SAM Magazine—Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, May 31, 2024—Quebec ski resorts were able to attract more than 6 million skier visits during the 2023-24 season despite serious weather challenges and other obstacles, according to preliminary results from the “23-24 Economic and Financial Study of Quebec Ski Resorts.”

Skier visits were down 10 percent from 2022-23, but the report noted that the previous ski season was the province’s best in 16 years. 

Yves Juneau, president and director general of the Quebec Ski Areas Association (ASSQ), told SAM that the average skier visits for the last decade was 6,045,000, compared to the total of 6,001,793 in 2023-24. “So, we are less than 1 percent below our 10-year average,” he said.

“With this impressive result, Quebec ski resorts demonstrate the capacity for resilience and the population’s interest in practicing winter sports even when Mother Nature complicates the lives of ski lovers and resort operators,” said Juneau.

In addition to a lack of natural snow, Quebec ski areas faced the additional problems of a weakened Canadian economy and a provincial teachers strike.

The report, prepared by Michel Archambault, Ph.D., emeritus professor of tourism at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) School of Management, found that just one region of the province—Quebec City-Charlevoix—enjoyed a year-over-year increase in skier visits in 2023-24, up a mere 1 percent. 

Skier visits were down 8 percent in the Laurentian region, and 10 percent in the Eastern Townships, the report said.

Archambault and colleagues noted that 44 percent of overall ski resort traffic now occurs in January and February, compared to 11.7 percent during the holiday season and 28.6 percent during the March school holidays.

The findings were released during the ASSQ’s 2024 Quebec Ski Areas Annual Conference, held May 27-30 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.

—Reported by Bob Curley