Highlighting last winter’s record 7.1 million skier visits and more than 900 inches of snow makes for a nice calling card. On Oct. 5, Ski Utah President and CEO Nathan Rafferty took the opportunity - with representatives from most of the state’s 15 resorts - to share in-person details of last year’s record winter and promote the upcoming season to media representatives in New York City.
As reported, the jump in Utah skier visits last winter was up 22%. Rafferty also bragged to media representatives that after receiving their first snowfall on Oct. 22 last year, Alta averaged 5 inches of snow per day through closing day in late April. The snow was so abundant Rafferty said, “It wasn’t worth getting out of bed unless it was in double digits.”
“That's how I felt. Starting at the end of March, we had so much snow last year, it was just, you can't tell me you weren't in the same position,” Rafferty said. “You know, you see 6 or 7 inches on the snow report. You think, ‘Uh, I don't know. Maybe I'll run some errands today. I'm waiting for that foot again.’”
Even though summer visitation numbers fell this year from previous years, Rafferty doesn’t expect to see the same for winter visits.
“I wouldn’t say in my office, we're expecting to see a lower visitation number – that’s why we're out marketing the state like we do,” Rafferty said. “Certainly, it's been a trend within the industry, just the travel industry in general, where after COVID, there was this massive surge of people wanting to get out and about. So, it wouldn't surprise me but I'm certainly not going to plan on it. And you know, our industry is a little bit different. We’re so dependent on snow, and if we can keep rolling with good snow conditions like we had last year, I think we're going to have another great season.”
Rafferty says the New York reporters were interested in learning more about the record-setting season, the upcoming Olympics, and the expansion of Deer Valley Resort.
Deer Valley Senior Communications Manager Christine Spinkston outlined details about the area's planned expansion that will more than double its terrain with 3,700 additional acres to become one of the largest ski areas in North America.
Over the next decade, Deer Valley plans to install 16 new lifts and a 10-passenger gondola and finish two new base villages – one on the Mayflower side of the resort as well as the planned renovation of the Snow Park base area.
Some of the media outlets she visited with included Travel and Leisure, The New York Times as well as NBC and ABC – a group she says, of very seasoned, top tier media.
“Meeting journalists face to face effectively kicks you up another register,” Spinkston said. “You can really move away from boilerplate rhetoric and have real conversations. So, to be able to face to face with media, speak to the many layers of our expansion announcement, make it digestible and walk them through so they can visualize what they can expect to see when they visit...big news, for sure. But I don't believe it's just a Deer Valley story. It's a Utah story.”
Deer Valley’s expansion, according to Rafferty, will provide exciting news for years to come.