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COPPER MOUNTAIN — For the second year in a row, Colorado’s 26 ski resorts set a new record, with 12.56 million skiers and snowboarders taking to the slopes.
The increase from last season was slim — only about 28,000 visits, or about what Breckenridge and Keystone combined might see on a busy Saturday.
But given some challenging circumstances, including Front Range blizzards that hampered travel during a key period, Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) president and CEO Rob Perlman said he was happy with the numbers.
“I would say it’s been an absolutely stellar performance this year,” Perlman said Thursday during CSCUSA’s annual meeting at Copper Mountain Resort.
As a subset of the state’s resorts, destination areas showed strong growth, posting about 85,000 more visits than last year and up 7.4 percent over the five-year average.
The so-called “Gems,” smaller areas like Loveland, A-Basin, Powderhorn and Eldora, also performed well, with this season’s visits ringing in at 13.4 percent above the five-year norm.
The only category to show a slight decline were the Front Range Destination Resorts — Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Keystone, Vail, Winter Park — down by about 1.34 percent, (99,990 skier days).
The 2006-2007 season started with a blast of October snow that helped provide a great early season base.
But in early December, Perlman said, several media reports suggested that snowfall could be skimpy through much of the winter.
A few weeks later, back-to-back blizzards slammed the Front Range, and while those storms didn’t bring significant amounts of snow to the mountains, the message was that Colorado had plenty of snow.
The blizzard shut down Denver International Airport for a few days and made travel to the mountains difficult.
As a result, in-state skier numbers dipped slightly during the season. But that decline was more than offset by out-of-state visitors, Perlman said.
Visits from Colorado’s core markets — Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York and California — climbed by about four percent.
Skiers from those states comprise about 40 to 41 percent of the state’s skier visits.
International visits also climbed by about two percent, with especially strong numbers from Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Perlman said.
With poor snow in New England and on the West Coast, Colorado also wracked up a record 23 percent share of the U.S. market this past winter, Perlman said.
Outgoing CSCUSA chair Chris Diamond said the positive trend dates back to 2003, when the U.S. economy bottomed out after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“It wasn’t a great time for us,” Diamond said.
In response to that economic challenge, Diamond said resorts moved to reset and control cost structures. And since then, the industry has refocused and achieved steady gains.
As a result, the fiscal climate shifted dramatically.
“We built a much more effective business model. Capital markets view what we do very favorably now,” Diamond said, holding up the recent climb in Vail Resorts stock value as an example of the positive change.
The increase from last season was slim — only about 28,000 visits, or about what Breckenridge and Keystone combined might see on a busy Saturday.
But given some challenging circumstances, including Front Range blizzards that hampered travel during a key period, Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) president and CEO Rob Perlman said he was happy with the numbers.
“I would say it’s been an absolutely stellar performance this year,” Perlman said Thursday during CSCUSA’s annual meeting at Copper Mountain Resort.
As a subset of the state’s resorts, destination areas showed strong growth, posting about 85,000 more visits than last year and up 7.4 percent over the five-year average.
The so-called “Gems,” smaller areas like Loveland, A-Basin, Powderhorn and Eldora, also performed well, with this season’s visits ringing in at 13.4 percent above the five-year norm.
The only category to show a slight decline were the Front Range Destination Resorts — Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Keystone, Vail, Winter Park — down by about 1.34 percent, (99,990 skier days).
The 2006-2007 season started with a blast of October snow that helped provide a great early season base.
But in early December, Perlman said, several media reports suggested that snowfall could be skimpy through much of the winter.
A few weeks later, back-to-back blizzards slammed the Front Range, and while those storms didn’t bring significant amounts of snow to the mountains, the message was that Colorado had plenty of snow.
The blizzard shut down Denver International Airport for a few days and made travel to the mountains difficult.
As a result, in-state skier numbers dipped slightly during the season. But that decline was more than offset by out-of-state visitors, Perlman said.
Visits from Colorado’s core markets — Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York and California — climbed by about four percent.
Skiers from those states comprise about 40 to 41 percent of the state’s skier visits.
International visits also climbed by about two percent, with especially strong numbers from Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Perlman said.
With poor snow in New England and on the West Coast, Colorado also wracked up a record 23 percent share of the U.S. market this past winter, Perlman said.
Outgoing CSCUSA chair Chris Diamond said the positive trend dates back to 2003, when the U.S. economy bottomed out after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“It wasn’t a great time for us,” Diamond said.
In response to that economic challenge, Diamond said resorts moved to reset and control cost structures. And since then, the industry has refocused and achieved steady gains.
As a result, the fiscal climate shifted dramatically.
“We built a much more effective business model. Capital markets view what we do very favorably now,” Diamond said, holding up the recent climb in Vail Resorts stock value as an example of the positive change.
