The ski equipment market - Italy (2024)

1.2 The global market

The global ski equipment market size reached a value of about USD *.** billion in **** and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (***) of *.**% between **** and ****, reaching a value of USD *.** billion by ****.

Global ski equipment market World, **** - ****, billion $ Expertmmarketresearch

Skiing is often considered one of the most popular and exciting adventure sports in both North American and European countries. The global ski sports industry has seen an increase in the number of participants and spectators over the years, which can be attributed to the enjoyable experience of participating in the sport. Currently, skiing is being considered for inclusion in global sporting events such as the Olympics due to its growing popularity.

Due to increasing consumer demand for snow-related activities and tourism, the infrastructure for snow sports, particularly skiing, is expanding worldwide. These positive developments in the development of snow sports infrastructure are expected to increase the prospects for ski equipment and clothing goods in the near future.

People's awareness of the use of helmets and other ski equipment continues to grow due to increasing concerns about skiing-related accidents, which is expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. In the coming years, these patterns of expanding ...

1.3 The domestic market

The winter sports-related services sector, which includes equipment rental, ski lessons, ski passes and the use of ski lifts, generated a turnover of * billion ** million euros. This represents a significant increase of **.* percent, corresponding to a revenue increase of ***.* million euros over the ****/**** winter season.

Evolution of turnover in equipment rental services, ski instructors, ski passes and ski lifts Italy, ****-****, in millions of euros Source: ****

In the ****/**** winter season, the economic system related to winter sports in Italy recorded a total turnover of ** billion *** million euros, marking an increase compared to the previous season. This increase is distributed among various sectors:

Hospitality Sector: With a turnover of * billion and *** million euros, it had an increase of **.* percent compared to the ****/**** winter season. Winter Sports-related Services: They generated * billion ** million euros, an increase of **.* percent over the previous season. Other Services: Including catering, trade and recreation, totaled * billion *** million euros, an increase of **.* percent.

Ski Market Composition Italy, ****/****, % Ski passes

1.4 Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic

The closure of ski resorts was decreed on March **, ****, which had a considerable impact on the ski equipment market as well as the ski market more generally. As seen in the previous section, the industry's turnover has been greatly affected in the ****/**** season.

In fact, according to a Skipass survey, **.* percent of Italians surveyed decided to cancel their vacations as a result of the health crisis in late October ****. The crisis has also changed travelers' behavior, with nearly one in two Italians now wanting to wait until the last moment to deal with the changing situation.

Italians' behavior regarding upcoming vacations Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

These indicators show that Italians will find it difficult to make decisions about winter vacations until the Covid-** situation is under control. In addition, for the ****/**** season, bookings will prove to be extremely unpredictable, with Italians preferring to wait until the last minute to book their vacation and all that goes with it (***), precisely so as not to risk the cost of the vacation knowing that some of the spending already done would be lost.

Some trends, although already evident in previous years, were definitely confirmed in the ****/**** season and can therefore be considered structural in the ...

1.5 Import-export

Skis:

HS code ****.** corresponds to winter sports skis. Analyzing data from **** to ****, there is an upward trend in imports, with a notable increase in **** suggesting a growing interest in winter sports and perhaps a post-pandemic economic recovery. On the other hand, exports showed a decline until ****, but then recovered strongly in ****, indicating a potential recovery in international sales. The coverage ratio, which indicates the ratio of the value of exports to the value of imports, reflects a situation where imports exceeded exports until ****, then in **** exports exceeded imports, and in **** the ratio almost balanced.

Ski trade flows Italy, ****-****, millions of $ Uncomtrade

Other ski equipment:

Analyzing HS code: ****.**, which refers to ski equipment for winter sports, excluding skis and fastening equipment (***), trade flows from **** to **** show an overall upward trend for imports, indicating an increase in domestic demand for such equipment. On the other hand, exports, after a decline between **** and ****, recovered, especially in ****, reflecting a strengthening of the international competitive position of exporting countries. The coverage ratio, which measures the ratio of exports to imports, had a decreasing trend until ****, signaling a narrowing of the gap between exports and imports, but saw a slight recovery in ****.

Trade flows of ski ...

2.1 Demand characteristics

In winter ****/****, a greater dominance of alpine skiing was observed among outdoor activities, which further consolidated its leadership by increasing its market share from **.* percent in the previous winter to **.* percent. The second and third most popular activities, respectively, are snowshoe hiking, which saw a growth of more than two percentage points to **.* percent, and snowboarding, also on the rise, standing at **.* percent compared to *.* percent in the previous season. Other slow activities such as hiking or snow trekking follow, accounting for *.* percent. Cross-country skiing stands at *.* percent, fat biking at *.* percent, while mountaineering, both night and day, and freeriding account for *.* percent and *.* percent, respectively, with other sports occupying smaller shares of the market.

