Late Deal Ski Holidays

In hard times whith fewer beds in the market place, skiers are no longer furnished with so much choice and ski holiday deals are in danger of becoming a thing of the past.

The late ski holiday deal was a product of the 90’s, brought about by the package ski holiday revolution and the need for Tour Operators to dump their over committed flight seats or bed inventory.

However times are a changing. Skiers and Snowboarders for winter 2009 will not be able to expect the same great rates they have become accustomed to.

This in part is due to the obvious worries about our economy which has forced many Tour operators to cut back their bed stock and charter flight commitment.

Indeed the failure of XL Leisure in 2008 has also taken another 30,000 holidays out of the marketplace, increasing further demand on remaining Tour Operators, and especially those who are correctly bonded and licensed by ATOL.

Added to the mix is an alarming number of smaller Tour Operators who have already declared bankruptcy or scaled down operations by a disproportionate amount, in order to cope with the bad times ahead. All these factors have contributed to an unequal supply and demand which now shifts the advantage (on a cost front) away from the consumer.

It also has to be appreciated that all of the remaining ski operators out there are now facing 16% rises in their Euro costs. This is a tough increase to simply bolt onto the cost of a holiday that one is trying to market to the budget conscious skier in a recession. Thus it will inevitably mean that late deals will not be banded about the industry in quite so bullish a manner this year.

Finally it has to be mentioned that there are fewer flights in operation this winter, due in part to existing airlines such as BA grounding many of their planes, and of course with the many smaller budget airlines who have already gone under with the increases in airfuel earlier this year.

Our advice is simple. If you see any good ski holiday deals – then snap 'em up! Skiers will always want to ski and few people are willing to give up their only winter holiday. Thus, one can only predict, that in times of unequal supply and demand, deals in general will be a thing of the past.