Because of the credit crunch skiing sales decreased this season.
This is even with excellent early on reservations and superb skiing.
These reductions in numbers follows 7 years of successive growth within the skiing industry, and the numbers contracted from 1.2 million two years ago to less than a million last winter.
This is in part due to vacationers giving the season a miss, while additional snowboarders who would normally take two or more ski trips, only took the one.
Sales for the independent travel sector fell by 15% and some low cost airlines slashing the number of airplanes to several destinations.
Some tour operators also saw the sales reducing by around 15%.
Nonetheless, the top operators share continued at just over a healthy 70% and France carried on as the most popular ski destination with 37% of the market.
This meant that several large operators cut the number of catered chalets they lease this coming season.
Luxury chalets will witness a reduction in numbers in light of the fact that a luxury catered chalet costs more in terms of chefs and hosts and rent when it is unsold.
It is unlikely therefore we will see the type of special offers which were available this season.
Whilst costs are probably going to to increase, they are unlikely to increase much.
The 2009/10 winter will undoubtedly pose serious issues for an industry which is touched by by the consequences of the global recession, weakness of the pound, higher fuel costs and high fixed operating costs for snowboarding holiday companies.
Next year skiers will become increasingly cost aware, which shall add to a reversal of the recent years which witnessed a development in the skiing industry.
Large-scale ski operators could recover some of the customers lost to the independent skiing sector if they employ their buying-power to negotiate reduced prices and give these savings to consumers as appealing packages.
