THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER?

The verdict on the 2011/12 season was something like this: OK-ish in the French Alps, not too good in the Pyrenees and shocking in Switzerland: more here.  For the Austrians, the good news is that they are taking market share from their Swiss rivals.  The less good news is that Austria is down 2% on last year.

Les Arcs' lift system is part of the Compagnie des Alpes
portfolio,  and they're doing rather well.    See their results here

As the excellent @adepierrefeu has uncovered, the big news is that France has overtaken the US as the No1 ski country.  This is not the result of a stellar French season in 2011/12 (up a modest 3%); it's due to a drastic fall in the US numbers, down 16%.  The US saw the worst season since 1991-92.  Europe's poor snowfalls of 2010/11 were replicated last year in the States, with 50% of American resorts opening late and 48% closing early - particularly unwelcome when skier numbers will not grow as a "natural result" of growing incomes and optimism about the future.  You can read the release from the US National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) here.

Using these figures, it looks like the recent "evolution" for French skiing, measured by the number of ski days each year, are as follows:

2008/9:    58.5m

2010/11:  53.7m

2011/12:  55.3m

If the decline in France has been halted, things don't seem quite so good the other side of the border, if this summer's figures are anything to go by.  Via @snowslider, we find Swiss hotels registering a 7% fall in hotel stays during July compared with the previous year, with a particularly sharp fall in the Lake Geneva region.  Switzerland is being quite successful in attracting Russian and Chinese visitors, but the numbers remain small, and are yet to offset the decline in visitors from Europe.  It looks like this coming winter could be a difficult one for nos amis Suisses.

Cause for Lucerne?  Hard times for the Swiss tourist industry