Outdoor sports disciplines

Another useful data to identify the customer base of ski equipment concerns the type of customer base of ski schools. We note a higher concentration in young age groups, particularly school-age children (***) account for about one-fifth.

Type of clientele of ski schools Italy, ****/****, % Ski passes Finally, let's look at the trend in average household spending by Italians on sports equipment. This shows a growth from **** to ****, followed by a significant decline in ****, probably due to the impacts of the pandemic, and a subsequent ...

2.2 A market also driven by external demand

The Italian tourism sector, always attentive to market dynamics, has been faced with an interesting shift in the dynamics of where its winter visitors come from, particularly those who are passionate about winter sports such as skiing. Available data shows that the largest share of foreign clientele comes from the United Kingdom (***).

In particular, the marked increase in British tourists from **.* percent last winter to over ** percent signals a growth opportunity for the ski equipment market. On the other hand, there is a decrease in guests from Poland, who were **.* percent and now account for a smaller share, suggesting a potential redefinition of marketing strategies for this customer segment.

The analysis of provenance also points to the importance of other European markets, such as Belgium (***). And no less significant are customers from ** additional nations, including Sweden, Lithuania, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Russia and the United States of America.

Countries of origin of foreign skiers

2.3 New demand trends

Ski offerings have been refined and evolved over the years, seeking to attract larger and larger segments of potential users. Skiing now caters primarily to children. Families with at least one child and one parent are now more numerous in the mountains, and Skipass statistics indicate that **.* percent of ski instructor lessons are for children. Targeting the children's segment is particularly attractive because a child who is passionate about skiing will remain a customer for years.

These new needs led Italians to turn their attention to Italian ski holidays. At the same time, after twenty months of absence from the list of tourist opportunities, the possibility of spending a few days in a white, snowy, pure mountain resort became a prestige factor, which fueled demand and brought new fans. This new clientele thus represents a new potential segment to be retained. These are not tourists who want to experience the ski week without doing sports, on the contrary: their primary goal is to get closer to the sports that are practiced in the snow, and in particular to the two most important disciplines, alpine skiing and snowboarding, which should fuel the ski equipment market, especially through the rental segment.

Many of ...

2.4 Geographical distribution of demand

The data indicate a strong concentration of visitors from northern Italian regions, with Lombardy leading the way with more than one-third of attendance at ski resorts, followed by regions such as Lazio and Emilia-Romagna. This can be explained by the geographical proximity of these regions to some of the major ski destinations, as well as the economic availability and propensity to travel for skiing.

Veneto and Tuscany also show significant attendance, Piedmont and Friuli Venezia Giulia, regions with well-known ski resorts, confirm their attractiveness with a good percentage of attendance.

Southern Italian regions such as Campania show much lower attendance, which may be due to factors such as distance from the Alps and the Dolomites and less tradition or interest in winter sports.

Regional origin of Italian skiers Italy, ****/****, % Ski passes

The geographic distribution of Italian households' monthly spending on sports attreements also seems to confirm the importance of northern regions.

Geographic Area Spending North *.* €/month Center *.** €/month South *.* €/month

3.1 A concentration of sports equipment manufacturing companies in the North

We can get an overview of the structure of the Italian ski equipment manufacturing market through two ATECO codes:

ATECO **.**.** which concerns the manufacture of sports equipment ATECO **.**.** which concerns the rental of other sports and recreational equipment

In this section we will focus on the manufacture of sporting goods. This category includes

manufacture of sporting articles and equipment, for outdoor and indoor games, made of any material manufacture of balls and balls, hard, soft and inflatable manufacture of rackets, bats and sticks, skis, bindings and poles, ski boots, sailboards, surfboards manufacture of sport fishing gear, including hand nets, gear for hunting, mountaineering, etc manufacture of leather sports gloves and sports headgear manufacture of prefabricated swimming pools and other pools, etc manufacture of ice skates, roller skates, etc manufacture of bows and crossbows manufacture of gymnasium, fitness center and athletic equipment manufacture of all table tennis equipment

However, this ATECO code is limited by the multitude of sporting goods mixed with the manufacture of ski equipment.

Evolution of the number of firms specializing in the manufacture of sports equipment Italy, ****-**** Source: ****

In ****, the number of companies specializing in the production of sports equipment was ***. The industry, which is very mature, ...

3.2 A dynamic rental market

An important part of sales also comes from ski equipment rental. According to Fiera Bolzano, more than half of skiers (***) are interested in renting ski equipment in ****. Moreover, at the European level, rental sales accounted for ** percent of the total for the ****/**** season. With **% growth in the ****/**** season compared to ****/****, Italy is the country with the highest growth in Europe for ski equipment rentals.

