Successful ski season for the United States

Successful ski season for the United States

Last winter season 2010-2011 was as one of the most successful in the history for the ski resorts of the USA. In total last season at the resorts in the USA were recorded 60.1 million visits. Data on the number of tourists at the resorts in the USA were announced at the Conference of the National Association of Ski areas, which was held at the Carlsbad resort, California on 24 May 2011.

The number of visits was only at a stone's throw from the record-breaking 2007-2008 season with 60.5 million visits.

Among the main reasons for such successful season experts note two key points - heavy snowfalls almost at all major ski resorts in the U.S., as well as recovering of the economy, which allowed Americans to increase their spending on holidays.

This year snowfall intensity was 27% higher than last year. Except for resorts in South-West, all other regions showed good growth of the snow mass on its tracks. Record is held by the resorts on the south Pacific coast, where snowfalls increased by 43%, and in the northeast - by 37%. In the Rocky Mountains snowfalls increased by 31%, and in the Midwest - by 26%.

Regional leaders were the resorts of the north-east of the U.S., the part of the country, where successful season was easier to predict. Here, the number of tourists increased by 4%. At the resorts of the Rocky Mountains stayed by 1.7% more tourists than in the 2009-2010 season.

Ski resorts in the USA are one of the most modern in the world. Aspen, Vail, Salt Lake City - all these names are well known to the ski and winter sports amateurs. Resorts regularly host major international competitions. And Salt Lake City was the capital of the Winter Olympics.

Ilya Kalachev

Date: 29/05/2011