The Chalet Ski Stats Report 2019 found bookings for winter 2019/20 were up for 56% of operators and agents with only 15% saying there had been a drop year-on-year, although the number of firms seeing an increase in bookings was higher this time last year at 62%.
The report produced by chalets and apartments specialist Consensio, in association with welove2ski, has been compiled using data from a range of operators and agents in the winter sports sector.
Overall spending by clients was also up for half of agents and operators, while another 38% said it had stayed the same as last year. Only 9% saw a reduction in spending.
Less positively, 50% of firms said Brexit had a “negative” impact on their businesses over the past year – this compares to a figure of just 34% in 2018.
An even higher number (62%) expected Brexit would have a negative effect on trading over the coming year, while 35% said it would have no impact. Only 3% thought it would be “disastrous” and nobody said it would be positive for their business.
Despite this, the UK continues to be the number-one market for those booking winter holidays in both France and Switzerland. Bookings from UK clients have also increased at a higher rate for 2019/2020 than for other nationalities.
As for time of booking, the period between September and December remains the most popular with 38% of total sales (down from 40% a year ago).
The top three factors influencing bookings remained the same as last year: resort, price and the location of the property (ski in/ski out or close to lifts). Average group size was also steady at nine per booking.
