Russian interest in France's luxury ski resorts wanes Read our guide to Courchevel, France They also have very specific travel dates encompassing their Christmas and New Year in the first 10 days of January. This is a very small window of only two weeks. They would rather not travel than be seen in a resort which is not acceptable to them or at a time which is not correct, should their chalet be already taken by a client of a different nationality. In Switzerland while the majority of clients (36 per cent) were British, the numbers decreased significantly, with UK clients booking chalets in Switzerland down 13 per cent, indicating that all levels of the market have been affected by the strength of the Swiss franc. The report also found the person most likely to be booking the chalet was the party leader, with only 17 per cent of bookings made by a personal assistant. Most dishearteningly, according to Sean Newsom of Welovetoski, who presented the results at an event last week, is that most of those well-heeled party leaders are shorter in the tooth than he, being between 20 and 40 years of age (46 per cent). Next comes the 40 to 50 age bracket, making up 40 per cent of party leaders, while 17 per cent are over 60. The travel agents among those surveyed provided insight into the resorts most popular with luxury chalet and hotel bookers - and the big hitters of France and Switzerland feature highly. In France, the main Courchevel resort (formerly known as Courchevel 1850) is the destination of choice, with 30 per cent of the market, Val d'Isère and Méribel each claim just over 20 per cent, and Megeve and Chamonix around 10 per cent. In Switzerland, Verbier and Zermatt are overwhelmingly the most popular, with Zermatt having almost doubled in popularity this year. St Moritz has also pushed ahead of Gstaad and Klosters, gaining nine per cent of the market. Of the 75 per cent of luxury clients who travelled by scheduled airline, it came as little surprise that Ryan Air was the least popular airline used, while BA the most.