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With the exception of a few small winter resorts, all the ski resorts in the French Pyrenees are closing the Christmas season with a large number of skiers. In many cases, these are record numbers. And it was thought that the seasons after COVID were impossible to beat.
But the heavy investment that has been made since then in the ski resorts, both to renovate ski lifts and especially to create new accommodation, is paying off much better than expected.
This is reflected in the first balance of the closing of the Christmas hotel offer, where, for example, the ski resorts of the N'PY Group have generated a turnover 28.79% higher than last season. If we go further back and take the average of the last six winters, then this percentage rises to 32.06% (without taking into account the 2020-2021 season closed by COVID).
According to data provided by N'PY, the eight ski resorts it directly controls (Peyragudes, Piau-Engaly, Grand Tourmalet, Pic du Midi, Luz Ardiden, Cauterets, Gourette and La Pierre Saint Martin) recorded an overall rate of
"record attendance with 381,794 ski days sold between Saturday, December 21, 2024 and Friday, January 3, 2025."
These figures are so much higher than the two seasons following COVID (among the best ever recorded) that so far this winter season, N'PY has already reached almost the equivalent of the entire 2019-2020 winter (which had to be closed earlier due to the pandemic crisis). Putting it in numbers, since the slopes opened in mid-December to January 3, 438,604 ski days have already been sold.
A figure that is expected to be far exceeded with the almost five weeks of school holidays that will come between February and the first days of March. A time of the year that families take advantage of to spend a few days together enjoying the snow.
Altiservice is also happy. The second company in terms of turnover in the French Pyrenees controls the slopes and lifts of Font-Romeu Pyrénées 2000, where record numbers were announced a few days ago.The second company in terms of turnover in the French Pyrenees controls the slopes and lifts of Font-Romeu Pyrénées 2000, where they announced record numbers a few days ago, and Saint-Lary, a ski resort whose director, Akim Boufaid, was euphoric about generating 33% more turnover than last year. Until now, its reference season was 2021-2022.
The downside is that they have had so many skiers and snowboarders show up that some stores ended up running out of stock and have generated more queues than usual in some services. On average they have been receiving more than 8,000 fans, but there are days when up to 12,000 people have arrived in Saint Lary.
Without the Three Wise Men in France, where this epiphany is not celebrated and schoolchildren normally attend lessons , the Christmas hotel offer in that part of the Pyrenees usually lasts little more than a week. This year, as the holidays fall on Wednesday, it has been possible to generate a bridge and somehow double this period.
Thus, the first week, which included Christmas, the occupancy reserves in accommodation stood at 73.15%. This is common both on that side and on our side, since these are days of family celebrations.
For the second part of these holidays, those corresponding to New Year's week, the percentage rises to 91.62%. That is to say, almost a full house.
These numbers undoubtedly reflect the great desire to go to the slopes and the good health of snow and ski tourism. And as if these figures were not enough, N'PY reports that it has sold 100,000 No Souci Pyrénées ski cards.000 No Souci Pyrénées cards, "9% more than last year", with access to special prices in 14 resorts in both its network and the three SAVASEM resorts (Ax 3 Domaines, Guzet and Les Monts d'Olmes) and those of TRIO (Cambre D'Aze, Porté-Puymorens and Formiguères).
Although January should be a transitional month between Christmas and the school holidays in February, the reality is that bookings are high and the influx is promising. To boost the influx, the resorts are launching offers. The No Souci Pyrénées card, for example, is offering 40% discounts on its ski passes from Monday, January 13 to Friday, January 17, with promotions including accommodation.
The snowfall that began to fall yesterday Monday in the ski resort of Granada, just a few hours after the departure of the Three Wise Men, is allowing to expand the supply of slopes and kilometres with the opening this Tuesday of the Veleta and La Visera slopes.
