The COVID-19 pandemic shook up the ski industry. In the spring of 2020 when ski resorts shut down early for safety reasons, the industry was in a state of gloom. The next season saw resorts open, but with many restrictions including mask wearing, social-distancing on lifts, and outdoor dining. Nobody quite knew if skiers would show up to the slopes like in a normal year. Well, the numbers are out and Utah skier visit numbers are surprising.
A Record-Breaking Year
On Tuesday, Ski Utah released the final tally, which revealed that the 2020-21 winter season was record-breaking in many respects for all 15 Utah resorts, despite COVID-19’s impact. Utah ski resorts saw a total of 5,301,766 skier days in the 2020-21 winter season. That’s a full 3.44% increase over the previous record-breaking season of 5.13 million skier days in the 2018-19 season.
“Going into the season, our metric for success was simply getting open and remaining open,” said Nathan Rafferty, President of Ski Utah. “However, throughout the season it became clear that skiing provided a respite from the day to day realities of the pandemic and allowed an option for guests to safely socialize outside. Our resorts came together to implement a variety of COVID protocols that allowed each of our resorts to not only remain open through the end of the season but also break our existing Utah skier day record. While 2020-21 looked different in terms of guest experience, it was our best year yet”.
With strict COVID-19 safety protocols, including capacity limitations and reservations for several mountains, many may wonder how this record-breaking skier day number was achieved. “While many of the resorts saw record-breaking seasonal numbers, most of Utah’s resorts did not see any individual day records broken. With many skiers working remotely, it’s clear that guests were able to enjoy more off-peak skiing, like weekday afternoon visits or short lunch time trips to the mountains,” said Rafferty. “In addition, Utah benefits from a variety of multi-resort season passes that allow locals and visitors alike to spread out their skiing across all 15 resorts throughout the state, rather than flocking to only a few resorts.”
To put Utah’s record-breaking season in perspective, here’s a chart from Ski Utah outlining skier visits from the last 10 years.
Season | Skier Days* | All-Time Rank (Last 10 yrs.) |
2020-21 | 5,301,766 | 1 |
2019-20 | 4,392,698 | 5 |
2018 – 19 | 5,125,441 | 2 |
2017 – 18 | 4,145,321 | 8 |
2016 – 17 | 4,584,658 | 3 |
2015 – 16 | 4,457,575 | 4 |
2013 – 14 | 4,148,573 | 7 |
2012 – 13 | 4,018,812 | 10 |
2010 – 11 | 4,247,510 | 6 |
2009-10 | 4,070,822 | 9 |
For more information, visit skiutah.com