PlanetSKI at Ski Launch 2023

12th September 2023 | Simon Wilson, PlanetSKI

Last modified on September 18th, 2023

London’s Copthorne Tara Hotel played host to the annual Ski Launch winter season curtain-raiser event for the UK ski industry.

PlanetSKI was on hand on Tuesday of this week to join professionals from the UK’s main tour operators and representatives of some of the top ski resorts for a morning of presentations and networking.

It’s a fixture in the UK ski industry calendar and we have been attending for more years than we care to remember.

Our editor James Cove, has chaired the sessions in the past and been on the panels, but he is elsewhere at the moment.

Travelling round the Alps and the Pyrenees, so he was unable to attend.

PlanetSKI starts its Autumn trip in the mountains

Step forward PlanetSKI’s new reporter, Simon Wilson, to cover proceedings.

He is joining the PlanetSKI reporting team for this winter.

Here is Simon’s assessment and the key takeaways from this year’s event:

Sustainability continues to be a major long-term challenge for companies operating in the Alps

Sandra Picard from Les Compagnie des Alpes, which operates 10 major resorts in France including La Plagne/Les Arcs and Val d’Isère/Tignes, pulled back the curtain on the firm’s in-house climate modelling for their resorts.

This suggests that the core ski season in the French Alps will continue to be snow safe for at least the next forty years.

However by the 2040’s there could regularly be years where less than 50% of runs would open in December in some of their resorts.

Even with enhanced snow-making.

The post-Covid health of the UK ski industry

While most tour operators at Ski Launch were in generally upbeat mood about the prospects, some of the bigger players were notably more cautious.

“We are not yet seeing a surge in bookings” said John Mansell, Managing Director at Inghams.

“But I am hopeful that will come later in the year. That was the pattern last season”

Ski Launch 2023. Image © PlanetSKI

Simon McIntyre of travel agency Iglu Ski meanwhile has seen “good early signs for the coming season”.

He said his company is reporting significant demand for offers such as a ‘buy one, get one free’ lift pass offer which is available for early bookers to Europe.

There was much discussion about a new survey from chalet-holiday specialist Le Ski that was cleverly released on the eve of the event.

It suggested as many as 160 thousand additional British holidaymakers may take to the slopes this winter – which would be growth of 14% over last year.

It’s only a prediction from a survey, but lets see if it bears fruit.

Fingers crossed.

Chemmy Shines

The star turn of the day came from BBC Ski Sunday presenter, Chemmy Alcott.

She warmed up her audience by getting them to stand up, grab their ankles and take an imaginary ski jump.

Ski Launch 2023. Image © PlanetSKI

Turning to the themes of the day, the former Olympic ski racer revealed internal market research suggesting that as much as 30% of the audience of the legendary TV programme have never been skiing or snowboarding.

“Many of they complain when we tackle serious issues like climate change,” she said.

“What they really want is escapism”.