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Ski Resorts

“Snowboarding is Cool. And You Can’t Fight That.”

By Adam ⋅ March 23, 2008 ⋅ Email this post Email this post ⋅ Print this post Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Denver Post took a look yesterday at Taos’ decision to welcome snowboarders, and the article reveals it was largely - no wait, it was entirely - economics. Among the factoids revealed in the article:

  • The resort is aiming to average 265,000 visits a year, a goal easily attained in the 1990s, when the resort attracted more than 300,000 visitors yearly.
  • Taos is counting on a 12% skier lift thanks to snowboarders visiting the resort.
  • Families who love Taos are taking their business elsewhere because the parents ski while the kids snowboard. Quoth the article: “We don’t go to mountains that don’t allow snowboarding,” said snowboarder J.D. Hutchison, a Pasadena, Texas, parent visiting Taos for the first time with his snowboarding kids. “How can we? You’re hard pressed to get a kid on skis these days. Snowboarding is cool. And you can’t fight that.”

Okay, off this Taos thing for a while.

Discussion

  1. Resorts that don’t allow snowboarding are just… dumb. I met some skiers recently who told me that they believe that snowboarding re-invigorated the ski industry! Of course Taos’s decision was economic ;-)

    Posted by Erica | March 23, 2008, 2:51 pm

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