Ski Industry Statistics 2026: Visits, Participation & Resort Trends

The 2025/26 winter was a western snow drought and an eastern success story at the same time. US ski areas finished with an estimated 53.1 million skier visits, according to the National Ski Areas Association, roughly 8.5 million fewer than the season before. Canada's most recent national count, for 2024/25, was 19.5 million visits and a clear rebound. This report brings the latest verified figures for both countries into one place and explains what each number measures.

Every figure below is labelled by country, season and source. Where Fizel Research has done arithmetic on published data, the calculation is shown and marked. No North American total is built from US and Canadian counts that were collected in different ways.

NSAA's final 2025/26 figure of 53.1 million visits follows 61.648 million in 2024/25, 60.483 million in 2023/24 and the record 65.387 million in 2022/23, according to its historical skier visit series. The drop is large, but it lands close to other low-snow seasons such as 2019/20 (51.1 million, cut short by the pandemic) and 2015/16 (52.8 million).

NSAA reported average national snowfall of 112 inches in 2025/26, well below the ten-year average of 169 inches and the lowest in more than a decade. Every western region finished well below average, while regions east of the Rockies were near or above it. NSAA said operating days declined only modestly despite snowfall about 33% below average, and credited snowmaking and infrastructure.

The regional split explains the national result. In its preliminary May release, NSAA said the Northeast and Southeast each had their second-best season of the past decade, helped by an early start, steady cold and heavy snowmaking coverage, and that the Midwest benefited from colder temperatures. The West had a slow start, rain events and record March warmth.

Set against 2024/25 final regional values, the pattern is stark. The Rocky Mountain region recorded 26.5 million visits in 2024/25 and a preliminary 20.1 million in 2025/26. The Northeast recorded 12.5 million in 2024/25 and a preliminary 12.9 million in 2025/26. Because one side of each comparison is preliminary, Fizel Research does not publish a percentage change for individual regions.

NSAA describes season pass use as stabilizing over the past two seasons after several years of rapid growth. For operators, the mix matters because a pass sold in spring or fall is cash in hand before the first chair turns. A day ticket is bought close to the visit, often after the buyer has checked the forecast.

Case study: Vail Resorts in a low-snow winter

Vail Resorts' April 23, 2026 filing reported interim metrics for its North American resorts from the start of the season through April 19, 2026. Visits fell 14.9% from the prior-year period, but lift revenue, which includes an allocated portion of season pass revenue, fell 5.6%. On-mountain spending that depends on people being there fell harder: ski school revenue was down 12.0%, dining down 11.7% and retail and rental down 6.6%.

The gap between visits and lift revenue is the pass model at work. Pass revenue is committed before the season and recognized across it, so a poor snow year shows up first in lessons, food, rentals and day tickets. The company's June 8, 2026 quarterly release gives the full third-quarter results. An independent hill that sells mostly day tickets has no such cushion, and a multi-mountain operator's results cannot stand in for the 492 areas NSAA counts.

NSAA counted 492 ski areas operating in 37 states in 2024/25, up from 486 the season before and matching 2004/05 as the highest count in two decades. One new area opened (Gateway Parks Eaglewood in Utah) and ten reopened after earlier closures, most of them small community hills. NSAA defines a ski area as an operation with mechanized uphill transport, from gondolas down to rope tows and conveyors.

Reporting US ski areas invested $569.3 million in 2025/26, including 45 new and 52 upgraded lifts, and reinvested about $22.24 per skier visit on average, NSAA said. That followed $624.4 million in the 2024/25 fiscal year, or $21.07 per visit, according to NSAA's 2024/25 industry summary, which described a third consecutive year of elevated investment with lifts as the top category. Both totals cover responding areas only, so they understate industry-wide spending by an unknown amount.

The same NSAA summary states that downhill snowsports generate nearly $60 billion in annual US economic activity and support 533,000 jobs. That is a broad economic activity estimate with its own methodology and base year. It is not a 2025/26 measurement and should not be compared with visit counts or with Canadian impact studies.

Canadian Ski Council research summarized by the Canada West Ski Areas Association puts 2024/25 at 19.5 million Canada-wide skier visits, up 8.6% from 17.9 million in a weather-challenged 2023/24. Canadians skiing at home accounted for 17.4 million of those visits. BC grew about 15% year over year, Ontario 9.7% and Quebec 3.8%. BC and Quebec held the largest shares of national visits at 34.5% and 33.4%.

International visits were still roughly 1 million behind pre-pandemic levels. US guests made up 5.9% of Canadian visits and other international markets 3.2%. The council estimated 2.57 million Canadians actively participated, defined as buying at least one lift ticket, up from 2.4 million the prior year but below the record 2.8 million of 2022/23.

