and control over their costs. This may result in some operators looking quite uncompetitive in the winter should the sterling’s recovery continue. Overall, it’s looking like it will be another tricky winter.

The NY Times this week reported that eastern US ski resorts have had a great winter, whilst those on the west have found things a little more difficult. They put this down to the good snow and the recession resulting in people wanting to travel less.

While these are definitely reasons, I think another problem the bigger resorts have is that everything is expensive. I wouldn’t recommend anyone on a budget to go to a resort such as Coruchevel because the financial hit is everywhere. Not only is the accommodation more expensive, but then you find expensive lift passes, equipment rental, restaurants, bars and just about everything else.

This winter most ski resorts have had a more limited impact because of the amazing snowfall and many bookings were made before the full financial problems hit. It will be interesting to see how things develop next year. Most skiers will find a way to go whatever their circumstances are, but it is where they go that may well change.

More snow hit the alps this week, but many ski operators’ minds will be on next winter. With contracting and brochure production in full swing operators are faced with tough decisions.  If they set their currency for next winter now, it will be hard to avoid price increases for 2009-10 of less than 30%. If they gamble on the strength of sterling, they are gambling on the future of their business. How many will be able to sustain 30% price hikes in the current climate?

It truly is a lose-lose situation. If they set the currency now and sterling increases in value, clients will be tempted to go direct to hotels next winter in order to find better value. If they set now and sterling declines further, clients are still faced with more expensive holidays. Unfortunately for ski operators, almost all sales are against the euro or the dollar, both of which are now strong against sterling, so there is little chance of switch selling to stronger areas.

It’s a chilling scenario and it many ski operators will have to make tough choices in order to survive another 18 months, but at the moment they will be striving to squeeze every possible cent out of their suppliers for next winter.

More skiing. The Chronicle goes to Banff and has a good time.

Skiing is part of the mixed bag in The Guardian this week, with a look at some of the more enterprising chalets in The Alps. There’s also a piece on cycling in Sardinia, which has a few too many typos and cliches.  More interesting is a prison visit in Bolivia. Reading Danny Wallace’s big adventure in Australia does test your will to live, so I move on to…..

Another “celebrity” writing about their travels. Fiona Bruce goes to Borneo in The Telegraph. Although I’m not sure I needed to know so much about her son’s swollen ankle and the final paragraph doesn’t make much sense, it is OK as “celebrity” pieces go.

The LA  Times has searched for a currency that was good value against the dollar and ended up in Iceland and found it was such good value they decided to go twice. They didn’t really, it’s just two different pieces about the same trip.

Sanity is restored at The Independent (despite yet more on Washington DC) where Stephen Wood skis in Formigal and the writing informative and honest. There’s an interesting article on the faster train links across Europe and there’s diving in Queensland.

Hey, everyone’s gone to Africa. Not to be outdone by The Telegraph, The FT has its own Africa special. There’s nothing missing from Michelle Jana Chan’s safari in Botswana. There’s flowery prose (“A splinter of sunrise winked over the baked salt horizon”), there’s deep insight (“For it is harder today than ever in history to find a place without people.”) and there’s suspense (“My tracker, Mogale, leant out of his seat to look down at the paw prints in the sand. “Leopard.” He flicked his finger forward. “Going this way.” My pulse quickened.”) They didn’t find anything though, but as Michelle so astutely points out, “For it is not about what happens here, but the anticipation of what might.” Also in the FT, Andrew Mueller (good week for  music journalists getting travel pieces) goes to Addis Ababa and does little more than walk around the market in Merkato. To round off Africa, Gavin Kallmann takes a train through Senegal.  There’s also a couple of Obama related bits about Washington and Chicago.

The NYT goes to Washington of the mountain variety, climbing up Mt Washington in the snow  and extreme cold. Elsewhere, their ski report focusses on Taos Valley in New Mexico, which  isn’t perhaps one of the better known US resorts in Europe. This year Taos has lifted its ban on snowboarders, leaving only three US resorts that ban boarders – Mad River Glen, Deer Valley and Alta.