 Poster: A snowHead
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The Times' ski correspondent Mark Frary is predicting a squeeze on mid-sized tour operators such as First Choice, Airtours and Skiworld due to the economies of scale enjoyed by the larger players - Crystal, Inghams and Thomson.
In this report for Times Online he provides a preview for the coming ski season: the up-and-coming ski countries, Britain's prospects for the Turin Winter Olympics (not too encouraging, he feels), and developments in flight destinations and departure airports.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Journalists, doncha love them. Hard hitting, well researched, thoroughly considered...
...or not.
Just checked a couple of facts myself. A key element of this thesis is that Thomson (TUI UK) is significantly larger than, say, First Choice. Depending how you interpret the figures, err, it might not be. OK, I haven't done a completely rigourous like for like analysis but from the headline numbers for turnover (a not unreasonable metric for size):
First Choice 2004 £m 2,350
TUI Western Europe (UK not broken out) £m 1,750 or so
OK, the FC number is for the group as a whole and I didn't find a regional breakdown, although my received understanding it deals principally in the UK. TUI splits to Western Europe but no further - I couldn't be bothered downloading the annual reports. BUt one would expect that the UK doesn't form all of the Western European market for them.
No offence to Mr Frary, and I don't know his background or experience, but...shouldn't business articles be written by business journalists?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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oh and reading to the end of the puff, "Snowfall is hard to predict, particularly in these days of global warming". hard to predict?, it's impossible and so far always has been.
I guess we're still in silly season aren't we.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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??? Skiworld are an idependant fairly small operator with pretty much just ski ops (ok a SMALL summer scuba and alpine programme) and operate chalets and a few hotels and self catered stuff. HOW ON EARTH can they be put in the same bracket as airtours and first choice who are massive by comparison???
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Biscuit, they can't. Journalist has deadline, must find quasi-random story to write.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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*** My usual disclaimer: I work for TUI (but probably not for much longer!) ***
David Murdoch, you need to look at TUI Northern Europe figures not Western Europe - that's mostly Spain I think. You should see that these are a fair bit larger but they do include the Scandinavian stuff so I'm not what the direct comparison would be. Your general point would still seem to hold up I reckon.
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alan empty, thanks I wondered - in our business we class UK separately, Northern Europe is Scandiland, Germany and Netherlands and Spain is Southern Europe!!!
I think it's still valid, too!. At the very least the journo should have cited the figures he's basing his tenuous argument on. But that's probably too boring for a ski article...  That all said, I'm glad I don't have to write a serious analysis on this topic as it's far from easy to analyse. I'm also quite glad I don't have to run large multi-brand, internally-competitive organisations like the one you work for.
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Mon 5-09-05 15:23; edited 1 time in total
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From the article:
"...Chemmy Alcott, British skiing's answer to tennis's Anna Kournikova in both looks and talent, might raise the pulse of a few middle-aged gentlemen..."
That's a bit harsh: I'm not middle-aged! Probably not a gentleman either 
The sooner Airtours and Last Choice go out of business the better! If Skiworld are struggling they should stop employing useless reps and shoehorning people into chalets where the lights & plumbing don't work properly.
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