Ski.ru survey results: 40% of Russian skiers will book winter skiing vacations at last moment

MOSCOW, Russian Federation - Sept. 24, 2015 - PRLog -- On the eve of the winter 2015 season web portal SKI.RU conducted a short survey of its audience’s trip plans. Main results are:

10% will take time out

About 10% of skiers will skip this season due to current uncomfortable conditions in Russian economy.

By contrast, 30% plan to have two or more skiing vacations this season.

Out of those who will travel, more than 50% plan to have a trip after New Year and 14% will ski during Russian New Year holidays (from 1st to 11th of January).

40% will make a booking at the last moment

While 30% have already booked their vacations and the same number will book in the nearest future (September - October), other 40% will shift their final decision as late as possible due to current unstable situation.

Russian local travel ski market grows. Europe resorts lose Russian skiers – but at different rates.

We’ve got some unexpected results concerning skiing destinations trends: 54% are planning to ski in Russia, and it is just 10 -15% increase comparing to past years. That is surprisingly small. Comparing with 100% national currency change, we expected more aggressive growth in popularity of local ski destinations.

European resorts demand distribution is: 16% plans to visit Austria, 10% - Italy, 10% - France, other countries get 2-3% of audience (Andorra, Bulgary, etc). Finland shows surprisingly low demand - no more than 2%.

Rubble currency crisis forced 10% of Russians turn to local destinations and other 10% to give up on vacations plan at all.

In addition, it also caused a serious demand fall for unobvious destinations (financially - for Switzerland, skiing conditions wise – for Andorra, Finland, etc.).

Popular classical choice «trio» (Austria, France, and Italy) became more competitive relatively to other destinations; those three show more stable demand than other skiing locations (or course, minus previously mentioned 20% overall demand decrease).

About SKI.RU

SKI.RU is one of the largest social media portals in the Russian-language Internet community with whooping auditory of 1.5 million readers. It dates back to 2003, and together with Active Communication Agency digital company, SKI.RU actively promotes concepts and tourist destinations for winter sports. Moreover, in 2015 SKI.RU started to represent new informational product – «BUGELSKI GUIDE» for coverage of ski resorts.