Utah ski resorts set new record with 5.3 million skier days despite pandemic

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Utah ski resorts recorded a record 5.3 million skier visits in the most recent winter. Officials say the surge was sparked by local traffic and was likely fueled by people’s desire for outdoor leisure activities during the pandemic.
Park Record File Photo

In a year of firsts, here’s another for the record books: Skiers and snowboarders hit the slopes of Utah more than 5.3 million times last winter, eclipsing the previous record set in the winter 2018-2019 and surpassing last season’s mark of nearly one million visits. .

That’s according to a report released recently by Ski Utah, a marketing group funded by the state’s 15 ski resorts.

Emily Summers, a spokesperson for Deer Valley Resort, said the resort has seen more visits from locals, more season pass purchases and more use of those passes. But before the start of the season, setting visitation records was far from the minds of Utah ski resort officials as the coronavirus pandemic has created uncertainty for the industry.



“We started the season with two goals. Well, that was a goal: to stay open and keep the staff employed, ”Summers said.

Deer Valley did, as did Park City Mountain Resort, and contributed to Utah’s record season. Summers did not disclose details on the number of skier visits to Deer Valley, but said the year was a success.



“It has been a very strong season for us,” she said.

The number of visits to Utah ski resorts set a new record, despite the pandemic.
Graphic by Louise Mohorn

A spokesperson for the PCMR in a prepared statement said the station was grateful to its employees, guests and the community for making the season a success.

“Their love of the sport and their shared commitment to safety, day in and day out, kept us open from the first day of the season until the closing day,” wrote Jessica Miller, spokesperson for the PCMR. “It’s exciting to see the numbers for Utah skiers reflect this passion for our industry.

Miller did not share the PCMR visit numbers. Instead, she referred to the third quarter earnings report from PCMR owner Vail Resorts, which indicates that Vail Resorts’ season ticket sales in 2020 were up 20% from 2019.

Ahead of the season in Deer Valley, officials saw strong sales of local ski passes, Summers said, but still weren’t sure exactly what kind of season it would be.

“It’s surprising, isn’t it?” Summers said of the record. “At the start of the season, we attract a lot of destination skiers. So yes, we were worried. We had no idea what to expect. “

There weren’t as many people traveling to ski during the pandemic, Summers said, but the number of people visiting Deer Valley from Utah has increased, especially earlier in the season. And once March arrived, skiers began to travel further afield.

Summers added that the resort has experienced constant footfall and not the peaks and valleys at peak times that are a normal season. Nationally, weekday ski resort visits jumped 27% from the previous season, accounting for 48% of total visits, according to the National Ski Resort Association.

The trend in Deer Valley and the resorts of Utah matches what the association has identified as a national theme of skiers staying closer to home. According to the association, there were 59 million ski visits to the United States last season, the fifth best year on record since the late 1970s. It was the second highest number of visits to the region. Rockies, the association reported, an area that includes Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, among other states.

A skier makes a turn during the pandemic-influenced ski season in December, one of the 5.3 million record skier visits to Utah last season.
Park Record File Photo

Officials speculated that a renewed emphasis on outdoor recreation and the flexibility to work remotely amid the pandemic helped make skiing a record year in Utah. But locals and season pass holders aren’t as lucrative for ski communities as tourists who travel to town, stay in hotels, and eat most restaurant meals.

And the record set on the trails didn’t necessarily translate directly into local government coffers, said Matt Leavitt, Summit County chief financial officer.

“Room and restaurant tax revenues for the county were down in 2020 compared to 2019 (10.7% and 18.0% respectively),” Leavitt wrote in an email to The Park Record. “So we can infer that people who visited the county didn’t stay in hotels or eat $ 22 cheeseburgers.”

He said incomes had not fallen as much as officials had expected in the early days of the pandemic.

A recent presentation from the Park City chamber / office to the county council said much the same. Winter occupancy of accommodation establishments in the region was down 7% from the previous year, but down 25% from 2018/2019, the last pre-pandemic ski season and the previous one. record holder for the most skier visits.

This is consistent with information in the Vail Resorts revenue report, which indicates that revenue lags behind non-ski pass sales.

Food and beverage sales, as well as ski school revenues, have been hit particularly hard by COVID-related constraints, the report says.

Despite the challenges of operating a ski resort during a pandemic, most resorts remained open throughout the season, which officials counted as a victory. And Summers saw this past season as a boon to the sport itself as people searched for a safe way to escape the containment induced by the pandemic.

“If people get back to it during times of COVID and there are these passes where maybe their local hill is on it and maybe their dream resort in the west is there, maybe be that they will visit in the future. I don’t know, it’s hard to say, ”Summers said. “I think skiing has worked really well in very uncertain times and it shows that outdoor recreation was what people were looking for during this crazy year.”


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