2010 is going to be an interesting winter for the ski industry. Ski operator Erna Low have suggested a price rise of 15% will be about average based on the assumption that most companies will have bought their currency last year at around 1.25€ and this year at around €1.15. It could even be worse for some companies who may well have bought higher than €1.25 last year and lower than €1.15 this year.
A lot of companies will be trying to reduce their fixed costs, which for many will mean reducing the number of chalets they have on their books. Joanna Yellowlees-Bound, Erna Low’s chief executive has suggested families take their kids out of school and travel in January. Whilst this may seem extreme, the school holidays in the UK do nothing to help operators in the UK.
Operators like Erna Low will do ok business at Christmas and New Year, hampered by long minimum stays and tricky flight days. Then they will do virtually nothing in January, and find that everyone wants to travel in the same week in February. Then March will be steady, but 2010 finds yet another late-ish Easter, which is a mixed blessing.
A lot of ski operators will take a very large percentage of their bookings in February half-term. During this week they will be charged high prices by suppliers and airlines and then get moans from customers that they are expensive.
For the ski industry, UK school holidays are a nightmare. There often appears to be no rhyme or reason. Some years every single school seems to have the same February half-term, some years it can be spread over 3 weeks. Why can’t we have a system like the French where school holidays are split three ways with each geographical grouping having different holidays? It seems much more sensible than the random UK approach.
(If you don’t have kids and want to go skiing, the week to avoid will be the 13-20th February 2010.)
