The 2025 global snow and mountain tourism report from the Mountain Planet trade show reveals something interesting: the ski tourism industry held up pretty well during the 2023/2024 season. With a staggering 366 million skier days clocked worldwide, it seems the sector is keeping pace with its post-COVID comeback—no noticeable drop since the pandemic hit.
A Steady Season with Global Reach
During the 2023/2024 season, there were exactly 366 million skier days—a figure that fits snugly into the 20-year global average and hints that things are mostly back to normal. The report casually throws out numbers like 5,898 ski resorts spread over 68 countries, with roughly 730 of those logging over 100,000 skier days each year. Interestingly, about 73% of all skiing happens in just 13% of these spots, really showing how a few major hubs dominate the scene.
Top Players and Emerging Markets
Generally speaking, the United States leads the ski tourism industry with around 60 million skier days; right behind are France with about 54 million and Austria with nearly 50 million. Then you have Italy, Japan, Switzerland, China, Canada, Sweden, and Russia rounding out the top ten. Italy even broke attendance records, thanks to stellar snow conditions and high demand, while China enjoyed a solid boost in its first season free from health restrictions. Over in South America, the boom was driven mainly by decent snow. At the same time, France and Austria saw small declines, still below their pre-COVID five-year averages, whereas Germany and Japan experienced more noticeable drops. Meanwhile, new resorts popped up in places like Armenia, China, and the Czech Republic, marking an interesting global spread in ski tourism.
American Skiers Flock to Europe
One curious trend is that more Americans are packing their skis and heading over to Europe, especially the Alpine regions. French resort operators are even mentioning a clear spike in U.S. visitors—apparently, many are fed up with high prices and less-than-ideal slopes in the American Rockies. For many skiers on the East Coast, taking a trip across the Atlantic seems to work out cheaper than sticking with domestic options. Still, most markets appear to stay local—around 80% of French skiers, for example, are native to France.
Economic Pressures and Price Increases
Of course, the industry isn’t without its bumps. Over the past couple of years, prices for ski passes and services have jumped somewhere between 13% and 19%, especially in Europe where higher energy costs are doing their bit. This price surge could, in most cases, make skiing less accessible for those pinching pennies, and it might even chip away at long-term turnout.
Climate Change: A Supply-Side Challenge
Climate change is definitely reshaping the ski scene, but mostly on the supply end rather than messing with demand. Global warming has trimmed the number of opening days and forced some of the smaller, more isolated resorts to close shop—even so, overall skier numbers haven’t taken a severe hit. In fact, where attendance has dipped, it’s more often linked to price hikes than to any direct climate effects, which shows that people still have a strong appetite for hitting the slopes.
Opportunities for Improvement
The report doesn’t shy away from pointing out where the industry is lagging. Many resorts are still behind the curve on digital services, whether that’s online booking or improving the overall guest experience. Also, consolidation in the European market has been slower than many had hoped, limiting the benefits of scale and making it tougher to boost operational efficiency.
Looking Ahead
When you look at the overall picture, the steadiness of the global ski tourism industry in the 2023/2024 season really emphasizes its resilience—especially with stellar performances coming from markets like Italy and China. Still, rising costs, the pressures of climate change, and the clear need for digital upgrades are challenges not to be ignored. With more American skiers now eyeing European slopes for better deals and fresh resorts opening in unexpected places, it’s clear that the industry will have to keep balancing growth with long-term sustainability. Keeping ski tourism attractive means dealing with a few bumps along the way. Addressing these issues head-on can help the scene stick around in a world that just never stops changing.
