I’m just starting this topic to keep an eye on how ski resorts have done in the 2008 season.

Pelvoux in the Hautes-Alpes has just closed and is reporting an 8% increase in turnover. Pelvoux isn’t exactly in our good books with a massive plan to extend the domain into some of the off piste areas, a plan that was snuck into the UTN at the last moment. This result will no doubt encourage them in their fiendish plans.

There is some info in French here:

http://www.vallouise.info/scot/utn1.htm

Return to form for French Ski Resorts

2007-2008 is looking like a record breaker for French ski resorts. A study by Protourism of 70 ski resorts and 300 tour operators in early April says that ski lift turnover for the season should reach 1.2 billion euros. A record.  Exceeding the 2005-2006 season by 15%. 2006 was the first time French lift turnover broke the 1 billion euro mark. The Northern alps has generated 75% of total turnover with the Sancy in the Auvergne also doing very well. However poor early season snow affected the Pyrénées and Vosges. The number of skier days is expected to be close to 56 million recorded in 2006. According to Laurent Reynaud, the director of the French Ski Lift Operators Union (Syndicat national des téléphériques de France - SNTF) the exceptional snow at the start of the season coupled with a good spring has contributed to the excellent season.

The number of nights is up 3% with turnover up 10% and prices increasing by 7%. Clients, particularly non-French, are booking modern, quality accommodation. Nights in this class of accommodation are up 20%.  The hard-up French are spending less time in ski resorts. Protourism says that a holiday for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids costs on average 2000 euros for a week ex-holidays, that climbs to 2700 euros during the holiday period.

Over the last decade the number of “hot” beds in hotels and rental apartments has dropped by 38,000 to 400,000. The number of “cold” beds in second homes has risen 145,000 to 1.6 million. On average a hot bed has 7x the occupancy of a cold bed and this equates to a decrease of 2 million nights which has a knock on effect for lift operators and local businesses. Bernard Prud’homme, Directeur Général of Chamonix Tourist Office and recently elected president of SkiFrance, has been heavily critical of economic effect of unoccupied holiday homes.

It is not clear why the turnover, even allowing for 6% inflation since 2006, has grown by such a large amount when skier days are similar. There has been an increase in the number of British, east European and Indian guests, all enthusiastic skiers aided by the expansion of low cost airlines flying in to Grenoble and Chambery. Maybe these skiers buy more expensive lift passes (whole domain rather than area?) or don’t have access to the discounts offered to some local and French skiers?

Interesting stats, thank you. What source do they come from?

They are from the Protourism study. I’ve not found an online version. Normally the SNTF publish final figures at the end of the season. I will keep my eye out for other data.

Came across this today for Swiss resorts and another below for the Scottish resorts - looks like everyone’s been having a bumper season

http://www.wtss.co.uk/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=301&id=721

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Ski-resorts-have-best-season.3976704.jp

The southern French Alps resorts have had an excellent season according to the Regional Tourism Board (Comité Régional du tourisme) with 12 million nights spent in the area for 2 million tourists (average stay of 6 nights, slightly above the average for a ski holiday). The area had good snow cover from December. However the ski resorts need to work on quality and on activities outside of downhill skiing… according to the CRT.

Saint-Gervais has closed the winter with a record 1 million trips on the Mont Joux chair over the season. In the last decade that figure was only broken during the winter of 2002 - 2003. The resort had a total of 6 320 000 uplifts.

The Haute-Savoie will have done as well in 2008 as the excellent 2006 season

The Haute-Savoie has had good snow cover throughout the season, particularly over Christmas and at the end of the season. It looks like things will be better overall than last year (could they get much worse?) due to good conditions in lower resorts. High altitude resorts, benefitting from a defection of skiers from lower areas in 2007, have not been able to increase their turnover. Typical is Avoriaz, which had a good 2007 when many resorts were suffering. Turnover for 2008 will be similar to last year with 72% reservation levels overall. The Spring holidays were poor with only 40% reservations despite excellent snow. The resort blames this on the late timing of the vacation period and poor weather. Grand Bornand had 65% reservation levels in 2008 but also a disappointing spring given the excellent snow conditions. The slopes are almost empty. The resort says that clients are either going high or thinking of summer holidays. This weekend we noticed crowded pistes and lift queues at Val Thorens in the Savoie (2300 meters) whereas our local resorts were practically deserted.

We were at the 7 Laux for the close on Sunday 27th and here are the final results.

146 days
543 435 skier days
+ 50 % increase in turnover wrt 2006 - 2007 (120 days of opening)
+ 7.5 % increase in turnover wrt to the previous best ever season (2005 - 2006)

Record for opening: 17th November 2007
Closed on the 27th April 2008 - however they have remained open until early May in the past but the French no longer take ski holidays at Easter so this is no longer worthwhile.

Some results for the Hautes Alpes.

Reallon improved its turnover by 10% in comparison with the previous record of 2005-6 and was 35% up on last season.

Serre-Chevalier claims a 5% increase in skier days giving a total of 1.4 million. The turnover is up 15% (but we don’t know which year this refers to).

Pyrenees Ski Resort Results for 2007-2008

The Pyrenees tourism federation has announced a 10% increase in visitor numbers and a 22% increase in turnover for the 38 Pyrenean ski resorts compared to last year’s poor season. However all the resorts noted a lack of enthusiasm from skiers following a poor January when the conditions improved later in the season.

