Q & A
Dan Fox MANAGING DIRECTOR, SKI WEEKENDS
How did you get into travel? I ran away to be a ski guide over 25 years ago. Since then, I’ve managed chalets, hotels and eventually whole programmes for tour operators in France and in Switzerland. In 2002, I created easyJet4ski
Dan Fox has managed
programmes in France, Switzerland, Italy, Andorra and Spain for Thomson and Neilson. Over the past 14 years, he’s been developing ski brands as managing director of the UK’s largest short-break ski tour operator.
skiweekends.com
for easyJet. This was the fi rst ski business to really embrace fl exible ski options with the low cost carrier and the increased selection of regional airports on off er. I took over the management of
Ski Weekends in 2007, when the business was still predominately coach holidays.
What’s the best thing about your job? We help people go skiing and make them happy. I also have a fantastic team of people who are passionate about my favourite sport.
What’s the best professional decision you’ve made? To expand the number of destination that Ski Weekends off ers. It’s clear that our customers enjoy the fl exibility and choice.
BIOGRAPHY
Managing director, Ski Weekends General manager, Albatros Travel Group Managing director
easyJet4ski.com
General manager, France & Switzerland Thomson Holidays General Manager, TCG Manager for Neilson Ski France and Switzerland Area manager, managing various summer sun main brand programmers in Spain
What’s been your biggest professional risk? Agreeing to take on the easyJet4 ski project with a contract signed in August to go live with over 400 hotels for the following winter.
What’s the biggest challenge facing the industry? Brexit: the immediate eff ect on exchange rates and concerns about the economy. The bigger impact will probably be the changes in the secondment of season workers and the taxation relating to their pay. Just as in Switzerland and Austria, the number of chalets and club hotels has dropped dramatically leaving only the high-end product. The same fate is likely to hit in France. It’s widely believed this will be the end of the mass-market chalet holiday. Thankfully, this will have lit le direct eff ect on us.
74 ABTA Magazine | April 2017
What does a Ski Weekends holiday offer that other operators don’t? Flexibilty in a static market; we make it easy for people to ski more each season, without using all their holiday or blowing the budget. It deeply frustrates me that the
majority of ski companies still off er the same product as 30 years ago. They still insist on weeks, which just isn’t what everyone wants. It also means you’re forced to travel on the busiest day of the week at airports and on the roads; plus, of course, you never get to ski on your travel days. The message that you can take a
short ski break isn’t really out there. I want to change that.
What’s next for Ski Weekends? There’s a lot of growth planned, not just more resorts, but more alternative winter activities. We intend to become the default place to look if you don’t want a standard holiday. This winter, we’ve introduced
seven cities: Nice, Barcelona, Granada, Geneva, Innsbruck, Oslo and Toulouse. Basically, you can spend one or two nights in a city, then a few days skiing.
Where do you like to go on holiday, and why? In winter, skiing anywhere makes me smile. Skiing downhill is the only time in the winter months I can honestly forget work and just relax. In summer, sailing a couple of weeks barefoot in the Med, please; Greece and Turkey can both be so relaxing.
Where would you most like to visit? From a ski perspective, I’ve still not made it to Canada and would love to heli-ski there.
Is there any other career you’d have liked to have done? An architect. I studied engineering, but I love the creativity of design, and working with clients to fulfi l their dreams would’ve been fun.
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