Scottsdale, AZ (Monday, May 23, 2005) - The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced on Friday preliminary numbers of skier/snowboarder visits at U.S. ski resorts for the 2004/05 season and results show that, with an estimated 56.4 million visits, this may be the fourth best season on record. The estimates are based on the Kottke National End of Season Survey, prepared for NSAA by RRC Associates, a Colorado-based research firm. The report was delivered at NSAA’s National Convention and Tradeshow held at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.

A skier/snowboarder visit is defined as one person visiting a ski area for all or any part of a day or night one time. The ski industry has performed strongly in the past five seasons, with the four best seasons, and five of the best six seasons, all occurring during that five-year span. Based on this string of performances, the industry likely appears to have established a new performance range since 2000/01 of approximately 3 million skier visits higher than the previous levels in the 1990s.

With a preliminary estimate of 19.33 million visits, the Rocky Mountain region may have set a new all time record. The Rockies were up 2.4 percent from last season. The Northeast region also gained, up 6.3 percent, while losses occurred in the Southeast (-0.7 percent), Midwest (-3.3 percent), and Pacific West (-13.9 percent), the latter due largely to disappointing winter snowfall. In longer-term context, each region except the Pacific West performed above its ten-year average, including the Northeast (up 5.6 percent), Southeast (up 8.5 percent), Midwest (up 5. 1 percent), and Rockies (3.3 percent). The Pacific West region was down 4.8 percent from its recent ten-year average.

Benefiting from the weakness of the U.S. dollar, ski resorts reaped gains in international visitation this season. The proportion of visitors from Canada rose slightly, to 1.8 percent from 1.7 percent last season, while the proportion of visitors from other countries rose more significantly, to 4.3 percent from 3.8 percent the season before.

Snowboarding participation was flat nationally, at 28.7 percent the past two seasons. To some degree, this plateauing was a function of the reduced influence in the national totals of the Pacific Northwest, which has high snowboard participation. Meanwhile national season pass sales have continued their steady growth, 29 percent over the past four seasons, with the highest growth in the Northeast (55 percent) and Pacific West (47 percent), followed by the Southeast (32 percent), Rocky Mountains (15 percent) and Midwest (14 percent).

The Kottke End of Season Survey tracks key barometers of the snowsports resort industry. Data reflected in the preliminary results reflects participation of 221 of the nation's 491 operating ski resorts. These 221 resorts accounted for approximately 45.9 million skier visits this season. Adjusted final Kottke numbers will be released by NSAA in July.