The International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism 2020 has been published by Swiss author Laurent Vanat.
The yearly report is an overview of key ski industry figures for the entirety of the ski market covering any nations that have mechanically operated lift systems. The full report is downloadable at the bottom of this blog post, but we have taken some of the data most relevant to us and whilst keeping an eye on other geographies and boiled down the ski data precis for you.
We have placed a copy of the full report for you to download at the bottom of this article.
As an aside from the report the 2019/2020 season will undoubtedly go down in history as the year resorts closed some 6 weeks early due to the lock down measure governments took to stop the spread of COVID 19. International tourism according to statista (see below graph) could see as much as a 50% drop revenue. The silver lining for ski resorts (if there is to be one), is that the year’s revenue is so heavily stacked in winter tourism and resort closures occurred after the peak holiday periods and at the end of the season.
We’re holding our breath for 20/21 but financially at least, the impact across local businesses has not been so severe (as a 50% drop).
Some Good news too… (well that made us chuckle at least)
But it wasn’t all bad news, in this 12th edition of the International Report on Snow & Tourism introduces a new player has entered the game!
The report showed the 72nd country being Nepal as the newest member of the ski family. In the Himalayan village of Kilnchok, they had installed a ski lift and have 1 ski run.
Add to that the resorts only ski instructor and the resorts only snowboard instructor who work alongside the resorts only lift operator all three gentlemen now become our newest brethren in the ski industry तपाईलाई स्वागत छ chaps!
We are now taking offers from brands who would like to get a piece of the action on an up and coming resort!
Kalinchok Kuri Nepal
The lift only has an elevation gain of 15M at an altitude of 3350M
For a 200 metre long ski run!
Next will undoubtedly be a Cocorico apres ski bar – watch this space!
Here is the first known ski vlog to come out of Kalinchok! Its absolutely joyous!
Some useful facts from the report
- The 18/19 season had been globally the best season to date since the inception of these reports in 2004
- There are currently 6 million ski resort beds – concentrated in the main, in the highly ski-industrialised areas
- The Alps accounts for 37% of the markets ski resorts (the US 21% Asia 19%)
- 80% of the major resorts are in the Alps
- Despite the bad press, skier numbers have been stable, the rate of growth has slowed in bigger markets and marginally declined in others but new resorts and emerging ski areas have seen growth
- The French Alps is the largest European ski country with 53 million skier visits
- 19/20 Season will see a 20% decline in skier numbers, in an industry rarely seeing fluctuations of more than 5% this will be the largest fall in trade ever know.
- South Korea has the most skier visits per lift with 31 500 skier visits per lift
- The US boast the most number of skiers with around 25m American skiers
- Lichtenstein with 36% of the population that ski have the highest per capita of ski participation – a great one for your next quiz night
- By resort Arlberg pipped La Plagne for the greatest number of ski passes sold in a ski season
Laurent Vanat is an international expert in ski business and ski resort management. He gained his experience first in Switzerland, benchmarking the largest resorts and starting a comprehensive collection of visitation data in 2004. His work resulted since winter 2004/05 in the Swiss end of season report. In order to benchmark Swiss ski resorts with their fellows in the Alps and North America, the Swiss report initially gave a very short overview of these respective markets.
The demand for international bench-marking data was however growing, as the demand for extending the scope of countries covered. thus, starting in 2009, a broader overview of international ski markets was presented in a dedicated report. the later grew from the initial 7 countries reported in the 2009 issue to 71 in 2018.
Download the full report here
If you enjoy the report please donate here https://www.paypal.me/laurentvanat