Erna Low, which was voted the best independent ski operator to France by Maison de la France in the 2008 British Travel Trade Awards, has introduced its new ski brochure for the 2008/09 season.
This comprehensive selection includes even more resorts in France, Switzerland and British Columbia, Canada whilst popular resorts like Flaine, Les Arcs, La Plagne and Serre Chevalier have some impressive new properties on offer.
Erna Low continues to offer special deals with Eurotunnel and travellers can again take advantage of Erna Low’s free Flexi Plus uprade which allows priority check-in and priority boarding and access to dedicatedlounge facilities.
“Our clients will enjoy the new season’s brochure,” says Jane Bolton, Managing Director Erna Low Ski,
particularly the increased choice of upmarket self catering we offer. However we are mindful of the possibility of the credit crunch and our holidays offer exceptional value for money. Flexibility and choice is still key; we offer budget to luxury, short breaks, weekends and longer stays, accommodation only or a full package.”
Skiers and snowboarders can find an even greater selection of properties on the Erna Low web site: www.ernalow.co.uk and should check out the latest Google Maps to find the perfect location of the residence and resort before booking either online, by email or by telephone: 0845 863 0525. “Our online booking facility is proving popular but our experienced sales team is here for those who need advice and guidance on their holiday choice,” continues Jane.
Erna Low offers a Price Match Guarantee on all self-drive holidays and is happy to beat the cost if found cheaper and available from another UK tour operator.
The Compagnie des Alpes, the world’s largest ski lift and resort operator by passenger numbers, recently announced that a record number of ticket sales for the 2007-08 winter season.
Reporting on the company’s third quarter of the current financial year, a company spokesman commented,
The third quarter was affected by a slow month of April. This was due to an Easter weekend that fell in the month of March this year, and to an unfavourable spring holiday schedule in France. “
However overall during the first nine months of the company’s financial year, and including all of last winter, ski area sales grew by 23% on a real basis, largely because of the consolidation of STVI (Val d’Isère) and SFB (Saas Fee) lift companies as of October 1st last year. Sales grew 6.6% like for like, with lifts sales showing growth of +8.5%. Visitor numbers reached a record of 13.7 million skier-days (+6.8%) for the season overall. This performance makes up for much of the drop in land sales transactions (0.8 million vs. 6.4 million).
www.compagniedesalpes.com
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Initial data is pointing that the British ski market appears to be performing at record levels for pre 2008-9 sales despite the growing financial pressures on families.
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Most tour operators are reporting early sales significantly up, crediting a feel good factor hangover from the excellent conditions in the Alps last winter combined with fears that the later clients leave their bookings, the higher prices will be, a fear which is justified according to Le Ski boss Nick Morgan,
It has been incredibly busy here since we launched our Early Booking Offer brochure. Fifty per cent of our holidays are now sold for next year and we’re twenty per cent up on this stage last year. This is mainly very satisfied guests returning but is also partly explained by the fact that we said prices would go up on 1st August a long time ago (and they will) so people are simply booking early to avoid that rise. The rise is of course market-wide and inevitable with the oil price impacting on the air charter market for example. “
Self-catering apartment specialist Erna Low is currently 30% up on early bookings compared to this time last year – evidence they believe that there is a switch from expensive holidays to economical and flexible self catering breaks for the forthcoming winter.
Virtually all operators are offering significant early booking discounts, Thomson, for example, have up to 25% off holidays booked before the end of October.
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Massive early snowfalls and excellent Easter conditions provided a solid white base for the best ever winter season in Austria. For the first time the country welcomed more than 10 Million winter guests from abroad, of which 491,700 came from Great Britain.
In comparison to the previous winter this represents an increase of 2.7%. Arrivals from the Irish Republic have increased by 11.4% to 56,200.
Looking back on a record-breaking winter, Oskar Hinteregger, director of the Austrian National Tourist Office, London, commented,
Winter 07/08 was a compact season that provided excellent occupancy levels from mid-December to the end of April, predominately due to the early Easter date. Austria’s 263 cable car companies invested more than 530 Million Euros (760 million dollars) lift upgrades - and snowmaking equipment, pistes and infrastructure. A similar amount is earmarked in order to guarantee improvements in the overall convenience of a ski holiday. Bespoke services, online equipment hire, easy airport transfers, heated lifts, doorstep skiing and sustainable mountain and resort management are what guests demand. Austria is well positioned to satisfy these demands and forward bookings have reached unprecedented levels. All tour operators and most airlines are already accepting bookings until the end of next season.”
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