Robert Spendlove
Anyone who’s zoomed down an uncrowded ski slope on a bluebird day with a $28 lift ticket dangling from their coat zipper knows the nostalgia of skiing Utah in the 1990s.
Thirty years ago, a daily lift ticket at one of Utah’s resorts cost roughly $25 to $50. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $53 to $105 — far less than today’s typical ticket prices, which average about $180 a day for an adult pass. Back then, canyon traffic gridlock and long lift lines were the exception, not the rule.
In the past 20 years, however, the number of skiers and snowboarders visiting Utah resorts has doubled, from 3.4 million visits in the 2002-03 season to 7.1 million visits in the 2022-23 season, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Utah’s resorts have grown and evolved, too, adding amenities, high-speed lifts and gondolas, terrain expansion and summer recreation offerings.
While this snowballing growth has fundamentally reshaped the skiing and snowboarding experience in the Beehive State, it’s also given Utah and its residents an enormous economic lift.
Visits to Utah’s ski resorts rose 70 percent from the 2010-11 ski season to the 2022-23 season. During the same period, spending by out-of-state visitors coming to Utah to ski and snowboard nearly doubled. Visitor spending grew from $990 million during the 2010-11 ski season to $1.94 billion during the 2022-23 season. This spending generates annual state and local tax revenue of nearly $200 million, according to the Gardner Institute.
Utah’s 15 ski areas directly support nearly 26,000 jobs, while the industry indirectly supports jobs in a wide range of sectors, including, retail, hospitality, transportation and marketing and sales.
Harder to quantify are the indirect benefits a robust ski and snowboard industry lends to the economy, such as encouraging real estate development and attracting workers and business to Utah.
When Salt Lake City hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 2002, it generated billions of dollars in economic output and elevated the state on a global scale. The 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will only amplify the economic impact of Utah’s winter sports industry. Gardner Institute Director Natalie Gochnour has likened the economic impact of hosting the Olympics to hosting the Super Bowl every day for 17 days.
The Gardner Institute estimates the 2034 Games will bring $2.6 billion in net spending directly to the state. This will generate $6.6 billion in total economic output, nearly $3.9 billion in Utah’s gross domestic product and more than 42,000 job-years of employment.
With Utah’s population projected to reach 4 million in the next decade, growth and a changing climate will bring changes to the ski and snowboard landscape. Utah’s winter sports industry will continue to play an important role as they meet these challenges and carve out new opportunities.
Robert Spendlove is the senior economist for Zions Bank in Salt Lake City.