Ski Areas in New Mexico Report 19 Percent Gain in Visits

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09 June 2015

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SAM Magazine—Santa Fe, N.M., June 9, 2015—New Mexico's 11 ski areas saw a 19.4 percent increase in skier and snowboarder visits in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14, to 909,357, contributing to a $98 million increase in local economic activity, according to Ski New Mexico.

The net gain of 176,000 visits, to more than 909,000 total visits, represents the second-highest number for the state in the past decade. Five of New Mexico's 11 ski areas (eight alpine and three Nordic) saw notable increases in visitation; Ski Apache nearly doubled its total. Surveys showed that 65 percent of visitors were from out of state.

Average snowfall in 2014-15 was 136 inches, 12 inches above the five-year average. But snow came early, especially to the central part of the state, and storms dumped a consistent amount of snow every few weeks. That encouraged visitors, especially locals, to head to the hills.

“The perception of snow is sometimes more important” than the total amount, said George Brooks, executive director of Ski New Mexico. “Most people would be surprised there was only 12 more inches of snow overall. But if it snows often, there's that perception of more snow.” Brooks added that resorts have expanded their snowmaking operations and can now offer more consistent conditions between storms.

He also credited the visitation and economic increases, in part, to a partnership with the New Mexico Tourism Department to attract more winter visitors. “We worked very hard to make sure we had a consistent message and fully leveraged the assets available to us through the tourism department. We embraced the campaign and it really paid off,” Brooks said.