The ski spirit is strong despite Brexit – Ski Club of Great Britain

This blog comes courtesy of our friends – The Ski Club of Great Britain – and this is what they are saying….. (This is an abbreviated version – anyone who would like a full copy of the report please email the Ski Club or us here at info@skimarmalade.com and we can send you a copy (all 95 pages of it!!))

The ski spirit remains strong despite Brexit

The Ski Club of Great Britain, the UK’s largest snowsports membership organisation, has today released findings from their annual consumer research report.

The report, which is now in its fourth year, offers insight into the habits, intentions and attitudes of people who participate in snowsports, both here in the UK and abroad. It also offers some understanding of the state of the market and the likelihood for growth or decline in its size. It is the only independent piece of consumer research in the snowsports market of its kind.

From a pool of over 1.3 million email addresses the 2016 survey generated 17,270 responses of whom 2,432 were non-skiers.

Who are the respondents?

• 39% were female and 61% male.
• The highest percentage age profile consisted of 34% aged between 50-59 years
• 26% between 40-49 years
• 5% were just 21-29 year olds
• 86% of the respondents who were skiers had been on a skiing holiday either last season or season before
• 69% of responders had skied more than 15 weeks with 45% had skied for more than 30 weeks

Has Brexit had an impact on skiers?

Brexit seems to have had little effect on the desire of skiers to continue pursuing their holidays.  The survey responses were collected both before and after the referendum. Even amongst the ensuing uncertainty and exchange rate changes 65% of skiers said their skiing habits would remain the same over the next 3 years.

A further 28% said their activity would increase and only 7% said their activity would be decreasing – and much of this decrease was due to factors outside their control and mainly lifestyle changes. It seems that people who ski will continue to ski.

For the 2,300 non-skiers it was asked how likely they were to ski in the next three years. Over 5% gave a positive response (scoring 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale) – a strong potential pool of new skiers.

However, when the result was split between people responding before and after the referendum there was a major significant difference.  Before the referendum 7.2% had scored their potential to ski as 9 or 10. After, if had dropped to 4.5%.

Loyalty to ski

Repeat purchase intention in the ski market is extremely high. Of the people who skied last season an impressive 97% say they will ski again in the coming season.

Skiing also remains hugely popular with 92% of those who go on a snow sport holiday choosing to ski, from these 39% choose off-piste, an increase of 3.7.% from 2015.  Snowboarding accounts for some 12% of activity (down slightly on last year’s results). Although not recorded last year, 4% this year stated that they did freestyle skiing on their holiday.

Loyalty to specific markets also remains strong – 74% of people who skied in France on their last holiday say they will go there for their next ski holiday with 61% stating Austria and 49% choosing USA & Canada.

Solo travellers on the up

Although 38% of respondents had skied with their own or other families on their last ski break, 31% with friends, it was notable that 7% stated that they travelled alone, a significant 2% increase from the 2015 research.

Growing the market

The report identifies new skiers as those who have skied 1 week or less and this year saw 33% were aged 40-49. From these they tended to have gone with their families.

When asked where they were likely to ski, they are more inclined to visit Andorra and some of the Scandinavian markets and significantly less likely to visit France in comparison to all other skiers.

Lapsed skiers (people who hadn’t skied in the last three years) were asked how likely they were to come back into the market. Some 50% of the people who hadn’t been skiing in the last 3 seasons responded positively and 20% of these responded with a 9 or 10. This is increase on last year of some 2% – a positive indicator of potential demand in the market.

Do we ever stop?

This year we asked people about whether they had taken a break from skiing of more than three years with 66% v 34% stating yes and no. The largest age group that featured in the yes category were the 40-49 year olds, perhaps children, work commitments or the classic cash rich/time poor issue features. The biggest age group who have not taken a break of three years from skiing is the 60+. This age group are more likely to have retired, and to have more time and money to continue their skiing each year.

The most common reason for a break has been taken was children. On top of this ‘other commitments’ and ‘costs’ as well as being at university also figure – but children remain the major issue.

However, what brought people back was their children, a love of skiing as well as increasing affluence and time. Skiing with friends and families is also often a great motivator too

This makes for some positive reading in todays current climate of exchange rate blues and the political stories from both domestic and international.

Hopefully like we said in our previous blog entry – Skiing is King

Now who’s looking forward to some skiing this winter??

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