Utah Skiers’ Year-Over-Year Visitation Down 5% from 2023, Still Up Significantly Over 2022
With 15 ski resorts across the state, Utah’s tourism economy is heavily dependent on winter snowfall totals. Based on that factor alone, business has been good over the past two years, according to new data shared by Ski Utah this week.
The tourism platform reported a slight decrease in skier visits over the 2023-2024 winter compared to the record-breaking 2022-2023 season. The wild 2023 La Ni?a winter saw over 900 inches of snowfall throughout the Beehive State and that number decreased to 628 inches this past season. While the drop represented about one-third of the previous year’s snowfall, skier visits (one person skiing or snowboarding for one day) only dropped about six percent from 7.1 million to 6.75 million.
The overall trend is a positive one for the state’s ski economy, with both seasons producing more visitation (and greater snowfall) than winters that preceded the 2022-2023 La Ni?a. For reference, Utah averages about 500 inches a year and this past winter was widely considered to have been a “slow start” in December and January. The region saw a surge in snowfall after early January though, and four ski resorts, Brian Head, Brighton, Snowbird, and Solitude, stayed open into May. With that late flurry, Utah now has the highest and second-highest visitations in back-to-back seasons.
These numbers are all important because as mentioned, they contribute to a big chunk of the state’s tourism economy. The University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute reported in 2023 that the 7.1 million skier visits during the La Ni?a winter season generated about $2.64 billion in state spending. That accounted for more than 20 percent of the nearly $12 billion in visitor spending generated by tourism in 2022. Meanwhile, just under 100,000 jobs in the state are dependent on tourism (98,600, according to Snowbrains).
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