TWO of the biggest names in UK ski & snowboard holidays have announced they are cancelling all trips for the rest of the 20/21 season.
Crystal Ski Holidays and Hotelplan UK, the operators of Inghams, Flexiski and Ski Total, have blamed the continuing impact of covid on travel for their decision.
Crystal has promised that all impacted customers will be contacted to discuss a range of flexible options. These include amending their holiday to a future season or cancelling and receiving a refund.
The operator says despite the pandemic, it is already seeing high demand for next winter and has a wide range of ski holidays on offer from 6 December 2021 until 10 April 2022.
Chris Logan, Managing Director at Crystal Ski Holidays, said: “We’re so disappointed not to be able to get our customers to the mountains this winter and we’d like to thank them for their continued patience, understanding and support.
“We know skiers and snowboarders are desperate to get back on the snow and we’re now looking forward to making next winter one to remember.”
Hotelplan UK CEO, Joe Ponte said: “We have suspended all Inghams, Flexiski and Ski Total ski trips for the rest of this winter.
“Customers with bookings in April will be offered a refund or the chance to postpone their holiday until a later date. We would like to thank our customers and partners for their patience and understanding, and as always, they can be reassured that we will continue to look to do the right thing by them.”
Hotelplan says it will now focus on making next winter one of the best yet.
Mr Ponte added: “We continue to see strong numbers for the 2021/22 winter season and bookings are well ahead of the same period last year. As people think about their holiday plans now, to avoid missing out next winter, across the Hotelplan UK brands we’ll be looking at how we can increase capacity to keep up with demand—and some of next winter’s holidays are on track for a record-breaking year.”
The surge in bookings for the 21/22 season has also been reflected at Club Med which claims its holiday bookings are already looking to be one of the best on record with overall sales up by 133% and bookings for online up by 71% versus the first day of the winter sales opening last year.
According to the data from within the business, people are spending more on a holiday than they have previously, with the average order value for holidays up by 56% as people perhaps seek out to make up for missed trips abroad in 2020.
Bestsellers for the winter 21/22 season feature a number of Club Med’s popular ski resorts, including Alpe d’Huez, Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon, Les Arcs Panorama and Val Thorens Sensations.
To date, the most popular weeks include February half term (2022) and the festive weeks for this coming Christmas.
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