Slopes around the world are at the peak of their season—packed with travelers seeking higher altitudes and après ski comforts. Visa's international travel platform* revealed the top ski areas for cross-border travelers, and the growing importance of the ski business to the tourism industry overall. One key takeaway: A new demographic of skiers in untapped or nascent markets—especially the Asian emerging markets—is becoming increasingly vital to ski destinations as population aging becomes a bigger factor in global ski travel. Here are the top three trending spots to ski this season based on cross-border arrivals in the fourth quarter of 2017. See the complete list here.
Canada is making its mark behind coveted European destinations. Rising resort areas include Mont-Tremblant (Québec), Banff (Alberta) and Whistler (British Columbia), where you can find alpine, cross-country and heliskiing, anything to suit your speed. Stunning scenery and diverse terrain make it a popular trip for its American neighbors to the south.
With a reputation for some of the best powder skiing in the world, Japan has become a bucket-list favorite among snow lovers. Hokkaido is on the rise, ranking among the fastest-growing ski destinations of the current ski season. International ski travel to Japan has grown in recent years too, thanks to younger skiers from emerging markets like China. Make sure to plan a visit before the relatively short season ends in March.
Family-friendly and friendly on the wallet, Italy offers a fun, chill mountain scene filled with beautiful scenery. Bolzano, a northern city and gateway to the Dolomites mountain range in the Italian Alps, is a top destination.
Worth a visit: Sellaronda, a nearby resort area with a towering view of the Gruppo del Sella, an impressive limestone massif.
Beyond the Trend
Austria’s Pinzgau-Pongau region of the Alps ranked the #1 destination for winter international ski travelers, based on a three-year average. In fact, four of the top 10 destinations are in Austria—home to the popular Kitzbühel resort area. (See the full ranking here). Charming villages, peaceful runs and stein-filled après ski parties give skiers and snowboarders of all levels something to write home about.
Source: Visa Business and Economic Insights analysis; VISIT Cities. Three-year average first quarter 2015-2017 used due to variations in snow conditions from year to year that could impact the relative popularity of a ski destination in a given year.
*Source: The Visa International Travel (VISIT) platform is a proprietary model that combines Visa's cardholder data with publicly-available cross-border arrival statistics. The platform provides a comprehensive view into high-frequency cross-border travel flows, currently encompassing the top 82 origin and destination countries, which collectively account for more than 80 percent of global travel. VISIT combines unique counts of Visa cardholders that register a face-to-face transaction at a merchant outside their home country in a given calendar month with other transaction data such as average spend per cardholder, card usage patterns at lodging merchants and others. Visa uses this data to econometrically model official arrival statistics compiled by various government sources and to generate estimates that fill in the large gaps existing in the cross-border travel data.
VISIT Cities, an extension of the VISIT platform, estimates cross-border travel at the city level within select countries: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands. Visits by city are derived by scaling national numbers using city-level details from VisaNet, such as lodging transaction counts by city and unique cardholder counts at lodging merchants by country.
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