Last season was the year when the British ski market finally halted its decline, although it remains well below pre-Crisis levels.
France remains the most popular destination for skiers this side of the Channel, and of course it has not been immune from the market conditions - for example in Les Arcs, the Edenarc development has taken an age to get off the ground.
Here are some of the current dynamics in the French market:
New Developments
Many of the larger resorts are continuing to invest in their infrastructure, for example in La Plagne, where there will be a new Montalbert telecabine for December 2014. Ste-Foy has a new fast lift going up from the village this season, in Valmorel there are a number of new lifts and a new Club Med as well.
OK, but...
The Compagnie des Alpes, which owns the ski lifts for many of the big resorts, including Les Arcs, reports total skier days rising by 1% last year, with revenues up by 3%. This of course was against the backdrop of a very good season snow-wise. The view at the Paris Bourse is that these results are disappointing.
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| Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry's ski area is now combined ina single entity: ADS. This in turn is owned by Compagnie des Alpes |
For Sale
France of course has many small ski resorts, and one of them is a vendre. For €550,000, you can become owner of 3 teleskis, a chalet at the foot of the pistes and - drumroll - a piste bully.
Closed
Angry
The French school holiday calendar has recently changed, and Easter hols are now much later. This year, for example, the first zone (C) to break up for Easter holidays does so on 12th April, by which time many resorts will have closed. Meanwhile, Zone A pupils will be waiting until the 26th until their holidays start. The French ski resorts assoication is fuming about this and is lobbying the Government strongly. They say that they are now only getting 2% of their revenue from the Easter season, compared with 8% before 2010.
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