Cock-a-doodle Doo !
This winter of 2021-2022 has formalized the “great return” of French customers to ski resorts, sector professionals said on Tuesday.
The season that is ending has been marked by good attendance in the mountains after two difficult years for the sector, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, the resorts have benefited from a “return to normal carried by French holidaymakers”, indicates Tuesday the National Observatory of Mountain Resorts in what is still only a “pre-assessment”.
A final report in May
The final assessment of the season will be drawn at the end of the spring holidays which will end on May 9.
“The figures for the spring holidays will be decisive in the overall balance of the season”, warns Jean-Luc Boch, president of the National Association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts (ANMSM), Jean-Luc Boch.
For the time being, the bed occupancy rate stands at 69%, down slightly from the 2019-2020 season (70%).
A “good result (which) can be explained by rather favorable snow cover and generally favorable weather conditions for skiing, with the exception of the Southern Alps.
And of course the alleviation and then the end of health restrictions, ”indicates the Observatory.
French tourists who compensate for the absence of foreigners
French vacationers have “compensated for the weaker return of certain international customers”.
Their clientele is considered to be on the increase compared to the 2019-2020 season for 74% of the responding stations, underlines the study.
Western European, Belgian, Dutch and German customers were also present, while attendance by Eastern European and international skiers outside Europe, on the other hand, was down.
The start of the season had been marked by uncertainties about the application of the vaccination pass in the resort and by the absence of a large part of the British clientele, temporarily banned from French territory due to an epidemic outbreak.
But the sector finally benefited from a “rise in power throughout the season”, so that 30% of professionals “thus judge the level of attendance rather good and 70% good”, according to the Observatory.
As for the practice of alpine skiing, it “returns to its pre-pandemic level”.
"The figures for the winter period are a relief for all professionals", notes Mr. Boch.
“This success, we owe it to the French who have largely been there after two years of deprivation.
And also to all the mountain players who have been able to reassure on the sanitary conditions and adapt their offer to last minute reservations and cancellations”, according to him.
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