Cross Country Ski Consumer Sentiment
Overview
This past winter, due in part to COVID, more people looked to outdoor activities as a way to change routines, get some exercise and spend time with friends. Snow Sports Insights and the Cross Country Ski Areas Association surveyed a panel of cross country ski participants to better understand their off season activities and thoughts about their favorite ski areas and brands.
Summer Activities
Hiking is the most popular non-snow activity for cross country skiers but walking, road biking, camping and wildlife viewing are not far behind. Knowing what the consumer enjoys when they aren’t on snow can help find and engage them year round.
How Do Cross Country Skiers Describe Themselves?
In the past years, when measuring perceptions about cross country skiing, we found that many potential participants were shying away from cross country skiing because they thought it was all about aerobic insanity and spandex. These results show us how wrong that perception was, most cross country skiers just love being outdoors. They are casual, intellectual, animal lovers who like to collect experiences. Ski areas should provide those experiences including backcountry education or activities like plant and wildlife identification in a casual outdoor environment during the summer months.
What do cross-country skiers say about their favorite ski areas?
They really appreciate good grooming, varied and challenging terrain, good snow, and have we mentioned grooming?
The following word cloud was produced by responses from 1,215 cross country skiers who had just named their favorite cross-country ski area. The larger the word in the cloud, the more times it was mentioned. This may help you decide where to invest, and according to cross country skiers, it’s all about the grooming.
How Would You describe Your Favorite Apparel Brands?
The following word cloud shows words respondents used to describe their favorite brands. Words like quality, functional, fun and warm were the most prevalent.
For More Information
Looking for more details or a more detailed conversation, please contact us, we love to discuss cross country ski data.
CCSAA – Reese Brown – 802-236-3021 – [email protected]
SSI – Kelly Davis – 301-785-2490 – [email protected]