CWSAA is direct about the limits of the headline: skier visit totals do not directly correlate to revenues, because guest origin and per capita spending shape the result. Its 2023/24 economic impact study showed why. Western Canadian visits fell about 15% that season, while estimated economic impact fell only about 2%, to C$2.67 billion, with 21,698 jobs supported.

The 2026 Canadian Skiers Profile Survey, conducted by Ipsos for the Canadian Ski Council, surveyed 1,863 Canadians aged 14 and older who had skied or snowboarded in 2025/26, online from March 9 to 30, 2026, weighted to active skier profiles. Respondents planned an average of 9 ski days for the season: 13 among pass holders and 6 among ticket holders. Two thirds planned between 1 and 9 days.

Cost is the recurring pressure point. Almost half of respondents (47%) said they had stopped skiing for a year or more in the past five years. Among them, the most cited reasons were the rising cost of tickets or passes (28%), lack of time (27%) and the wider cost of living (23%).

The council's 2026 transactional survey gathered 18,653 responses from skiers aged 16 and older after visits to Canadian resorts between December 1, 2025 and April 13, 2026. Overall satisfaction held at 81% and satisfaction with value for the price paid at 64%, both stable. Intention to return fell 3 points and satisfaction with snow conditions fell 5 points, while satisfaction with lift-line waits rose 3 points. The report also noted more respondents buying lift tickets and fewer holding season passes. Because respondents are recruited mainly through ticket purchase emails, the sample leans toward visitors reached by participating resorts.

Globally, the 2026 International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism by Laurent Vanat counts 399 million skier visits in 2024/25, 7.8% above the previous season and 7 million above the prior best of 392 million in 2018/19. North America's two national counts both rose that season, so the 2025/26 US decline comes off a strong global and continental base.

Revenue concentrates in a short window. A season runs roughly from late November to April, and a handful of holiday periods and powder weekends carry a large share of day-ticket, lesson and rental volume. A slow December or a warm March does not average out the way it might in a year-round business.

Weather exposure varies by revenue line. The Vail case shows passes softening lift revenue while lessons and dining followed visits down. Rental counters, ski schools and base-area food and beverage all depend on how many people are physically on the hill.

Value perception is under strain. Canadian survey respondents rate value for money well below overall satisfaction, and cost is the leading reason for time away from the sport. That puts pressure on pricing, bundles and how clearly operators explain what a ticket or pass includes.

Investment keeps going through bad winters. Lift and snowmaking spending stayed high in 2025/26, and NSAA credits snowmaking with keeping operating days close to normal despite a third less snow.

Payment implications

These patterns shape how money moves. Pass sales create large early-season volume months before operating costs peak. Peak weekends compress thousands of small transactions into a few hours at ticket windows, rental counters and cafeterias. Rentals and demos often need deposits or holds, and US and international guests pay with foreign cards. Our guides on payment processing for ski resorts and Nordic centres and payment processing for ski shops cover those workflows in detail, and our ski and snowboard rentals page covers rental counters specifically.

For a wider view of seasonal cash flow across outdoor businesses, see How Seasonality Shapes Outdoor Businesses. Mountain operators can read more on our ski resorts and mountain resorts page, and any ski business can run a peak-season statement through our free statement analysis to see what processing is costing.

NSAA notes that lower-snow seasons have often been followed by stronger ones, and the historical series supports that: after 2011/12 (51.0 million) visits rose to 56.9 million, and after 2015/16 (52.8 million) they reached 54.8 million. Fizel Research does not publish a 2026/27 visit forecast, because the result depends mainly on snowfall that cannot be known in advance. Early signals are mixed: Vail Resorts reported a moderate decline in pass product units through its April 2026 spring sales deadline, which is one company's pass base and not the industry's.

Sources

• National Ski Areas Association, U.S. Ski Industry Reports Visitor Data for 2025-26 Season, May 5, 2026, updated August 3, 2026
• National Ski Areas Association, Historical U.S. Skier Visits by Region, 1978/79 to 2024/25
• National Ski Areas Association, Number of Ski Areas in Operation, 2024/25 U.S. Ski Season
• National Ski Areas Association, State of the U.S. Ski Industry, 2024-25 Season Highlights
• Canada West Ski Areas Association, Data & Metrics for Ski Areas Report, July 2025
• Canadian Ski Council and Ipsos, Canadian Skiers Profile Survey 2026, April 2026
• Canadian Ski Council and Ipsos, Transactional Survey 2026 National Report, May 2026
• Laurent Vanat, 2026 International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism
• Vail Resorts, Ski Season Metrics for the Season-to-Date Period Ended April 19, 2026, SEC filing, April 23, 2026
• Vail Resorts, Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Results, SEC filing, June 8, 2026