With ski resorts open for the winter, the Canadian Ski Council says is expecting to see another record number of Canadians hit the slopes this year.
Speaking on the NL Morning News, President Paul Pinchbeck, says skiing and snowboarding have grown in popularity over the past few years, especially among women and new Canadians.
“We created 350,000 new Canadians who want to be on the slopes over the last year and so that is growth that we haven’t seen in 20 years,” he said. “Our research would show that 97 per cent of those people who took up the sport in the last year want to continue. They identify us as a preferred winter activity.”
His organization says total domestic ski hill visits were 18.6 million this past year, up from 17.6 million four years ago. It also notes Ontario and British Columbia both saw a record number of visitors last season, with the two provinces reporting significant increases in both season passes and single-day lift tickets.
Pinchbeck says those increases are largely due to efforts to make the sport more welcoming and affordable, as well as the effects of the pandemic in getting more people outside and active in the winter. That said, he notes the return of international travellers will also benefit resorts like Sun Peaks.
“I would never want to grow our sport at the expense of any other sport,” he said.
“I think there is room for just about everything, whether you’re into dance, you’re into swimming, whatever you were doing before the pandemic that unfortunately you couldn’t, I think there is a place for skiing and snowboarding, and cross country within that mix of what you do as a family.”
Pinchbeck notes the favourable numbers has several ski resorts reviving plans to add new lifts and runs as well as to build new accommodation and retail stores, all of which were put on hiatus at the onset of the pandemic nearly three years ago.
According to data collected by the Canadian Ski Council, the snow sports sector makes around $4 billion every year and provides jobs for more than 70,000 Canadians.
