Luxury Ski Stats 2014 from Consensio

L U X U R Y

SKI STATS 2 0 1 4

PRODUCED BY

Consensio IN ASSOCIATION WITH

WELOVE2SKl.COM

COMPILED FROM DATA PROVIDED BY THE FOLLOWING LUXURY SKI / TRAVEL AGENTS AND CHALET OPERATORS FROM WINTER 2013/14:

ALPINE ANSWERS WWW.ALPINEANSWERS.CO.UK.

ALPINE GURU WWW.ALPINEGURU.COM

BIGHORN REVELSTOKE WWW.BIGHORNREVELSTOKE.COM

CARRIER WWW.CARRIER.CO.UK

LE CHARDON MOUNTAIN LODGES WWW.LECHARDONVALDISERE.COM

CK VERBI ER WWW.CKVERBIER.COM

CONSENSIO WWW.CONSENSIOHOLIDAYS.CO.UK

COURCHEVEL PRESTIGE PROPERTIES WWW.COURCHEVELPRESTIGECHALETS.COM

ELYSIAN COLLECTION WWW.ELYSIANCOLLECTION.COM

FIREFLY COLLECTION WWW.FIREFLY-COLLECTION.COM

HIP CHALETS WWW.HIPCHALETS.COM

INTERACTIVE RESORTS WWW.INTERACTIVERESORTS.CO.UK

THE OXFORD SKI COMPANY WWW.OXFORDSKI.COM

PORTETTA MOUNTAIN LODGES WWW.LEPORTETTA.COM

SKI IN LUXURY WWW.SKIINLUXURY.COM

SUMMERS & WINTERS WWW.SUMMERSANDWINTERS.CO.UK

SUMMIT RETREATS WWW.SUMMITRETREATS.COM

VERBIER EXCLUSIVE WWW.VERBIEREXCLUSIVE.COM

THE TOP NATIONALITIES WHO BOOKED LUXURY CHALETS IN FRANCE

Brazil 3%

Other 10%

French 8%

UK 44%

Russian & CIS 35%

UK clients increased by 4% on last year’s figures.

Russians remained steady, dropping only 1%. The French dropped slightly down from 10% to 8%.

The Brazilians only took 3% of the market share down from 6% with India, UAE and other European countries making up the difference.

THE TOP NATIONALITIES WHO BOOKED LUXURY CHALETS IN SWITZERLAND

Other 14%

Australia 3%

Middle East 7%

UK 47%

Swiss 6%

Russian & CIS 23%

UK clients booking chalets in Switzerland dropped by 3%, with the Russians taking back a significant market share jumping from 18% to 23%. The other big change was in the American market which dropped from 11% down to 1%.

BOOKING PATTERN FOR HOLIDAYS TAKEN DURING WINTER 2013/14

45%

41% 40% 35% 30% 25% 22% 20%

20% 17%

15% 10% 5%

0% Pre May 2013

May to Aug 2013

Sept to Dec 2013

Dec to May 2014

We saw a nearly identical pattern to 2012/13 with the majority of clients booking in the three months prior to December. The remaining bookings were spread pretty evenly across the other periods.

THE FOLLOWING FACTORS MOST INFLUENCED A CLIENT'S BOOKING

1

RESORT

2

PRICE

3

FACILITIES

4

LOCATION

5

SERVICE

6

SIZE OF CHALET

7

ADVICE FROM OPERATORS & AGENTS

8

FOOD & BEVERAGE QUALITY

9

TRANSFER TIME

10 TRAVEL INCLUSIVE

When compared with last year’s results, the two factors which have changed are price and service in level of importance. Price has jumped from sixth place to second place, whilst the service level has dropped from second down to fifth place. The remaining factors have all stayed insimilar positions.

PROFILE OF THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR BOOKING THE SKI HOLIDAY

PA 13%

Female 34%

Male 53%

The profile of the person responsible for booking the holiday remains predominantly male, with some using their PAs to do the organisation.

PARTY LEADER AVERAGE AGE

The average age of the person responsible for booking the holiday remains static with the 40 – 60 years olds dominating, and the others split similarly to last year.

THE AVERAG E SIZE

OF GROUP BOOKING DURING 2012/13

The average group size dropped from 10 in the previous year to 9 in 2013/14

CLI E NTS' PREFERRED METHOD OF TRAVE L

Train 4%

Helicopter 1%

Self Drive 7%

Private Jet 22% Scheduled airline 66%

Scheduled airlines dropped 9% with private jets increasing by 6%. Those guests choosing to self-drive increased by 4%

MOST POPULAR SCHEDULED AIRLINE

Jet2

Air France

Flybe

Ryanair

Swiss

Easyjet

BA

BA still lead the way as the airline of choice, with Easyjet moving up from fourth place last year back into second position, pushing Swiss down into third.

CLIE NTS' EXPE N DITU RE ON EXTRAS OTHE R THAN LI FT PASS/SKI H IRE

Activities

A la Carte Wine

Nanny

Group Ski School

Massages

Private Ski Guides

4%

13%

15%

19%

20%

30%

Whilst private ski guides continue to be the main source of expenditure in resorts, bookings were down significantly from 45% to 30%. Group ski school bookings, on the other hand, jumped from 11% to 19%. Spending on massages remained static. Expenditure on nannies and a la carte wine both doubled from last year.

IMPACT OF THE 2013/14 SNOWFALL ON THIS YEAR'S BOOKINGS

Positive 18%

Negative 12%

No Impact 70%

The snowfall during last winter seems to have had little impact on this year’s bookings, with 70% of agents and operators reporting that it had no impact on bookings for this upcoming winter.

LEVEL OF CURRENT BOOKINGS COMPARED TO 2013/14

Same 11%

Down 17%

Up 72%

72% of operators and agents reported bookings to be up compared to last year, with just 17% reporting a drop in bookings, and 11% remaining static on 2013/14.

AGENT ONLY RESPONSES

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR RESORTS IN FRANCE

Chamonix Other 3% 5% Megeve 5%

Morzine 9%

Courchevel 32%

Meribel 22% Val d'Isere 24%

Courchevel remains solid as the resort of choice in France, increasing 2% on last year. Méribel has remained popular almost equaling the popularity of Val d’Isère. Both Megève and Chamonix dropped to 5% giving a significant market share to Morzine.

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR RESORTS IN SWITZERLAND

Gstaad Davos 3% 3% Other Crans-Montana 5% 3% St Moritz 6%

Verbier 33%

Saas Fee 8%

Klosters 9%

Zermatt 30%

In spite of its 4% drop, Verbier remains the most popular choice. Zermatt dropped slightly, but remained in second place. St Moritz and Klosters swopped places from last year, and the most significant increase was Saas Fee which leapt from 2% to 8%.

WHAT % OF CLIENTS ARE BOOKING CHALETS v HOTELS

Hotel

12%

Chalet

88%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Chalets dropped from 92% to 88% with hotels increasing in popularity.

WHAT % OF CLIENTS TOOK CATERED v NON CATERED CHALETS

Non-Catered

13%

Catered

87%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2014 was the first year that agents were asked this question, and interestingly enough they reported that only 13% of chalet bookings were made on a noncatered basis.

If you would like to receive a copy of this report or for all press enquiries please email Clare Meaney on clare@consensioholidays.co.uk WHEN QUOTING FROM THIS REPORT PLEASE MAKE REFERENCE TO:

'THE SIM PLE LUXURY SKI STATS 2014 from CONSENSIO’