Six Things We Learnt From Ski Launch 2026

8th September 2026 | Simon Wilson, Ski Launch, London.

The great and the good of the UK snowsport industry gathered in London for the industry’s annual and unofficial conference – Ski Launch. PlanetSKI reports from the event. NEW

It’s September and after the hottest/driest summer in memory, it’s pouring with rain in Central London.

That can mean only one thing.

The 2026/27 ski season is almost upon us.

As is now traditional, the leading lights in the UK winter sports industry gathered in a Kensington hotel for the aptly named ‘Ski Launch’.

They mull over recent developments and look forward to the winter ahead.

1. The BBC’s decision to shut down Ski Sunday is still a MAJOR talking point.

A week after the decision was announced, the programme’s hosts, Ed Leigh and Chemmy Alcott, have both now announced plans for future winter sport-related media projects.

And Chemmy took to the stage at Ski Launch to update her ski industry contacts with the latest news:

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It was notable that the debate is moving on from the initial surprise and the “well, I certainly won’t be paying my licence fee now” discussions to a more sophisticated assessment of what Ski Sunday’s loss might mean to the ski industry as a whole.

A number of those present at the event expressed concern that the current generation of young Brits, who are achieving great things on the winter sports world stage, grew up watching Chemmy, the Bell brothers, Dave Ryding etc on the BBC.

And they wonder whether there will be anything similar to inspire a future generation.

PlanetSKI has been following the story closely:

2. Italy is becoming the new…..well, Italy!

A staple discussion at these meetings is which are the “in” countries for British skiers and boarders.

This year, Simon McIntyre, managing director of Iglu Ski, one of the biggest UK travel agencies, made a strong case for Italy.

Ski Launch, September 2026. Image © PlanetSKI

Presenting findings from Iglu’s annual survey of client intentions (admittedly somewhat self-selecting and non-scientific) he suggested that Italy may be overtaking Austria as the second most preferred destination for UK winter tourists.

France of course remains some way ahead of then field.

McIntyre told the gathering that Iglu was seeing what he termed a “surge of interest” in Italy.

“It’s based partly on value for money”, he said.

“But the fact that Italy also has high altitude, snow-sure areas has caught people’s eye.”

This is pre-season insider chat.

It will be interesting to see if Italy does indeed prove particularly popular for Brits this winter.

The Dolomites, Italy. Image © PlanetSKI

3. It’s tough out West

It’s mostly anecdotal at the moment, but there are a number of indications that this may be a tough season for North American ski areas trying to attract British skiers.

The talk in the corridors of Ski Launch is of a perfect storm of Trumpian geopolitics, financial pressures on UK households and the increased cost of flying potentially impacting US bookings.

However, as one might expect the representatives of the US ski industry present were mostly upbeat about the situation, pointing out that a US ski holiday is generally a long-planned treat and shouldn’t be knocked off course by the politics or economics of the moment.

As Sarah Beatty from Colorado Ski Country USA puts it: “If you are a serious skier or snowboarder, at some point you are going to end up in the western United States to check off your bucket list of our light, powdery snow, the tree-lined slopes and bluebird skies.

“It’s just a very different experience to what anyone will get in Europe.”

This is a topic we at PlanetSKI plan to return to closer to the season taking in views from the USA’s closest neighbour Canada.

Skiing in the USA. Image © PlanetSKI

4. Artificial Intelligence is a thing for the ski industry as well (did you ever doubt it?)

Keeping this short, as you can read about AI everywhere these days.

But one interesting use of AI was outlined by Simon McIntyre of Iglu in addition to his comments about Italy above.

He was able to feed IGLU client data from a decade ago into an AI agent for analysis.

The rather unsurprising answer: we are all more demanding these days when we talk to travel agents about booking our ski holidays.

Elsewhere, a number of operators described how client use of AI at home was slowly changing the nature of the ski travel business.

The downside: fewer and fewer searches actually take potential clients to travel operator websites.

The upside: when clients do get in touch, they are generally clearer about what they are looking for and the potential options available.

Ski Launch, September 2026. Image © PlanetSKI

5. Ski touring isn’t just for gnarly mountain men and women

One interesting panel discussion focussed on the growth of ski touring and the options for beginner courses, women-only ski touring and even an entire resort in Italy with no ski lifts and designed for touring only.

Slightly less convincing (to this hack at least) was a first sighting of the e-skimo system which claims to be the first to introduce electronically powered touring skis.

It speeds you up the mountain with a mini caterpillar track insert into the ski and taking away some, if not all, of the uphill strain.

Er…

See a PlanetSKI article from last winter on ski touring for those who like a few creature comforts:

Ski touring for softies

The Nockberge Trail, Austria. Image © Simon Miller/PlanetSKI

6. Wales is (occasionally) a ski destination

Passionate advocate of the Welsh mountains, Mike Richards, entertained the Ski Launch assembly by bringing along to the party one of the portable Zoa ski tows he uses to ski in the Brecon Beacons – as he reported exclusively for PlanetSki last year.

Skiing in Wales. Image c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.

And finally, phrase of the day went to ‘the Pembrokeshire Dangler’ – a rare winter weather phenomenon described by Mike.

It occurs when snow clouds line up in the Irish Sea and dump powder snow on the Pembrokeshire hills for him and his mates to ski in.

Skiing in Wales. Image c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.

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