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Kottke 2015–16
End of Season Survey
Final Report Details Causes & Effects of Regional Variations
BY DAVE BELIN, RRC ASSOCIATES
A s has been well documented and discussed at with some of the most critical information from that report,
national, regional, and state-level conferences and which is available from NSAA.
meetings, the 2015-16 winter season was a season of highs
and lows in different regions of the country. The total down- Downhill Snowsports Visits
hill snowsports visit final figure of 52.8 million obscures
some significant regional variation. The top line number from the Kottke report that garners
the most attention is downhill snowsports visits. The 2015-
The Kottke National End of Season Survey, which out- 16 season notched 52.8 million visits, down 1.5 percent from
lines the performance of US ski resorts, is sponsored by 2014-15’s 53.6 million visits (figure 1).
NSAA, with the contribution of information from individual
ski resort companies. The Kottke Final Report, prepared by Visits were up strongly in the Western half of the coun-
RRC Associates, documents the key indicators and metrics try and down in the East (figure 2). The biggest rebounds
related to US ski areas, including total downhill visits, snow- from a poor 2014-15 season were witnessed in the Pacific
fall, days of winter operations, lessons, method of tracking Northwest (up 110.3 percent) and Pacific Southwest (up
season passes, non-snowsports activities, capital investment, 55.1 percent), while the Rocky Mountain region had its
and many other subjects. best season ever in terms of snowsports visits (up 7.3 per-
cent). The performance in these three regions offset the
While preliminary results were reported in the sum- difficult season for ski areas in the Eastern half of the coun-
mer 2016 issue, this article presents the final figures, along try; large losses were experienced in the Southeast (down
18 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2016
