Topic - How big is the British
XC ski market?
Date first posted on eCommunity - 17
June 2007
I've been trying to find figures on the size of the
UK cross-country ski market. And there is not much to go on. (Among many
other sources) I have checked the websites of the sport's official
bodies: SnowSport GB, SnowSport England (and ESC), SnowSport Scotland,
but there is no statistical information.
(An ESC Nordic discussion paper
by Alan Jones says "It has been estimated that 1-2% of skiers in the UK
participate in Nordic skiing, although no statistics have been
published. This figure could be higher, as 7% of the membership of the
ESC comes from Nordic Ski Clubs." See
http://www.uksportsresource.co.uk/skiing/aj16.html.)
There was no statistical information available five or six years
ago, either. Back then, for a commercial reason, I was asked to come
up with an estimate of the size of "the British market for overseas
cross-country ski holidays". I remember looking at tour operators'
brochures to get an idea of the capacity they were offering, and
then checking their ATOL licence figures to see how much of that
capacity they thought they might in fact sell. I then checked the
brochures of the downhill operators to determine to what extent they
were pushing the cross-country potential of their resorts. Armed
with all this data I then made the educated guess that each year
about 20,000 overseas cross-country ski holidays would be taken by
British residents. I wouldn't have bet the house on the accuracy of
this estimate, but I did my best with scant information, and I still
think that it was okay in a ball-park sort of way.
 (XC skiing in Scotland)
Recently I was talking about this with Paddy Field, who has been a
technical delegate for the International Ski Federation (FIS) for
many years. And it turns out that about three years ago he was asked
by FIS to assess the level of British participation in cross country
skiing. Paddy's remit was broader than mine, and was to
estimate "the number of British people who would ski cross-country
in an average year". That definition included skiers taking foreign
holidays, sure, but it also embraced people who would ski in the
British hills if and when the snow came, and also British military
personnel who trained or raced on cross-country skis. Paddy's
estimate, after a lot of searching and a lot of phone calls to
people involved in the sport, was 50,000 people.
Two things are striking about both these sets of figures.
One is just how small a minority we seem to be. Our estimated
numbers are tiny in comparison with downhill skiing, which each year
accounts for over a million winter holidays by British people.
The other is just how poor our knowledge is of the actual level of
participation in cross country skiing. Again the comparison with
downhill is instructive, for rates of British participation in
downhill skiing have been measured carefully and in some detail for
many years. There are two main sources of information.
THE SKI CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN'S SNOWSPORTS ANALYSIS
This is an independent investigation of the state of the UK
snowsports market (which means in effect downhill skiing and
snowboarding). The annual report is compiled using data from
questionnaires sent to UK tour operators, resorts, travel agencies
and transport companies during the season, alongside data from other
industry reports.
The most recent report was published in October 2006 and relates to
winter 2005/2006. It estimated that the total UK snowsports market
(that is, the number of people taking a snowsports holiday) had
reached 1.27 million people.
The report shows not only overall numbers travelling, but also the
method of transportation to the resort, the method of booking
(through a tour operator or independently), which countries were the
most popular destinations, the relative popularity of skiing and
snowboarding, and - for both disciplines - the proportions of
beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The report also shows
the relative proportion of men and women taking holidays (43% women).
You can get a more detailed summary, and find out how to download
the complete report, at:
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/presscentre/pressrelease.asp?
intPressReleaseID=19
THE SKI INDUSTRY REPORT FROM CRYSTAL SKI
This is the other main source. It amalgamates information from tour
operators' own statistics, AC Nielson's TravelTrack market research,
CAA published statistics, tourist office figures and travel agency
feedback.
The 2006 report, published in July 2006, estimated that more than
1.15 million ski holidays were bought by British people in winter
2005/06. It also has figures on the number of independent
travellers, the number of passengers carried by low-frills airlines
and regular scheduled airlines to ski destinations and the changing
popularity of the different destination countries. It also measures
the relative size and market share of the big ski tour operators.
("Crystal Ski remains the biggest operator in the ski market and
showed steady growth in passenger numbers, carrying 160,000
passengers in 2005/06, up from 148,000. Inghams also added
passengers, up from 112,000 to 120,000. The gulf between the top two
and the next four has widened further. The mid-sized companies, with
the exception of Neilson, which has leap-frogged First Choice into
fourth place, all experienced below-trend growth.")
You can read a fuller summary on Basi's site:
http://www.basi.org.uk/upload_area/members_resources/uploads_for_2006
_2007/Ski%20Industry%20Report%20press%20release%20-%20final.pdf
Alternatively you can download the whole thing from:
http://www.digitalpublishingcompany.co.uk/activemagazine/welcome/SIR/
SIR-11-07-2006.asp
Now I don't think it would be difficult to obtain similar
information on cross-country skiing holidays. The number of relevant
tour operators is small, so it would not be a huge task to contact
everyone. Some of the bigger "relevant tour operators" are under the
same ownership as the companies that already provide the Snowsports
figures used by the Ski Club and by Crystal, so the parent companies
have already set a precedent for providing information. Some of the
smaller companies in the field are run by Basi instructors, whose
support could perhaps be encouraged through liaison with Basi itself.
A general reason for needing better figures is simple "corporate
governance". Sports bodies are generally charged with increasing the
level of participation in their sport. But how can they do this if
they don't know the baseline?
A more specific reason is that the figures - if we had them - might
cheer us all up. The Snowsports reports mentioned above both show
large and steady rises in the popularity of downhill skiing and
snowboarding holidays. The Ski Club survey claimed a growth of 3 per
cent on the previous year and a growth of 15 per cent since the
start of the decade. The Crystal survey put the annual rise at 7
percent, and said that the number of ski holidays bought in 2005/06
is 40 per cent more than in the mid-80s, a period often regarded as
the hey-day of British skiing. It is nice to think that cross
country skiing has shared in that growth. It would be even nicer to
know for sure.
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