Aggregated mountain lodging revenues at 19 participating resorts in six western states are poised to eclipse the record business levels of the pre-recession 2007-08 season, according to the most recent data released by Denver-based DestiMetrics.

At the current pace, revenues will end the season up more than 10 percent over last year and 4.6 percent above the pre-recession record established in the 2007-08 season. As of Jan. 31, 97 percent of total revenues received last season have already been collected or are reflected in reservations made through the end of the season.
 

When the Alpine world ski championships came to the United States this month for the first time since 1999, the 13-day event was quickly defined by two competitive challenges taking place simultaneously.

Could American ski racers back up their strong performance at the 2014 Sochi Olympics with another convincing showing, even with the worldwide ski community watching more closely than ever?

Avid skiers and snowboarders wait all year for snow to fall in the Rockies, but this season is already proving to be a bust.

Unusually warm weather is creating poor conditions in Western Canada and is leading to the closure of some ski resorts in Alberta and B.C.

Castle Mountain, near Pincher Creek, Alta., stopped its chairlifts and shutdown for the rest of the winter.

Other resorts, including Mount Washington on Vancouver Island and Hemlock Valley Resort in B.C., are also closed because of warm weather, heavy rain and negligible snow.

The state of the ski and snowboard industry in the United States is that it's changing.

Some of that change is good, some bad, but overall the industry has serious challenges ahead, including climate change, an aging customer base and aging infrastructure, to name a few.

Industry leaders gathered at the Colorado Convention Center on Wednesday for The Assembly, an unofficial kickoff to the annual Snowsports Industries America Snow Show, which features panel discussions and interactive sessions about the ski industry's place in the larger tourism industry. The Denver mountain resort research firm DestiMetrics hosted the event.

Steamboat Springs visitors Erica Fischer and John Ihrig sat on the deck of their vacation rental condo taking turns slowly inhaling marijuana vapor from a plastic bag.  Loaded in their vaporizer is a strain of weed called StarDawg.

"You're going to be so stoned," Fischer said to Ihrig. Ihrig exhaled.  "That's why it's there," he said.

As gondola cars flew by overhead headed to the top of Steamboat Ski Area, it was clear that recreational marijuana in this little ski town was quietly prospering. "It's an amenity, is exactly what it is," Ihrig said. "Like when you go to a hotel and it has a hot tub, it's an amenity."

According to preliminary estimates released by Visit Florida, 97.3 million visitors came to the Sunshine State in 2014, an increase of 3.9 percent over 2013 and the fourth consecutive record year for visitation. The number of direct travel-related jobs in 2014 also hit a record high, with 1,135,700 Floridians employed in the tourism industry, up 3.6 percent from 2013.

Visit Florida estimates that 11.5 million overseas visitors and 3.8 million Canadians came to Florida in 2014, both of which are record highs and represent 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent increases over 2013, respectively.
 

A day before it reveals its fourth quarter earnings, HomeAway announced it will launch an integrated marketing campaign next month that's geared to show it is not Airbnb, and it is not targeting millennials.

"As we've gone through that soul searching about what the company is I'd say the general conclusion we've come up with is that we decided it's more profitable for us to target being a better us than being a worse them," HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples tells Skift.