I sort of get this, as I have ever been a skier, except for a couple of years back in the early 80’s when I lived in the States, and a skiing holiday has never featured highly on my list of things to do.
I did enjoy a holiday in Wengen once, but that was in the summer!
Apparently though the trend is growing to go on a skiing holiday but not ski!
These days a ski break does not have to involve much actual skiing at all. Spas, good food and wine, nature treks and a raft of leisure activities rival for tourists’ attention, say French ski industry experts.
“The state of mind of holidaymakers has changed in 30 years. Nowadays it’s not so much about effort as about enjoyment,” says Laurent Reynaud, general delegate of France’s national ski lift operator.
“People used to come here for sport. Now they come for pleasure.”
Seven million people – 2 million of them foreign tourists – converge on France’s dense network of ski villages and purpose-built resorts from December to April each year, the largest number after the United States.
But the average time they spend whizzing up and down the mountain has dropped from 6 hours a day two decades ago, to just 4 hours now, Reynaud says.