Industry News
Switzerland’s ski industry has released its preliminary report on 2025-26 skier visits. Seilbahnen Schweiz reported a broadly stable winter, with a strong late-season recovery offsetting what looked, in the early months, like a season heading in the wrong direction.
Seilbahnen Schweiz, the Swiss cable car industry association, released its end-of-season data on May 6, 2026. The association tracks skier visits from its more than 140 member companies and saw the 2025-26 season finish just 2% below the record-breaking previous winter. Measured against the five-year average, which includes a COVID winter, visits were up 13%. The industry is calling the season a success. “Overall, the industry looks back on the winter season with great satisfaction,” Berno Stoffel, director of Seilbahnen Schweiz, stated in the press release. “The desire for the mountain is unbroken.”
A Slow Start, a Strong Finish
The season began badly. Poor snowfall between November and mid-December weighed heavily on early visitation, and Christmas trading failed to make up the shortfall. The natioanl “sports holiday” period in February eventually returned to near last year’s levels, but the first half of the season left a deficit that looked difficult to recover.
The turnaround came in the final stretch. From mid-March onward, visitor numbers surged 28% compared to the same period a year earlier, driven by late-season snowfall followed by an extended period of high-pressure weather. That recovery effectively absorbed the weak start.
April was the standout month. Guest numbers rose 23% year-on-year and 37% against the five-year average, as stable conditions delivered firm morning snow, soft spring afternoons and what operators described as “almost early summer days” on the mountains. Many Swiss mountain railways extended their seasons and organised events through to the last snow, capitalising on demand that would previously have been considered outside the traditional ski calendar.
- Related: Vail Resorts Angers Swiss Locals After Closing Crans-Montana Early Despite Strong Conditions
Altitude Is the Deciding Factor
The season data reinforced a pattern that is rapidly becoming one of the defining features of Alpine skiing. Resorts above 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) held steady against last year’s numbers. Mid-altitude areas between 1,500 and 2,000 meters (4,921 and 6,562 feet) declined by around 3%. Lower resorts below 1,500 metres (4,921 feet) fell 6%, with the first half of the season particularly difficult for areas dependent on natural snowfall.
Snowmaking capacity was the critical variable. Resorts able to open early and maintain consistent coverage through the thin early-season period retained their visitors. Those that could not — typically smaller, lower-altitude areas — lost them, and in many cases did not recover those losses even when natural snow eventually arrived.
The guest structure told a similar story. Destinations with a strong base of overnight visitors — destination resorts where guests have already committed to a multi-day stay — held broadly steady, posting a 1% gain. Areas relying predominantly on day visitors, particularly those near large urban centres, declined 3%. When weekend weather turned poor in March, those day-trip markets evaporated. Destination markets did not.
Regional Differences
The regional picture reflected the altitude and elevation story. Higher alpine regions outperformed lower ones. Valais/Wallis, Vaud, the Fribourg/Freiburg Alps and Ticino/Tessin all closed the season with modest gains against the previous winter. Other regions posted single-digit declines.
Over a five-year horizon, the picture brightens considerably. All Swiss regions finished above their five-year average. Eastern Switzerland was up 3%. Ticino, benefiting from both its altitude and proximity to Italian visitors, recorded five-year growth of 22% — the strongest of any Swiss region.
Smaller Resorts Still Struggling
One shadow falls across an otherwise positive report. Smaller ski resorts were unable to match the peak 2024-25 winter, and Seilbahnen Schweiz acknowledged that for areas without the infrastructure to prepare early through technical snowmaking, difficult winters will continue to present significant challenges.
The trend lines are clear. High-altitude, well-capitalized resorts with strong snowmaking and a diversified guest base are growing more resilient. Smaller, lower-altitude areas dependent on natural snow and day visitors are becoming more vulnerable. A winter like 2025-26 — warm and dry in the first half, excellent in the second — separates those two categories cleanly.
International Comparison
Switzerland’s result stands in notable contrast to other ski nations, such as its Alpine neighbor Austria and the United States (France and Italy have not yet released numbers). According to the Vanat International Report on Snow and Mountain Tourism, Switzerland recorded 26.3 million skier visits in 2024-25 — a record year up 13.7% from 2023-24. The 2% decline in 2025-26 puts this season at approximately 25.8 million visits.
Austria, which has roughly the same population as Switzerland, saw one of its strongest seasons on record with approximately 54 million skier visits in 2025-26 — more than double its neighbor’s total. Meanwhile, the United States, had one of its worst season, with only 52.6 million visits — also more than double Switzerland’s figure, but down 9 million from the previous season, driven by below-average snowpack conditions across the American West. While Austria saw an increase of roughly 4% from last year, America’s skier visits fell by 14.5%.
- Related: Austria Overtakes USA in 2025-26 Total Skier Visits — But the Real Story is Infrastructure, Not Snow
Seilbahnen Schweiz will publish a detailed seasonal analysis with further market breakdowns in August.
