Ski Utah’s record breaking 2020-21 season

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. – Ski Utah has released its ski season figures to reveal a record year of attendance despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The 15 Ski Utah resorts recorded 5,301,766 skier days during the 2020-21 winter season.

“At the start of the season, our criteria for success was just to get open and stay open,” said Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah. “There was so much uncertainty in October… but the stations worked really hard over the summer and went ahead, planned, and I think one thing they did really well was work on with local health authorities. “

Many seaside resorts have chosen to close their doors for the 2019-2020 winter season when the pandemic first appeared in our communities; this season was cut short on the weekend of March 14 with 4,392,698 skier days. The 2018-19 season itself was a record year with 5,125,441 skier days.

“Although [the pandemic] cut only a few weeks at the end of this [2019-20] season, these were some of the busiest weeks of the whole year. So it hurt, and we would have been neck and neck with the year before, and I was like, “We had great snow, great economy. How are we going to beat this last year? ‘”

The pandemic associated with a record ski season certainly seems a curious combination. Skiing and snowboarding were safe outdoor outings for locals and tourists alike, especially with the chairlifts operating at 60% capacity, social distancing, masking, and reservation requirements.

The 2021 World Cup in Deer Valley, athletes with their internationally recognized body language: peace, thumbs up, and this year, masks. Photo: United States Ski Team @usskiteam

“While many resorts have seen record seasonal numbers, most resorts in Utah have not seen any individual day records broken. With many skiers working remotely, it is clear that clients were able to enjoy more off-peak skiing, such as weekday afternoon tours or short lunchtime trips to the mountains, ”said Rafferty.

With such a unique season behind us, is that preparing Utah resorts for success or failure? Rafferty and other members of the outdoor industry seem to be thinking on the positive side.

“[Each season] depends on the snow, as always. But I think it sets us up well. I had lunch yesterday with a buddy from the outdoors industry, and they feel like it’s going to be a few bumpy years from where people re-engage in the outdoors. We hope to be able to retain the re-hired skiers and snowboarders.

COVID is still present in our daily lives and will most likely have a lifelong effect on the ski industry when it comes to safety and crowd control.

“If we were successful last season, I think we can do anything,” said Rafferty. “[The resorts] figured out which protocols worked, what didn’t. We may see some of these reservations persist. Snowbird said they were going to make limited parking reservations because they had a lot of people who really liked that they could get up at 10am with their family and get a parking spot. You might find it while dining. There have been a lot of technological innovations that have been forced into resorts that I think are going to stick around and reduce some of the friction, whether it’s buying a ticket, signing up for classes. or get your rentals. I think they’re going to really think about what’s left and what’s going and just stick with the things that are going to really improve the customer experience.

Rafferty himself has had a record year, topping his typical season by 40-50 days to over 65 days.

“I had a goal this year. I have skied on all the chairlifts in the state of Utah. I had to have a list to work on, and it was 133 chairlifts. I put up chairs that even in my backyard, you know, at Canyons that I had never climbed before.

Rafferty also claims a huge help to this year’s success: the cooperation and support of the Utah Tourism Board. “We met every week during the pandemic to shape our message with everything that was going on that week with the pandemic and sweeten the message to say, ‘when you’re ready to travel, we’ll be here and ready, open and safe. We were trying to think about messaging, but the important thing is that we didn’t turn off messaging. A lot of states have gone completely obscure and said, “We don’t know what’s going on or we’re not going to invite anyone here,” and I think Utah has done the right thing. This has given us a head start over some of our competition.



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