ASPEN, Colo.—Go figure this. Ski passes have supposedly made skiing very affordable. But the income levels of the core skiers have been rising.
The Aspen Daily News, in an article about the heartburn caused by the Ikon and Epic passes, points to a report by Kelly Pawlak, the president of the National Ski Areas Association. In the winter 2019, edition of the association's magazine, she pointed out that skier days are flat, with fewer than 60 million visits since 2011.
But here's this interesting fact: "About 27 percent of our guests have incomes of $200,000 or more compared to 5.8 percent of U.S. households," the report noted. That's up from 17 percent a decade ago.
In other words, while the U.S. population continues to diversify, customers of ski areas have not. Skiing remains predominantly a sport of affluent white people.
