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A new generation of outdoor junkies is skiing, boarding, biking — and boosting the Colorado economy

Sports |

Phil Lindeman
plindeman@summitdaily.com

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Rec by the numbers

The recreation industry is big business across the U.S. Colorado leads the charge with a growing interest in just about everything outdoors — not to mention a growing population. A glance at the financial impact of playing outside.

National

140 million — Americans who make outdoor recreation a “daily priority”

6.1 million — recreation-related jobs in the U.S., 2013-14

$646 billion — recreation-related consumer spending each year in the U.S.

$39.9 billion — federal tax revenue from rec spending, 2013-14

$39.7 billion — total state tax revenue from rec spending, 2013-14

$120.7 billion — rec spending related to products and gear, 2013-14

$524.8 billion — rec spending related to trips and travel (ex. food, drink, lodging, transportation)

5 percent — annual growth for the rec industry between 2005 and 2011, a period when other sectors shrank

Colorado

$34 billion — total outdoor rec consumer spending in 2015

$4.8 billion — economic impact of the ski and snowboard industry, the state’s largest rec industry

46,000 — year-round jobs created by the industry

$1.9 billion — income created by industry jobs

12.6 million — skier visits during the 2013-14 riding season

13.1 million — skier visits during the 2015-16 riding season

500,000 — Colorado residents who visited a ski area for 2013-14 season

5.2 million — Colorado population in 2012

6 million — Estimated Colorado population in 2020

Sources: Colorado Ski Country USA economic impact study, 2013-14; “The Outdoor Recreation Economy” study by Outdoor Industry Association, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau.

It’s a problem as old as mountain towns: there’s no room left at your condo for a mountain bike, rock skis and raft when you finally get your hands on a snowmobile.

“I call it ‘the garage,’” said Luis Benitez, director of the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, a new state department created to oversee a surging sector of Colorado’s economy. “When you’re in a rural, outdoor-based community, you’ll find the dirt bike, mountain bike, water craft and the rest… People are starting to cross recreate a lot.”

This trend isn’t necessarily new, Benitez said, but the variety of recreation is. Think of it as a new generation of outdoor junkies who belong to multiple “tribes” — a buzz term for the different communities tied to mountain recreation: biking, cycling, skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, bouldering and dozens more.

Benitez said the latest generation of four-wheelers and off-highway riders are at the forefront. For years, mountain bikers and OHV lovers clashed over trail use and access, but a new generation — a generation of cross-recreators — is more interested than ever in toys that blur the line between the two sports: e-bikes, pedal-assist bikes, freeride downhill mountain biking and products like Quiet Kat, a throttle-assisted fat bike from a manufacturer in Eagle.

“The motorized community isn’t saying, ‘This is all we do,’” Benitez said. “The bigger story is you’re getting mountain bikers who also dirt bike, or climb and dirt bike, or fish and dirt bike. That’s important to understand because for so long the motorized community has been seen as separate, and that can lead to feeling disenfranchised.”

Big business

Like OHV use — it’s the third-largest segment of Colorado’s outdoor rec industry, behind snowsports and fishing/hunting, according to the state office — outdoor recreation in the U.S. is more robust than it seems.

In 2015, national nonprofit Outdoor Industry Association released an economic impact study with numbers from 2012. The group found that rec spending was the third-largest driver of consumer spending in the U.S. at $646 million, behind only outpatient health care at $767 million and the leader, financial services and insurance at $780 million.

On a local level, outdoor recreation in Summit County and surrounding mountain communities is just as big — and growing at a rapid clip. In 2015, consumers spent $34 billion on outdoor recreation in Colorado, Benitez said, from ski rentals and lift tickets to raft trips, climbing gear and bikes made in state factories.

Skiing is, by far, the largest segment of Colorado’s outdoor rec industry. A 2015 report from Colorado Ski Country USA and Vail Resorts found major numbers: the industry pumped $4.8 billion into the state economy during the 2013-14 season, generating 46,000 year-round jobs and 12.6 million skier visits. By this past season, 2015-16, skier visits were up to 13.1 million statewide.

“This report confirms the importance of the ski industry to Colorado,” Melanie Mills, president and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA, said in a press release with the report, “both as an economic driver and a globally recognized symbol of our state.”

So long, shoulder season

Colorado’s outdoor rec industry is burgeoning just as the ski industry grows more and more diverse. The alpine touring and backcountry travel markets continue to bloom — and it’s led in large part by young women. From 2014 to 2015, sales of women’s products across the U.S. grew by 4 percent to $1.4 billion, according to SnowSports Industries America, driven by sales of AT equipment, which grew by 87 percent to $2.2 million.

The cross-recreating trend is bigger than product and gear sales. For Chris Linsmayer, public affairs manager with Colorado Ski Country USA, it’s changing how the state’s ski resorts do business. In 2011, former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall co-sponsored the Ski Area Recreation Enhancement and Opportunity Act, which opened the door for year-round activities on the U.S. Forest Service lands where most resorts call home. Vail Resorts was first to embrace the new law with expansions at Adventure Ridge, a mountain-top park with ziplines and more at Vail Mountain. The Broomfield-based company now plans to do the same with Epic Discovery, the new summer park additions at Breckenridge Ski Resort.

“There is clearly a demand for this year-round recreation, and so there’s now more for people to do at these resorts other than just ski,” said Linsmayer, whose group doesn’t partner with Vail Resorts. “This has been a response from our resorts. When they see the demand from people who live there year-round, and then see the same thing from visitors, they (the resorts) want to bring that full experience.”

It’s a relatively new problem for mountain towns and their locals: as more outdoor junkies come to Colorado for year-round recreation, the shoulder season disappears.

“I wouldn’t say that the growth will be crazy and rapid, but summer and fall is where the growth will happen,” Linsmayer said. “Skiing isn’t new to people at this point — we have partner resorts that are 70 years old — but mountain biking and some of these other sports are new to the majority of people. They just haven’t been in the public eye as long.”

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