Skiing is the new holiday trend that is taking Bengaluru by storm

BENGALURU: The city’s young vacationers appear to have found a new way to spend this holiday season: these pre-teens from well-heeled families are taking skiing vacations.

Twelve-year-old Sahaat Poddar is soon going with a friend to Verbier, an alpine village in Switzerland, for a ten-day ski certification course. His mother Akshika Poddar, director of a menswear brand, says, “We are not accompanying him. Once he earns the certificate to ski independently, we will take him to ski across the world as a family next year.”

Dekyi Chawla, director of tech company Reward360, will be holidaying with family in Italy and Austria this Christmas season. Her 12-year-old son wants to learn skiing on the snowy slopes in those countries.

“We want a white Christmas. Skiing is offbeat and it will also keep my son excited,” says Chawla, who intends to make ski holiday an annual ritual.

Aspiring fiction writer Beena Patel is taking her second skiing trip this year. She went to Denver (USA) in April. Now, she is leaving for Zermatt (Switzerland) where her husband, her 9-yearold son and she will learn to ski.

“Skiing was on our bucket list since we don’t have proximity to snow. The offbeat sport is a great conversation starter,” says Patel. Exploring the mountain slopes and skies is all that they want to do on this trip. “We start skiing at 9 am and finish at 3 pm. The terrain gets challenging as the sun rises. We can take more vacations for other things,” she says.

Travel experts agree that skiing vacations are on the rise. Vikram Ahuja of community-based travel company Byond Travel, said summer destinations like Switzerland, Austria and French Alps have become popular round the year. Sweden, Finland and Iceland follow.

“The inherent fear of cold is vanishing. Vacationists want skiing and snowboarding with husky rides and sledging,” says Ahuja, who notes a 30% year-on-year increase in the number of enquiries for ski destinations.

White winters in domestic destinations are also calling out. Sagar Parida of Tripexploria says, “We were flummoxed to get enquiries for Auli in Himachal Pradesh. Couples aged between 35 and 45 years have asked us to organise ski packages here.”

Balu Ramachandran, head of air and distribution at Cleartrip booking platform, said: “Even at a national level, these destinations have shown a growth rate of about 45% more than any other key domestic destination around this time of the year.”

Even at a national level, these destinations have shown a growth rate of about 45% more than any other key domestic destination around this time of the year.