Will the French go skiing this winter?

Published on 04/30/2024 20:40

A study shows that ski resort attendance looks promising for the winter of 2015-2016, especially for New Year's Eve. Will we do better than last year?

57 69%: it is the filling rate displayed by the majority of French resorts

Snowfall and negative temperatures: there it is, winter settles in France. And who says winter says mountain! So, will we be as numerous as last year to spend our Christmas holidays to ski? According to a recent study * carried out by the National Observatory of Mountain Stations in partnership with Atout France, the French tourism development agency, the majority of French mountain resorts show attendance rates between 57 and 69 %.

Encouraging figures, but losing momentum compared to last year: by the end of November 2014, the vast majority of mountain resorts forecast 68-83% occupancy.

Full board for New Year's week

As every year, tourist reservations in French mountains, especially ski resorts, are mostly concentrated on New Year's Week: a quarter of French resorts announce at the moment occupancy rates above 70% over this period . And 61% of them are satisfied with the rate of reservations made for the beginning of 2016. French ski resorts also rely heavily on the German, Austrian and Czech school holidays to fill their season.

* Study conducted from 06 November to 17 November 2015 by the National Observatory of Mountain Resorts of the National Association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts (ANMSM) in partnership with Atout France, with 35 adherent stations representing 585 047 tourist beds.