Colorado ski areas set record for visits

Resorts worry about growth despite reaching 12.53 million

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - Colorado ski resorts notched a record 12.53 million visits in the 2005-2006 season, according to Colorado Ski Country USA documents obtained by the Rocky Mountain News. The results, scheduled to be released today, shatter the previous record of 11.98 million set in the 1997-1998 season.

Colorado Ski Country spokeswoman Molly Cuffe said she could not "confirm or deny" the final skier visit count. But she added, "I can confirm that we are very pleased with the results."

As rival resort officials converge to celebrate a banner year, their annual confab will also include plenty of talk about how to keep growing in the face of national trends showing a decline in the number of avid skiers.

"If you look at our results, we are seeing a lot of growth," Vail Resorts Inc. CEO Rob Katz told the News last week. "There's more energy in skiing today than there was 10 or 15 years ago. But are we concerned about wanting to bring more people into the sport of skiing? Yes."

The industry here benefits from local population growth, given that many skiers and snowboarders who frequent Colorado's ski areas live along the Front Range or even closer to the runs. And Colorado, with its abundant terrain and snow, likely continues to take a share of the market from resorts elsewhere.

"Colorado's got the benefit of it's really the premier ski destination in most people's minds," said Michael Erdman, senior vice president at Longwoods International, the Toronto-based research firm that tracks tourism trends and spending for the state.

In addition, many of the larger resorts have poured vast sums of money into their mountains and base areas in an attempt to attract more visitors from outside the state. Skiers who stay overnight spend on average about three times as much money as those who come just for the day.

"Colorado in the medium term can still grow its business because the product from a quality standpoint is superb," said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association.

The state's so-called destination resorts, those that attract overnight visitors with their varied amenities, will likely continue to do well over the next several years, he said.

Still, a report prepared for the National Ski Areas Association predicts the Rocky Mountain region's ski visits will grow just 5.8 percent between last season and the 2019-2020 season, slower than its forecast for national growth of 9.4 percent over the same period.

"Leakage from the core skier and rider base has greatly sabotaged significant growth," according to the report, published in a supplement to the group's Spring 2006 NSAA Journal. "The region must concentrate on creating fewer lapsed skiers."

The report defines "core" skiers as those who have skied every season in the past five years at the intermediate level or better.

The six-state Rocky Mountain region managed to hang on to 71 percent of those skiers in the 2004-2005 season, while the overall U.S. industry retained 74 percent.

That's down from 80 percent nationally in the 1998-1999 season.

Nationwide, those core skiers hit the trails more days, making up for a decline in their numbers. The report's authors singled out that trend as particularly worrisome.

"You can't build an entire industry out of getting increased levels of participation from a diminishing pool," said Nate Fristoe, director at Boulder-based research firm RRC Associates, which compiled the report published recently by the national ski industry trade group.

Fristoe said the aging population looms as a concern perhaps five years or so down the road when the "leading edge of the baby boomers" hit their late 60s.

So far, ski resorts have managed to keep that market involved in the sport. "But we have to set ourselves up with the Generation Y (30 years and younger) market," Fristoe said. "If we don't, we're not going to have that core revenue base."

For well-financed Vail Resorts and its five ski areas, Katz said the main thrust has been to cater to families because that allows it to target a wide range of ages.

"The key thing is obviously doing what we do well and doing it better - making sure the amenities we're providing our guests continue to get better," Katz said.