Industry News
The Australian subsidiary of British price comparison website for travel insurance ’Compare the Market’, Compare the Market AU, has ranked 50 different cities, towns, and villages around the world to see which one is the best for a snow sport holiday. The data analyses the number of listed accommodation options, the total length of ski runs by difficulty grade, annual average snowfall and the average cost of a ski pass for an adult.
Hakuba in Japan was ranked number one with a score of 8.91/10. This was driven by Hakuba having the highest number of accommodation options listed on TripAdvisor at 769, some of the highest snowfall at 11 metres a year on average, combined with the second cheapest average ski pass price at US$33.
Second-highest on the list was Grenoble in France with a score of 8.23/10. Grenoble scored well thanks to its high number of ski runs in the region with over 1,000kms of ski runs to enjoy. Grenoble also had the cheapest average ski pass cost at US$24.
Third place was the French village of Morzine, which scored 7.92/10. Morzine has long ski runs for beginner and intermediate skiers at 310kms of beginner grade slopes and 210kms of intermediate runs. It also has a solid number of accommodation options to choose from at 292.
Five of the top 10 results were in the French Alps, with other European Alpine towns like St. Anton am Arlberg and Saalbach in Austria, as well as Zermatt in Switzerland making the top 10. Aside from Hakuba, the only other non-European location in the top 10 was the Canadian town of Banff.
There was a clear trend in the data where American and Australian locations were the most expensive for ski passes – despite having very low total lengths of ski runs in comparison to other locations. While American locations have decent snowfall, most have very low ski run totals and lower numbers of accommodation options. It’s even worse in Australia, where the low numbers of accommodation, combined with expensive ski passes, low ski run lengths and some of the lowest average annual snowfall make the nation a very expensive choice.
For the full analysis and more information, visit the Compare the Market AU website.
