Winter sports activities, sports activities for the wealthy? Less than 10% of French individuals go on ski holidays | EUROtoday

Traffic jams on ski resort roads, snow climate, avalanche dangers or the hazards of off-piste… Every 12 months, because the February holidays method, winter sports activities occupy the media house. However, is that this an exercise accessible to the best variety of individuals? Not actually, as a result of in actuality lower than one in ten French individuals go on a “snow vacation”. This low proportion has not modified a lot for greater than ten years, and corresponds to a particular social profile.

Between 9% and 13% of the inhabitants go to the mountains in winter

Going on trip in winter is a a lot much less widespread social apply than summer season holidays. The Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (Crédoc) questioned a consultant panel of French individuals in January 2023, as a part of a survey on their “living conditions and aspirations”. It seems that solely 9% of these questioned go on trip to the mountains in winter.

This publication extends a research carried out in 2010, which concluded that 17% of French individuals surveyed recurrently went on trip in winter (between December and March), together with 8% to the mountains, whereas 65% by no means went..

This order of magnitude is corroborated by different opinion surveys. According to a survey carried out in 2022 by Ipsos, solely a 3rd of these questioned (34%) say they go to the mountains in winter, and solely 13% go there yearly – greater than half have by no means been there.

6 million alpine skiers in 2020

Not all vacationers who go to the mountains in winter ski. If the world of snowboarding is culturally anchored in France, a candidate for the 2030 Winter Olympics, the apply of winter sports activities stays fairly restricted.

According to the most recent barometer carried out by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, 11% of individuals questioned, aged 15 and over, declared having practiced alpine snowboarding throughout the 12 months 2020, or round 6 million individuals. This determine consists of vacationers who keep within the mountains, but in addition native practitioners, whether or not they dwell in resorts or in cities near the slopes: the identical research estimates that 0.5% of French individuals are common alpine skiers. (a minimum of each week).

Other winter actions are extra confidential: sledding (3% of apply within the final twelve months), snowshoeing (2.3%), cross-country snowboarding (1.7%), snowboarding (1.4%)…

Skiers are usually educated, city and rich

The Crédoc survey exhibits that winter sports activities stay socially marked and primarily concern advantaged teams: 20% of the executives questioned went to the mountains throughout the winter of 2023, i.e. thrice greater than individuals from the center class decrease (7%). High incomes (17%) and better schooling graduates (15%) are additionally over-represented, as are these underneath 25 and residents of the Paris metropolitan space. These variations stay within the wake of the 2010 research, aside from a slight hole which occurred between males (11%) and ladies (7%).

Overall, the research authors discovered little change from the findings of the 2010 survey. “This doesn’t shock us for the second, even whether it is doable that issues will change inside two or three years, that these populations will adapt and go snowboarding much less, explains Jörg Müller, researcher at Crédoc. Young individuals or increased schooling graduates have, in declarative surveys, a powerful environmental sensitivity, and a few of their behaviors change every day, however others not a lot: they continue to be connected to winter sports activities and go there probably the most typically by automotive. »

117 euros on common for a day of snowboarding

One of the obstacles to winter sports activities holidays stays the excessive value. Few current exhaustive research can be found, as famous within the current report by the Court of Auditors on mountain resorts. He cites specifically a research carried out in 2013 by the Domaines skiables de France and the Caisse des Dépôts en Rhône-Alpes, which estimated the typical value of a day of snowboarding at 117 euros. If these quantities have essentially elevated since then, specifically attributable to inflation, the small print present that the primary expense issues lodging (29%), properly earlier than the ski carry move.

A more moderen research, carried out by G2A for Savoie and Haute-Savoie in 2023, estimated that French guests spent 97 euros per day and per individual, on common, excluding transport, in comparison with 155 euros for international vacationers.

According to the most recent information, protecting the 12 months 2022-2023, practically 30% of winter vacationer attendance is supplied by foreigners, specifically British and Belgians. Note a rise in non-European prospects, which represents nearly 4%.