Colorado Ski Country USA announced today its 26 member resorts have maintained their positive momentum while setting their sights on a new year-end industry benchmark. In total, Colorado ski resorts have hosted 8,487,943 skiers and snowboarders, an increase of 119,271 visits, over the same timeframe last year, defined as October 13, 2006-February 28, 2007.

“We are very pleased with our results thus far,” stated Rob Perlman, president & CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA. “The Colorado ski industry set a record last year by hosting more than 12.5 million skiers and snowboarders. It’s been our goal to maintain that growth in an effort to firmly establish a new benchmark for the industry. It is very exciting to see we are one step closer toward achieving that goal.”

In addition to year-end skier visit analysis, the state also uses its five-year skier visit average as another indicator of success and overall growth for the industry. As such, Colorado is more than 720,000 skier visits ahead of its five-year, year-to-date average for this time period. The state has reported a steady three-year growth trend through its second period; further demonstrating the robust momentum of the country’s largest ski state.

“We have approximately two months left in the ski season. We anticipate momentum to continue to build as we enter the spring skiing and riding season,” continued Perlman. “With plenty of sunshine, tons of fun events and great snow conditions, March and April are always two of the best months to enjoy Colorado’s high country.”

The Colorado ski industry represents a significant portion of Colorado tourism, which is the second largest industry in the state. Last season, Colorado’s resorts set an all-time record for visitation with more than 12.53 million skier visits, representing more than 21 percent of the nation’s 58.9 million skier visits.

Skier visits are the metric used to track participation in skiing and snowboarding. A skier visit represents a person participating in the sport of skiing or snowboarding for any part of one day at a mountain resort.
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