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Euro SkiTravel Trends: From Russia To Bulgaria

By Craig Altschul
December 14, 2007

The big mobile market has traditionally been the Brits, over a million of whom head for the "mainland" each winter, with the few home grown ski hills in Scotland suffering badly from climate change. They have, of course, moved in increasing numbers to the U.S. over the past 15 years.

First in the early 90s, then with a larger proportion heading to Canada when the exchange rate was noticably better. Now, with the dollar so favorable to Europeans, they can be expected back to the U.S. Only increasingly stringent and expensive airport security measures may deter some.

The other increasingly big players in the European market are the newly wealthy Russians, who enjoy the still relatively newfound freedom to travel. They have a huge potential with their own domestic ski areas, notably the 2014 Olympic venue at Krasnaya Polyana by the Black Sea. Still, that remains just "future potential" so, in the meantime, they prefer to fly West.

Thorne says so many Russians descended on Kitzbuhel last season, that the resort caused "mortal offense by introducing a 'Russian quota' to the delight of other big name resorts like Courchevel and St Moritz." They immediately cashed in on the huge market Kitzbuhel had offended.

So where's "in" at present? Well it moves fast. Andorra still may seem new to the U.S. market, but Richard Davidson's Ski Europe was the first major U.S. tour operator to head for the tiny principality in 2002. He flew in more than 500 Texas Ski Council members for their annual winter expedition that year.

"Andorra has continuously moved upscale with more interconnection and better hotels. The prices have also risen. I feel that it is now priced competitively with some of the Alpine resorts that have bigger brand names and attraction to North Americans," Davidson told Thorne.

He sees Bulgaria as a probable new destination for North Americans looking for something different in their European vacation.

Bulgaria was a cheap schools destination for British teens in the 1970s and 1980s, Thorne said. It is renowned for awful food, lousy skiing, and the occasional fatal hotel fire. But it has regained ground rapidly since 2000 with major infrastructure improvements bringing resorts up towards Western European standards, including state-of-the-art lifts and luxury lodging but, so far, without the price hike up to Andorran levels.

Many Brits and Irish skiers are snapping up cheap holiday homes in the area, driving the boom, which is spreading out towards nearby Romania (think snowy Transylvannia where the heroine couldn't escape Count Dracula's castle in the white-out). Don't forget post-Balkan-war Serbia, which seems to have regained Western European business far more quickly than 1984 Olympic city of Sarajevo in Bosnia, which remains off the radar. But don't wait, he laughs, "Bulgaria may already have peaked."

So, then where? Lapland in the Arctic Circle at the top of Finland is currently swarming with Brits. Prices (except for state regulated alcohol sales), as well as temperatures, are low, the locals friendly, and service standards are high.

Skiing isn't the be-all-and-end-all, but the mix of snowmobiling, dog sledding, reindeer safaris, and Santa's secret home were all enough to attract at least one Yank, Madonna, to the frozen north. It seems to fit the modern need for a diverse winter sports holiday rather than 9-5 trail bashing. (It seems rather ironic that she should choose Lapland rather than her namesake, Italy's chic Madonna Di Campiglio.)

Thorne says there are also an increasing number of jets flying east to Japan from London Heathrow since last winter. Japanese ski prices have dropped up to 90 percent from the boom years of 15 years ago, that brings in hoards of savvy Aussies. They don't have to mess with the time zones to find 30 feet of fresh powder.

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