New York ski resorts hope to take advantage of a 2020-21 season that saw them supplant Vermont as the third-largest skiing state and snowboard of the country, behind Colorado and California.
The COVID-19 pandemic was considered a major factor as the appetite for outdoor recreation was strong. Additionally, Vermont’s strict quarantine rules on outsiders crossing the state line may have prompted more people to hit the slopes elsewhere.
Those restrictions have been lifted and the Albany Times-Union reported that the demand for season passes has been high in both Vermont and New York. Some resorts have already sold out passes.
“It’s an incredible success story, in the COVID cloud,” Scott Brandi, president of the I Ski NY trade group, told the newspaper.
New York had 4.2 million visits from skiers last year, while Vermont had 3.5 million. Colorado led the nation with 12 million views, followed by California with 6.75 million.
In New York, the Belleayre Ski Center in the Catskills had 160,988 visits in 2020-21, an 11-year high and more than 12,000 more visitors than in 2018-19, before the pandemic. Most of the ski resorts closed about 30 days before the end of the 2019-20 season.
Belleayre also saw a 180% increase in skiers midweek, possibly as a result of more people working from home and taking days off. Nationally, the percentage of skier visits in the middle of the week exceeded 47%, compared to about 30% during most years, according to the National Ski Areas Association.
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