Overall the autumn was very dry with snow cover starting late, in December. Around 50cm fell by the 10th of December, enough to give a base to open ski runs. The cold weather over Christmas and New Year preserved this snow without giving any further cover.

The first two weeks of January saw promising snowfall but this was short-lived due to warm temperatures and rain at altitude. The snow cover remained poor with warm and dry weather to mid-February followed by rain at altitude to the start of March. Snow cover was almost inexistent below 2000 meters outside of ski runs. It was the worst snow cover for over a decade. March saw a timid return to winter with snowfall with better cover in April with above average snow over 2000 meters.

Gavarnie, Piau and Cauterets had good snow cover which meant that they benefitted from clients who would normally visit other ski resorts. Gavarnie was open 92 days (planned 95) with 85% of the runs open during the February holidays. Cauterets increased turnover by 6.5% compared to 2005-06 when the Lys gondola lift was opened. Despite the investments the increase in visitor numbers is now tailing off with a 6.2% increase in skier/days over the last 5 years.

Luz did better than last year but is down on the 5 year average. They blamed the results on the poor weather in March. Val Louron also suffered from the weather - wind, rain and extremely warm weather ruined the best weeks of the winter holiday period. Le Tourmalet was 3 million € down on the record 2005-6 season. St Lary suffered from poor conditions due to high temperatures in January which were accompanied by rain which followed some good snowfall.

Cross county skiing, on lower slopes, has suffered due to variable snow cover. The situation was better than 2006-2007 but there has been a 6% drop in turnover over the last 5 years. Snowshoeing has replaced this activity to a certain extent.

The Pyrenees resorts have invested heavily in modern lift systems and snowmaking. Typical is Peyragudes which made 450,000 m3 of snow this season. The resort will replace a fixed chair in the Serre-Doumenge sector with a new high speed six seater lift with nearly 3 times the capacity.

Top of the Pyrenean Pops

1. Le Tourmalet : Turnover : 2007-2008 : 10,600,000 € (2006-2007 : 8,772,543 €; 2005-2006 : 13,755,000 €). Skier days : 2007-2008 : 575,000 (2006-2007 : 557,281 ; 2005-2006 : 785,700). Days Open : 2007-2008 : 115 (2006-2007 : 116 ; 2005-2006 : 137).
2. Peyragudes : Turnover : 2007-2008 : 8,604,612 € (+12,90%) ( 2006-2007: 7,621,787; 2005-2006: 7,280,787 ). Skier days : 2007-2008 : 453,035 (+5,50%), (2006-2007 : 429,418; 2005-2006 : 446,236). Days Open : 2007-2008 : 115 (2006-2007 : 108 ; 2005-2006 : 116).
3. Saint-Lary : Turnover : 2007-2008 : 7,736,000 € (2006-2007 : 5,780,515 €; 2005-2006 : 12,256,426). Skier days : 2007-2008 : 402,000 (2006-2007 : 320,892 ; 2005-2006 : 604,463). Days Open : 2007-2008 : 103 (2006-2007 : 114 ; 2005-2006 : 137).
4. Cauterets :Turnover : 2007-2008 : 6,469,888 € (2006-2007 : 5,408,725 ; 2005-2006 : 6,074,928) ; Skier days : 2007-2008 : 321,250 (2006-2007 : 283,838 ; 2005-2006 : 329,778) ; Days Open : 2007-2008 : 131 (2006-2007 : 126 ; 2005-2006 : 136).
5. Piau : Turnover : 2007-2008 : 5,360,595 (2006-2007 : 5,011,771 ; 2005-2006 : 5,052,209). Skier days : 2007-2008 : 284,503 (2006-2007 : 268,740 ; 2005-2006 : 280,380) ; Days Open : 2007-2008 : 142 (2006-2007 : 138 ; 2005-2006 : 152).
6. Luz : Turnover : 2007-2008 : 3,789,000 (2006-2007 : 3,190,000 ; 2005-2006 : 4,509,000). Skier days : 2007-2008 : 220,500 ; (2006-2007 : 203,000 ; 2005-2006 : 259,670)
7. Gavarnie :Turnover : 2007-2008 : 854,000 (2006-2007 : 402,000 ; 2005-2006 : 646,000) ; Skier days : 2007-2008 : 67,000 (2006-2007 : 40,000 ; 2005-2006 : 60,000. Days Open : 2007-2008 : 92 (2006-2007 : 89 ; 2005-2006 : 100).
8. Val Louron : Turnover : 2007-2008 : 610,453 € (2006-2007 : 420,850 €; 2005-2006 : 1,198,034 €). Skier days : 2007-2008 : 64,772 (2006-2007 : 53,637 ; 2005-2006 : 97,813)

Source: Meteo France (http://www.meteo.fr), http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2008/05/03/451761-Saison-d-hiver-de-bonne-a-mitigee.html
Thanks to Chops for pointing out the la Depeche article

Chamonix have posted a +10% increase in turnover for 2008 following a +11% in 2007. Despite generally poor snow 2007 was good for Chamonix, its high altitude ski areas attracted skiers from lower resorts which lacked snow.