Season Update with Kelly Pawlak, CEO of National Ski Area Association (NSAA)

The Ski Moms Podcast

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In this episode, the Ski Moms are joined by Kelly Pawlak, CEO of the National Ski Area Association (NSAA). Kelly walks us through lots of interesting ski industry trends and data. The NSAA gathers data and insights from U.S. ski areas on visits, demographics, and spending. Last season there were 60.5 million skier visits, the 5th best on record, though down 7.5% from the previous year. The Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest performed strongest while the Midwest had a tough season.

The survey highlights an aging skier population and as a result, resorts are focusing efforts on attracting more youth and families. As we often discuss, cost and accessibility can be barriers to getting a family on snow. It was great to learn that ski resorts are spending at record levels, mostly focused on lifts, housing, and infrastructure like snowmaking.

From an industry standpoint, Kelly told us that resorts collaborate well, sharing best practices especially around safety initiatives. The NSAA has annual awards for sustainability, safety, marketing, and converting newcomers to lifelong skiers. The ski population remains majority white, affluent, and intermediate/expert skiers. Sadly, female participation is slightly declining, a trend we hope to see reversed as more and more resorts are led by women.

Kelly recommends that families explore smaller, unique ski resorts and not just the most well known places. As always, we wrapped up learning about Kelly’s perfect ski day which involves skiing hard until lunch, then rel

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