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

U.S. Ski Areas Post Fourth Best Season on Record

LAKEWOOD, Colo., August 3, 2005 --- Despite a very difficult season in the Pacific Northwest, the 2004/05 season is estimated to be the fourth best season on record for US skier/snowboarder visits nationwide, according to figures from the recently-released final 2004/05 Kottke End-of-Season Survey. Total visitation is projected at 56.9 million, down just 0.3 percent from last season, and down 1.2 percent from the record-setting 2002/03 season.

The ski industry has performed strongly in the past five seasons, with the four best seasons, and five of the best six seasons, all occurring during that timeframe. Based on this string of performances, the industry appears to have established a new performance range of approximately 3 million skier visits higher than the previous levels in the 1990s.

In longer-term context, each region except the Pacific West performed above its ten-year average, including the Northeast (up 5.3 percent), Southeast (up 7.7 percent), Midwest (up 5.3 percent), and Rockies (4.6 percent). The Pacific West region was down 2.4 percent from its ten-year average.

Benefiting from the weakness of the US dollar, ski resorts reaped gains in international visitation this season. The proportion of visitors from Canada rose slightly, to 1.8 percent from 1.6 percent last season, while the proportion of visitors from other countries rose more significantly, to 4.5 percent from 3.8 percent the season before.

Other highlights from the 2004/05 Kottke End-of-Season Survey include:

Closures: Overall, 40 percent of responding areas reported one or more unscheduled closures this past season, including 60 percent of reporting resorts in the Midwest and Pacific West, and 55 percent in the Southeast (a much lower 26 percent in the Northeast and 19 percent in the Rockies). At resorts with closures, the total cumulative duration of closures averaged 11.3 days per resort, with an especially high average among resorts in the Pacific Northwest (OR, WA, AK – 52.5 days), reflecting the exceptionally difficult operating conditions in that region this season.

Visits: A new analysis this year revealed that over half of skier visits nationally occurred on weekdays this season (54.0 percent), while 46.0 percent occurred on weekends. A majority of the skier visits occurred on weekdays in the Rocky Mountains (61.5 percent) and Pacific West (53.5 percent weekdays). By contrast, weekends accounted for the majority of visitation in the Northeast (55.7 percent of visits on weekends), as well as in the Southeast (52.8 percent) and Midwest (51.0 percent). The proportion of visitation on weekdays increased steadily with resort size, rising from 45.1 percent weekday visitation at the smallest resorts, to 56.6 percent at the largest.

Lessons: Lesson volume was up a slight 0.2 percent this season on an aggregate basis, and down slightly on a per-skier-visit basis (-0.5 percent). Looking at lessons by type, the proportion of lessons given which are children’s lessons has grown moderately, increasing from 44.8 percent share in 2002/03 to 47.7 percent in 2004/05. A skier/snowboarder visit is defined as one person visiting a ski area for all or part of a day or night, and includes full- and half-day, night, complimentary, adult, child, season and other types of tickets. The Kottke End-of-Season Survey visitation data reflect the results of 233 of the nation’s 492 operating ski resorts. These 231 resorts accounted for approximately 45.8 million skier visits, which permits generally reliable projections of national results to be made.

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

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