ATECO **.**.** considers:

rental of deck chairs and umbrellas rental of other sports equipment rental of skis rental of hang gliders and ultralights

Trends in the number of enterprises specializing in the rental of sports and recreational equipment Italy, ****-****, in number of enterprises Source: ****

Paradoxically, firms specializing in sports and recreational equipment rental are following the opposite trend to sports equipment manufacturers. After a sharp increase in business creation in **** and stagnation between **** and ****, the number of businesses created seems to be gradually increasing, with the number of businesses created increasing by an average of *.** percent between **** and ****, and ** percent in ****. Thus, the equipment rental segment is more dynamic than the manufacturing segment.

Distribution of companies specializing in sports and recreational equipment rental, by legal form Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

In contrast to firms specializing in the production ...

3.3 A market highly dependent on seasonality

The ski equipment market is highly dependent on seasonality. The graph below shows monthly search trends for the keywords "Ski" and "Ski Rental" in Italy between **** and ****. When the figure reaches ***, a maximum number of searches have been made on Google's search engine for that keyword, and the closer the figure is to zero, the less people search for that keyword.

Evolution of search trends on Google Italy, ****-****, base *** Source: ****

This graph clearly shows an increasing interest in skiing during winter periods. From November to February, interest in skiing is very high, while for the rest of the year there are almost no searches.

With climate change, there are seasons when snowfall is abundant and others when the first flakes fall well after the beginning of December, when the winter season usually begins.

This extension of the fall season, as was also the case in the ****/** winter season, poses problems for tourism operators in managing the so-called "off-season," a critical issue that will certainly need to be addressed in the near future if this trend persists. [***]

4.1 Main sports involved and trends

Ski equipment includes the following materials and sports:

Alpine skiing Freeride Snowboarding Nordic skiing Telemark skiing Monoski Snowshoes

This type of product is declined according to the type of activity (***).

New disciplines are regularly created among snow activities. These include, for example

Snowbiking, where skiers sit on a small bicycle whose wheels have been replaced by skis Speed riding, where the skier wears a parachute canopy to alternate between sliding and flying Snowkiting, the equivalent of kite surfing in the mountains, but more complicated because of the rough mountain terrain that disrupts airflow Snowscoot, a machine consisting of a frame, two different snowboard-like boards, a fork, and a handlebar to steer the front board. The back board is attached to the frame and the front board is attached to the fork.

The Skipass Panorama Tourism study determines some specific trend indicators for winter ****/****, with reference to the disciplines practiced in the mountains.

As seen above, traditional alpine skiing will experience strong growth in winter ****/**** due to the fact that there will be a real explosion of novice skiers (***).

Mountain skiing (***). These disciplines are synonymous with freedom, as are all off-piste disciplines.

According to the report there will also be an increase ...

4.2 The offer and the price

TheNational Consumers Union has very detailed information on different types of skis and their prices in ****.

There are different types of skis that are chosen not only based on the body, but also taking into account the actual ability and the type of activity practiced.

Different types of skis:

Race skis

These types of skis are designed for optimal race performance in special slalom and giant slalom for alpine skiing. This type of ski is therefore more suitable for more experienced and athletic skiers, to be used on well groomed and fast slopes.

The sizes recommended by the National Union of Consumers:

Special slalom skis: * to ** cm shorter than the skier's height. Giant slalom skis: * cm longer than the skier's height.

Allround skis

These types of skis are designed to meet most needs, regardless of the skier's experience level and the type of activity desired. They are easy to handle and stable, and are equally suited to the groomed snow of the slopes or the untouched powder of the off-piste. They are divided into two further subcategories: sport allround skis are softer and easier to turn, making them more suitable for less experienced skiers, while high-performance allround skis are more dynamic, ...

5.1 Regulations

There are more than thirty standards on these materials. Most of these standards are purely descriptive and establish definitions for the geometric and technical characteristics of the equipment, as well as the methods to be used to define these criteria and the minimum characteristics for interchangeability of the equipment.

The standards for safety couplings define very stringent mechanical requirements to ensure maximum safety for the user.

All ISO standards related to ski equipment can be found on the official website of the International Organization for Standardization, under Snow Equipment and Sports. A total of ** ISO standards are grouped under this category, plus * draft standards. The secretariat of ISO/TC**/SC* is based in Vienna, Austria.

As for ski rentals in Italy, only **.* percent of them use their own software or require full information from the customer according to ISO *****. Most rentals are therefore not fully compliant with the standard. Regarding the ISO ***** standard (***), only *.** percent of the total number of rentals own and use electronic equipment to check the regularity of binding operation.

As of Jan. *, ****, new regulations on safety in winter sports, referred to in Legislative Decree No. ** of Feb. **, ****, will come into effect. The January *, **** deadline was set by ...

6.1 Segmentation

• Skis Rossignol
• Salomon (Amer Sport groupe)
• Fusalp
• Head
• Atomic
• Burton Snowboards
• Dainese
• BasicNet Group (Superga, K-Way)
• CMP Campagnolo
• Nordica (Tecnica Group)
• Karpos
• Decathlon Groupe