Contact: Troy Hawks
NSAA Communications
(720) 963-4215
thawks@nsaa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Final Report Confirms All-Time Skier Visitation Record

LAKEWOOD, Colo., August 23, 2006 – Final reports indicate that the U.S. ski industry set an all-time national skier visit record of 58.9 million for the 2005/06 season, up 3.5 percent from last season, and up 2.3 percent from the previous record set in 2002/03. Continuing a very strong trend, the five best seasons on record have all occurred in the past six seasons (2000/01 and forward). Based on this string of performances, the industry appears to have established a new performance range since 2000/01 of approximately three to five million skier visits higher than the previous levels in the 1990s

Many regions contributed to the very successful 2005/06 season. The Pacific West, and most particularly the Pacific Northwest, rebounded dramatically from last season, with the Pacific West experiencing a gain of 13.9 percent, an increase of almost 1.4 million visits to this season’s totals. The Pacific Northwest subregion jumped an estimated 130 percent in comparison to 2004/05. The Rocky Mountain region, the largest of the five NSAA regions, also reported very strong results overall, setting a new all-time record, and registering a gain of 5.7 percent, or over 1.1 million additional visits, over the previous record set in 2004/05. Both the Southeast and Midwest regions were also quite strong this year, contributing estimated increases of 6.1 percent and 3.4 percent respectively in comparison to 2004/05. The Southeast had its second-best season on record, while the Midwest had its fifth-best season.

 THE NATIONAL SKI AREAS ASSOCIATION, LOCATED IN LAKEWOOD, COLO., IS A TRADE ASSOCIATION FORMED IN 1962 FOR SKI AREA OWNERS AND OPERATORS NATIONWIDE.

###