An interesting piece from Jason Blevins in the Denver Post today:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2 ... rst-timers
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2 ... rst-timers
Snowboarding numbers are on the decline
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A reference in the same article http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_20569463/
says overall U.S. skier/rider visits fell 16% due mainly to a 41% decline in snowfall from the record high 2010-11 season. I suspect the preliminary Kottke report is out and I'll try to find it.
Whether snowboarding is declining is muddied by the contrasting 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, but in the first article the percentage decline in snowboarding did show up in 2010-11. The snowboard percentage has been essentially flat for almost a decade while overall visitation has been on a rising trend until this year's snow drought. So I don't think a retreat in the snowboard percentage is a big deal for overall visitation or the viability of ski areas in the future.
The article tried to make it sound like teenagers and 20-somethings are the most frequent ski area visitors, which is not true. A Kottke graph several years ago showed visitation by age essentially flat from age 20 to age 47. Snowboarding was a youth fad in the 1990's. Probably a higher percentage of today's youth under 25 ski vs. snowboard than a decade ago.
says overall U.S. skier/rider visits fell 16% due mainly to a 41% decline in snowfall from the record high 2010-11 season. I suspect the preliminary Kottke report is out and I'll try to find it.
Whether snowboarding is declining is muddied by the contrasting 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, but in the first article the percentage decline in snowboarding did show up in 2010-11. The snowboard percentage has been essentially flat for almost a decade while overall visitation has been on a rising trend until this year's snow drought. So I don't think a retreat in the snowboard percentage is a big deal for overall visitation or the viability of ski areas in the future.
The article tried to make it sound like teenagers and 20-somethings are the most frequent ski area visitors, which is not true. A Kottke graph several years ago showed visitation by age essentially flat from age 20 to age 47. Snowboarding was a youth fad in the 1990's. Probably a higher percentage of today's youth under 25 ski vs. snowboard than a decade ago.
Crocker, for the preliminary Kottke numbers check our news from last Monday:
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/2012/0 ... 1-million/
Old news.
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http://www.firsttracksonline.com/2012/0 ... 1-million/
Old news.
Sent from my Android phone via Tapatalk
In the news item re: Kottke 2011-12 is aptly compared to 1980-81. Through mid-January these seasons were similar and only 1976-77 was worse for snow. For the entire season 2011-12 will not look so bad for snow because half of North America's ski regions had average or better snow in the second half of the season. But in terms of impact on visitation, the early season is what is most important.
I now have the preliminary Kottke Report for 2011-12. With regard to the original topic the consistent decline in snowboarding is concentrated here in the Pacific Southwest region where it has fallen from 46.6% to 41.7% in just 3 years. The Rockies are stable at ~25% and the Northeast at just a bit over that.