« Previous Story |
The Industry Report Home Page
| Next Story »
U.S. Ski Clubs, Other Skiers Add Up To Euro Mixed Bag
By Craig Altschul
August 16, 2007
The prognosis for European travel from the U.S. market is mixed at best. Longtime and forever OnTheSnow.com European Editor Ted Heck did some late summer research for The Industry Report and uncovered the good (clubs and individuals are going to Europe), the bad (but not in old-time numbers), and the ugly (the dollar vs. the Euro and the specter of terrorism).
Ski clubs aren't giving up the ship, so to speak, but the numbers of trips and those taking them are declining. The 42-club Eastern Pennsylvania Ski Council is offering seven Euro trips this winter, down from 14 the year before. Still, two years ago, the number was zero. Kitzbuehel, Zermatt, Davos, Tignes, Val d'Isere, and Andorra are getting Quaker State nods with packages priced at $1,500-2,000.
Far West Ski Council has a trip to France's Three Valleys, but the westerners are avoiding staying in pricey Courcheval or Meribel. Home for them is a three-star hotel in La Tania. Price is $1,395 with optional add-ons to Aix en Provence and Paris. Heck has long been a devotee of add-ons and has written numerous pieces making the case to skiers that they will soon forget the name of their favorite run in St. Moritz, but always will remember the extra time spent in Salzburg or Vienna.
"The days of 1,400 stetsons descending on Austria are long gone," Heck says. "The Texas Ski Council is sailing into uncharted waters this winter to Bansko in Bulgaria for $1,500."
The tour operators are having ups and downs as well. Leo Dembauer of Adventures on Skis (Ski.com) told Heck there are real difficulties in catering to ski club travel, particularly with higher airfares. He cites an example of signing a contract with an airline for a transatlantic flight at, say, $450, and then having to go back to a ski club and apologize for a fuel surcharge or other increase.
Dembauer said Ski.com's overall business is ahead of last year, "but he told me he's disappointed about the decline of American skiers in the Alps. He really winces at the dollar against the Euro now at US$1.37," Heck added.
Jamie Chabot at Alphorn Tours in Massachusetts and Nevada who specializes in group travel, also reported an increase in overall bookings, but is lagging behind for European travel. "Jamie thinks those who have been there, done that, want to go there and do that again, so she's optimistic about repeat business. Price sensitivity is forcing her agency to look at smaller, lesser known resorts for good packages," Heck says.
Chip Linenmeyr, a Manhattan tour operator, told Heck there always will be a market for, as Heck puts it, "folks who want to gaze at the Matterhorn from their five-star hotel in Zermatt or linger around the apres-ski piano in Courcheval." Still, Jean-Marie Choffel, Meribel's tourist office director, told him Meribel is seeing only half the number of American skiers it saw five years ago.
The dollar decline, sure. But, what of the threat of terrorism? "I believe, from personal experience in hotel lounges and on chairlifts, that terrorism is a factor. Europeans do not seem as friendly to me as they used to be," Heck said. This may be the first example of global cooling.
« Previous Story |
The Industry Report Home Page
| Next Story » |
Email To A Friend
|
