Skiing Facilities NAICS 713920

Oct 27, 2025 - Price Sensitivity Shapes Outlook for Western Ski Resorts

• Western ski destinations are seeing modest growth amid heightened consumer price sensitivity, with winter occupancy on-the-books down just 0.2% year-over-year and daily rates up 2.3%, according to latest data from Inntopia’s DestiMetrics, as reported in Ski Area Management. While summer revenues rose 3.1%, similar trends are expected for winter, driven by rate flexibility rather than volume. A notable 10.1% year-over-year increase in booking pace during September for arrivals in September through February signals potential upside for ski resorts that remain agile. However, economic uncertainty and weather remain critical variables that could shape final outcomes. The DestiMetrics lodging data covers 28,000 lodging units in 17 Western mountain communities across seven states.
• Consumers are signaling sustained economic unease, an outlook that may challenge discretionary sectors like skiing facilities, as both confidence and sentiment indexes remain at multi-year lows amid persistent inflation and job concerns. In September 2025, the Consumer Confidence Index from the Conference Board fell to 94.2, with job optimism down and inflation expectations high. Buying intentions dropped for cars and travel, while interest in homes and smartphones rose. Confidence declined across most age and income groups, especially among households earning $25,000–$35,000 and over $200,000. The consumer sentiment index held at 55 in October 2025 from the previous month, and was down 22% year-over-year, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. Overall, the data signals cautious consumer sentiment, which could dampen spending heading into the holiday season.

• Labor costs for the skiing facilities industry were mixed in July 2025, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Average wages for the industry were $27.94 an hour in July 2025, a 1.2% decline from the previous year. In the past three years, wages have grown by 21.4% for the industry, higher than the overall private wage growth of 13.4%. Skiing facility industry employment grew 3.9% in July 2025 compared to a year ago, per the BLS. In the last decade, industry employment grew 48.5%, much faster than the 13% growth in overall private employment.
• The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced visitation of nearly 61.5 million skier visits for the 2024-25 season, a 1.7% increase over the previous season and the second-highest visitation on record. The numbers are preliminary, as several ski areas have extended their seasons. Per the NSAA announcement, “Several years ago, we set an ambitious goal of reaching a three-year rolling average of 60 million skier visits. We’ve now surpassed that benchmark for four consecutive seasons. While weather will always be unpredictable, this year was less volatile overall, and nearly every region saw solid snowfall.” The 2024-25 visitation figure was about 6% lower than the record-setting season of 2022-23. One of the NSAA’s six regions posted record skier visits during the season: the Pacific Northwest region (4.7 million). In addition, the number of operating ski areas grew to 492 from the previous season’s 484.