Industry News
Colorado ski resorts operating on public land have once again sent a record rent payment to the US government. Based on revenues collected at 23 Colorado resorts, the 2017-18 rent payment was $26.8 million, the highest ever.
- Related: Record-Breaking Skier Visits Across Colorado Last Year With 5 Areas Also Reporting Record Revenue
It is expected that that figure will continue to rise as resort operators keep selling hundreds of thousands of season passes and further develop all-year round operations.
Last week, Colorado’s US senators again floated legislation that would permit some Forest Service regions to retain fees collected from ski resorts inside their boundaries. The Ski Area Fee Retention Act, proposed last year, would allow land managers in forests to retain as much as 50 percent of the fees it collects from some of the world’s busiest ski areas, including Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Beaver Creek, Copper Mountain, and Aspen Skiing Co.’s Snowmass, reports the Colorado Sun.
“It’s important that our skiing communities don’t just send money to Washington and not fully benefit from fees they generate for the federal government,” a statement explained. “This bipartisan legislation will make it easier for our skiing communities to make the capital improvements they need by keeping the fees they generate.”
Every year, the 122 U.S. ski resorts operating on public land send revenue-based rent payments of about $37 million to the US Treasury.
