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« Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » Euro Ski Areas No Longer Kidding AroundBy Craig Altschul 
The Industry Report's Patrick Thorne says the trend began to take off in Switzerland at Zermatt, Saas Fee, Villars, and Gstaad, and has now spread to Austria at St. Anton, and Italy at Cortina and Val Gardena. "France is becoming increasingly isolated as one of the most expensive family destinations," Thorne says. There are complex pricing deals with minimal savings and children are paying 75 percent of adult ticket prices from as young as age four and the full adult price as low as age 12." Still, Thorne notes, the French resorts have the "most organized day care and ski school facilities for families in Europe, as well as family accommodations," so it could be a trade off. More than 200 European resorts have published their price schedules for the 2008-09 season and the growing trend is obvious. Swiss resorts, for example, are showing rates for kids, ages 9-16, at 30-50 percent of adult prices. Villars (four connected ski areas), Les Mosses, and Leysen, Switzerland, the "Alps of Lake Geneva Region" for example, have joined in a regional marketing strategy to offer free ski passes to kids under nine. "This creates an additional argument on price/family budget as 55 percent of our clients are families (all social levels), often with rather young kids," Guy Chanel, Villars' marketing manager told the IR. "We even take advantage of that to organize Winter Launch weekends mid-December, during which ski rental and the day's special meal in a restaurant are free. All these services are available for accompanying parents for only US $10 a day." Four of those resorts received the "Families Welcome" award from the Swiss Federation of Tourism. Chanel says they have determined fewer kids are tempted to learn skiing as pre-teenagers as used to be the case in western Europe 15-20 years ago. "Skiing is perceived as an expensive sport activity nowadays." Older kids 9-15, Chanel says, are usually skilled with Web and e-procedures. They usually pay 50-65 percent of an adult ski pass, but "we have launched an online system that allows them to book their ski pass online and automatically get 20 percent or more discount on the public price." Thorne notes there is movement on the other end of life's scale as well. The age at which seniors receive discounted or free skiing continues to slide upward or is being removed all together. It's better to be less than nine years old. « Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » |
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