Your credit has been well and truly crunched, your savings are looking dicey
and you haven't even dared to look at your annual pension statement - that's
if you have one. With so much economic pain around, it is inevitable that
discretionary spending by consumers will take a hit.
Holidays are an easy target, and some holidays more so than others. If you are
trimming your household budget, the annual ski holiday (or two) will
undoubtedly come into the firing line. For a start, it's more expensive than
a typical summer holiday.
Figures from the Ski Club of Great Britain show that the average snowsports
holiday costs £648, compared with an average figure of less than £500 for
all holidays. And that's without taking into account the couple of hundred
pounds you have to add for a lift pass and equipment hire, let alone all
those expensive glühweins.
There will be no shortage of deals this winter, largely because of an
increasing trend for winter holidaymakers to leave booking until the last
minute - partly because predicting exactly when the good snow will come
seems to have been so difficult in recent winters. The market is also awash
with holidays.
Low-cost carriers have introduced new flights to the ski gateways, with many
launching routes to the snow this winter, even when flights to other non-ski
destinations have been cut. In fact, with people concerned about unnecessary
spending, the number of deals is set to be higher.
There is one important exception regarding availability of deals - school
holidays. This year, like every other, it is hard to find the really good
chalets and self-catering apartments over new year, half term and Easter,
and many of the family-friendly companies are already almost fully booked.
There are already deals out there. Many early booking offers run until the end
of October and others are offering bargains that indicate they are feeling a
little nervous about early bookings. Esprit Ski is promoting special offers
on some of its family chalets, while the online ski agency Igluski.com has
£1 lift passes at Christmas.
Despite the potential for some good deals, Brits will find it more expensive
in the key resorts this winter. The pound is suffering against the euro and
the dollar, which means that even if you do get a good deal, resort prices
are going to take some swallowing.
But skiing does not have to be the preserve of the rich or investors who had
the good fortune to sell their shares before the current crash. For those,
such as me, who can't face the idea of a winter without a few days on the
snow, it still is possible to go skiing on the cheap.
You can downgrade your holiday without downgrading your experience, saving
hundreds or thousands of pounds in the process - money that might be needed
to pay the electricity bill should the bailiffs come calling.
Take a long weekend rather than a week, go to Eastern rather than Western
Europe. Money really tight? Consider Scotland, especially if the snow looks
promising this winter. At least you won't have to worry about currency
exchange fluctuations.
Need to know
http://ski.visitscotland.com
for information on snow, pistes and where to stay
Ski Norwest (www.skinorwest.com)
