The Winter Sport Tourism Product

Winter sport activities. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the focus of this book is on the winter sports of skiing and snowboarding, and as previously noted, there are approximately 120 million ski and snowboarders worldwide, with nearly a third of those coming from Western Europe. Figure 2.1 shows the distribution of skiers and boarders by region of origin. The share of international visitors is less than one sixth of partici- pants, with the international flow of skiers and boarders primarily restricted to Europe. Overseas visitors in the U.S., for example, represented just 3.8 per cent of total skier visits in 2012/13. Although some countries have very few ski areas, they are still, like the Netherlands and the U.K., significant outbound markets, sending around one million skiers and boarders each to the mountains every winter. France, Germany, Japan and the U.S. have the biggest domestic ski and snowboard markets, each numbering between 11.5 and 13 million people. In terms of inbound visits, Austria leads the way, with over 34 million, followed by France with 15 million and Switzerland with 13.8 million. Meanwhile, countries with a high level of participation rates amongst domestic populations include Switzerland (37%), Austria (36%), Norway (25%), and Finland (24%). Interestingly, only 4.3 per cent of the population in the U.S. takes to the mountains each winter. Table 2.1 lists the countries that receive over one million skier visits, along with participation rates as a percentage of their population.