Skiers Visits On the Rise

More people are skiing and snowboarding, and visiting ski resorts, than ever.

Just as summer descends upon us, news of this past winter's ski/snowboard participation has begun to trickle in. And, so far, the news is good: more people are skiing and snowboarding, and visiting ski resorts, than ever.

The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) reports 2005-06 skier visits hit record numbers this past season. The all-time record of 58.8 million visits exceeds the 2005-05 season by 3.3 percent, and beats the previous all-time record, set in 2002-03, by two percent.

NSAA defines a skier day as one person visiting a ski area for all or any part of a day or night for the purpose of skiing [or snowboarding].

Meanwhile, the trade organization Ski Utah is reporting a record year for skiing/riding in that state. This, they say, is Utah's third consecutive record-breaking year for skier visits - and that with two weekends remaining Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort at the time of the report.

Ski Utah president Nathan Rafferty credits the growth to terrific snowfall and Delta Airlines' expansion of service into and out of Salt Lake City.

And, close on the heels of that attribution comes an announcement from Delta that it will expand its ski-destination service for 2006-07.

Interesting: two of Delta's new routes include Salt Lake to Telluride and Aspen, CO. Will those pull skier traffic away from Utah, a Delta hub? Could be. But, from what I saw in Utah these past two winters, the combination of their self-proclaimed "best snow on earth" and some damned good package deals will keep them growing even more.