visit frequencies and fewer skiers recommending the sport to others. Overall
Guest Experience Metrics: To ana- lyze the guest experience por- tion of the 2024- 25 Kottke Report , I’ll focus on the two most import- ant overall guest experience met- rics: the Net Pro- moter Score (NPS) and the Overall Visit Experience/ Satisfaction score (often referred to as “CSAT” for Cus- tomer Satisfaction Score).
tries, the decline cannot be ignored, and it is not a healthy trend for an industry that seeks to continue growing and had previously enjoyed a decade of scores in the 70s. There will still be varying opinions about how serious this decline is and how the trend can be reversed. This season’s Kottke Report even describes the downward trend as only a “modest decline from peak levels of 70-74 ...” This is a significant understatement, given the decline exceeds 6 points, not 2 or 3. It’s time to conduct a root cause analysis to determine why this is happening, and quickly begin to address the problems the analysis finds. Which regions and ski area sizes depressed the 2024-25 Net Promoter Scores? Loyalty was highest in the Midwest. Regional Net Promoter Scores were 73 for the Midwest, 70 for the Northeast, 69 for the Rocky Mountains, 66 for the Pacific Southwest, 59 for the Pacific Northwest, and 28 for the South- east. Scores for the Southeast and Pacific Northwest have declined steadily since the peak NPS season of 2020-21, by 33 points and 8 points, respectively. One potential reason for the big drops could be the low numbers of participating ski areas and completed surveys. The Rocky Mountain region is also 8 points lower than its peak.
Rockies, Southeast led the decline. According to NSAA, the Rocky Mountain region accounted for 43 per- cent of the national skier visits this past season, followed by the Northeast at 20 percent and Pacific Southwest at 13 per- cent, while the Southeast, Pacific North- west and Midwest each contributed less than 10 percent. To approximate regional contributions to the national NPS declines that occurred between 2020-21 and 2024- 25, we weighted each region’s four-year decline by its percentage of skier visits this past season. Doing so reveals that the Rocky Mountain and Southeast regions were responsible for 3.4 points and 2.4 points, respectively, while the Northeast was responsible for 1 point. The main culprit: extra-large areas. For the ski area sizes, 2024-25 Net Promoter Scores ranged from 69 for the large ski areas to 60 for the medium ski areas, a much narrower range than for the regions. Notably, since 2020-21, the NPS for the extra-large ski areas declined by 14 points, from 80 to 66. This is critical, because the extra-large ski areas account- ed for 55.5 percent of national skier visits last season, dominating the industry. To approximate the contributions to the NPS declines by ski area size, we did ABOVE: The Midwest region led the way nationwide and the Southeast was well below other regions. Source: NSAA Kottke End of Season and Guest Experience Report.
The two metrics measure very differ- ent things. NPS measures guests’ loyalty, that is, their relationship with the ski area, which is queried with the Likeli- hood to Recommend question. NPS is based on all previous visits the guest has made to the ski area, along with all other interactions and communications the guest has had with the ski area, and it requires an emotional engagement. CSAT, on the other hand, is que- ried with the Overall Visit Satisfaction question and measures guests’ overall satisfaction only with their most recent visit. It does not measure guests’ emo- tional engagement with the ski area.
Let’s review scores for these two metrics.
NET PROMOTER SCORECARD As mentioned earlier, U.S. ski areas’ 2024-25 NPS of 66 was unchanged from the prior season and was only one point higher than the 10-year low of 65. For the most recent four seasons, the nation- al NPS averaged 66.25, down more than 6 points from the previous six years’ average of 72.5. Comparing these same two periods, the Promoter percentage declined by more than 3 points, while the Detractor percentage grew by more than 2 points. While the ski industry’s recent NPS remain well above many other indus-
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