Colorado’s ski industry is eyeing East Asia in a bid to grow international skier visitor numbers.
For the first time, representatives from Colorado Ski Country USA have gone to Japan, meeting twice this year with tour operators and journalists.
They persuaded two major Japanese travel wholesalers to begin selling trips to Vail and Aspen this winter, said Sue Baldwin, vice president of international business development at the industry trade group.
“Japan is our No. 1 focus, with markets like Korea and China coming after that,” she said. “We see the opportunity to grow the skier numbers from those countries exponentially over the next five to 10 years.”
Aspen Skiing Co. and Vail Resorts Inc. – which each own four ski resorts in Colorado – are also upping their Asian marketing and sales efforts.
Both companies have sent sales representatives to Japan and China in the past year. And last month, Vail Resorts had a booth at the major China International Travel Mart in Shanghai for the first time.
A record-breaking 12.53 million skiers and snowboarders hit Colorado slopes last winter, up from 11.81 million the previous year. The industry is working hard to top that number this winter – and is hoping the still weak U.S. dollar will continue to boost international skier visits.
Two winters ago, the weak U.S. dollar helped propel a 28 percent increase in international skier visits, with an additional 200,000 foreign skiers and snowboarders coming to Colorado’s 26 ski resorts. Last winter, international skier visits increased another 8 percent.
Jimi Omori, owner of Ski America in Frisco, has been organizing Colorado trips for Japanese skiers and snowboarders since 1998. Business slowed dramatically after peaking in the mid-1990s, but has rebounded in the past two years, he said.
Last winter, he brought 625 Japanese skiers to Colorado. This winter, he projects that number will top 700.
“It’s not about instant results,” said Omori. “But if they keep doing all this, we are going to see more (Japanese) business coming to the Colorado resorts.”
Everyone agrees that a major factor in growing foreign skier numbers is adding more direct international flights into Denver International Airport. The industry got good news last month when German airline Lufthansa announced it will begin daily nonstop service to Munich from DIA in late March.
Colorado Ski Country is working with the airport, the Colorado Tourism Office and local and state economic development officials to secure a direct flight from Tokyo in the next three to five years.
“A nonstop flight is obviously the key” to growing Asian ski business, said Baldwin. “Our goal is to get in there and start selling the market before a nonstop flight would start.”
China is an extremely attractive market because of its population size. Skiing as a sport is growing in popularity there thanks to a burgeoning middle class. Today, roughly 5 million of the country’s 1.3 billion residents ski, according to Vail Resorts.
In comparison, roughly 1.3 million of the United Kingdom’s 60 million residents ski. The UK is Colorado ski resorts’ largest international market.
“We’re certainly very interested in the potential of (the Chinese) market,” said Aspen Skiing spokesman Jeff Hanle. Aspen and Snowmass are being featured on Air China’s in-flight video for the second winter in a row.
Intrawest, which owns Copper Mountain Resort and manages Winter Park Resort in Colorado, said earlier this year it was interested in purchasing up to six Chinese ski resorts.
Vail Resorts and Aspen Skiing also are targeting affluent Russian skiers by sending representatives to Moscow and hosting Russian travel agents and journalists here in Colorado.
Vail Resorts said it considers Russia an attractive market because the country’s peak winter travel time is January, a slower time for destination skiers in Colorado.
“We know that they like to travel to upscale resorts and that they’re spending a lot of money,” said Bob Stinchcomb, director of sales for Vail Resorts. “And almost as important, they travel during a time period when, to be honest, we need the business.”
And some Colorado companies are going the other direction. Babes in the Backcountry, a Breckenridge-based group that teaches women outdoor skills, is organizing a trip that will take American skiers to Japan in February.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-954-1592 or at jdunn@denverpost.com.
