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Research
It should be cautioned that a small number of large projects (22 percent). Resorts in the Midwest are the most likely to
can heavily impact the numbers, and that not all ski resort issue a daily ticket to passholders (31 percent, vs. 0 to 9 DRIVING SMART DATA ...
capital improvement projects are represented in the data percent in other regions).
(because of non-response to the survey overall, and to the The proportion of resorts using RFID increases with
capital improvements question in particular). size, from 10 percent at the smallest resorts to 45 percent at
the largest. Conversely, small resorts are much more likely to
Season Pass Tracking & Visits issue daily tickets to passholders than large resorts, or to esti-
per Passholder mate pass visits or use “other” methods. Typically, the largest
In a further effort to document ticket accounting patterns, resorts have more capital to spend on ticket scanning equip-
resorts were asked to identify how they track season pass ment and software than do the smallest ski areas. Age: 40 Loyalty Points: 4040
usage (figure 6). This season, 34 percent of responding resorts Given the number of season passes sold (11,065 per
scanned all passholders in line, 27 percent estimated pass resort, up 3.9 percent) and the number of snowsports visits
usage (typically by applying an assumed average days of use generated by those passholders (104,514 per ski area, down
factor), 26 percent used RFID, and 8 percent issued a daily 3 percent), it is estimated that the average season passholder
ticket for passholders. Finally, 10 percent used other counting skied/snowboarded 9.4 days in 2016–17, down from 10 days Name: David Schneider
methods or estimates (such as a daily or seasonal percentage in 2016–17.
factor relative to lift tickets sold, counts at the lifts, or periodic The average number of visits by passholders at any indi-
scanning of passholders). vidual ski area can vary depending on a number of factors,
By region, resorts in the Rocky Mountains are most likely such as season pass price, size of the ski area, and other reasons.
to scan season passes or use RFID (88 percent combined), The accuracy of the count of visits by season passholders has Season Ticket
closely followed by the Pacific Southwest (87 percent) and improved dramatically, as ski areas have been investing in
Pacific Northwest (70 percent), with lower usage in the more sophisticated ticket scanning and tracking technology
Northeast (52 percent), Southeast (31 percent), and Midwest and software.

Figure 4: Average Days Open by Region, 2014–15 to 2017–18; 27-season average

PACIFIC
AVERAGE DAYS OPEN AND OPERATING 142 148 146 Male
ROCKY
PACIFIC
160 OVERALL NORTHEAST SOUTHEAST MIDWEST MOUNTAIN SOUTHWEST NORTHWEST Hometown: Denver
152
140 133 131 132 128 129 128 133 132 133

119 122 125 125 118 125 122
114 112 111
120 115
108 109 107
103
100 97 95 96 95
92 94

80
73
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0
2015–16
2014–152014–15
2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 27-SEASON AVERAGE (91–92 TO 17–18)SEASON AVERAGE (91–92 TO 17–18)SEASON AVERAGE (91–92 TO 17–18)
2015–16
27-
2017–18
2017–18
27-
2016–17
2016–17
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10 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2018
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