While being the number one ski destination in USA, Colorado Ski Country Resorts still face many challenges in operation. The main issue is the funding as the Country Resorts is a non-profit organization and it gets no money from the state. They get money from membership dues, pass product sales and their corporate parties. The organization is also facing challenges because of the climate changes. Every ski resort is looking for its own solutions for this problem as it affects the industry a lot.
There are also many other activities that many people prefer to skiing or snowboarding, which makes it more difficult to involve new people into the winter sports, especially the youngest ones. In order to do expansions and introduce new Year Round activities, the Ski Country Resorts have to work in partnership with US forest service and get an authorization for almost every step. This also makes the expansion process slower.
Megan Barber’s article about ski areas agrees that the ski industry, including Colorado Ski Country Resorts, has many issues and challenges to deal with on their way to further development. The author of this article quotes a well-known ski industry expert Bill Jensen who says that “The ski resort industry is facing huge challenges, and at least 150 of the current 470 ski resorts in the United States are going to fail and turn off the lifts” (Barber, 2015). The article proves that there is a great challenge that some ski resorts are facing, and it is mainly because the revenues are constantly declining; climate changes lead to less snow and the investments are minimal (Barber, 2015).
Regardless all these challenges Colorado Ski Country Resorts still holds the first place among all the other US Resorts. It is constantly expanding the operation, introducing Year Round activities and providing free passes to 5th grade children. Let’s hope that the industry will only expand and involve more people into skiing and snowboarding sports.
References
Barber, M. (2015). Ski Industry Expert Says 31% of Today's Ski Areas Are Dying. Curbed Ski. Retrieved 2 March 2016, from http://ski.curbed.com/2015/1/29/9997450/ski-industry-expert-says-31-of-todays-ski-areas-are-dying
