The best skiing resort for: Tour Operators

Banff, Canada

Tour operators want clients to enjoy their holidays. So what they look for in a resort doesn't differ dramatically from the sort of checklist to which a skier would refer. Asked about the specification of his ideal resort, Gareth Crump, ski product director for Crystal, Thomson and Simply Ski, listed the following. "A great deal of accommodation with skiing to its door. An easy transfer from the airport. Different types of accommodation, including hotels ranging from two to four stars. And a solid resort infrastructure, with shops, bars, nightlife, swimming pools and so on."

Out on the slopes, Mr Crump would want a range of skiing terrain at high altitude, plus good beginners' slopes near the village and extensive snow-making. Aesthetically, he'd like "to see the Matterhorn towering over a chocolate-box village". Everyone should speak English "because that makes doing business so much easier". And they should be friendly and offer good service "but without going over the top in a McDonald's, 'Have-a-nice-day' way".

So where is the resort that fulfils all those criteria? "On the moon," says Mr Crump. He characterises his ideal as being essentially a combination of a Swiss village and a French ski area with Canadian service – and therefore unattainable. The managing director of Nielson, Pete Tyler, proposed creating the ideal resort "by taking somewhere like Kitzbühel and transporting it to the Rockies for the fantastic snow", adding that he was "sure the Americans are looking at doing that".

When pressed, Mr Crump chose St Anton in Austria as coming closest to the tour operator's ideal, despite a shortage of snowmaking and the lack of a link with the lifts at nearby Lech/Zürs.

But Mr Tyler chose Banff in Alberta, Canada, for its crowd-pleasing qualities: "It's a middle-of-the-road resort, good for everything, with fantastic facilities, guaranteed snow and direct flights."