A new survey by ski chalet specialist Le Ski predicts that the UK snowsports market will grow by 14% in winter 2023/24. The survey was conducted by YouGov for Le Ski during August 2023 and showed that 1.12 million British skiers and snowboarders took to the slopes last winter.
An additional 160,000 holidaymakers will join them this coming winter, bringing the total up to 1.28 million – an increase of 14%.
Le Ski has seen early evidence of this increased demand. Founder and MD Nick Morgan said: “We already have 60% of our programme sold for this winter. This is great indicator of a post-Covid recovery that is seeing more and more skiers coming back to the mountains.”
The survey also showed that while hotels (50%) and self-catering (29%) are more common, 13% of British skiers prefer to book a catered chalet.
Morgan believes that a hard-core of British skiers will always choose to book chalets: “Although the number of chalets available to the UK market has fallen considerably post Brexit and Covid, we have increased our range in Courchevel, Val d’Isère and La Tania. We’ve found that a combination of 40 years’ experience, offering flights, transfers and proper catering as well as being fully ATOL bonded means skiers have the confidence to book with us year after year.”
The YouGov survey also revealed that 81% of British skiers travel just once each winter, with 19% taking multiple ski trips, including a small group (5%) of ‘super skiers’ who take three trips or more.