Skiing heavily relies on specific weather and environmental conditions to make participation both feasible and enjoyable. The lack of published research on the relationships among ski activity, weather, and climate is, therefore, surprising, especially in light of mounting evidence regarding climate change. The analyses of the influence of daily weather variations on daily ski lift ticket sales at two Michigan ski resorts presented here appear to be the first of their kind. Results suggest that weather variables such as minimum and maximum temperature, snow depth, and wind chill do indeed have a statistically significant impact on downhill ski lift ticket sales. The regression models developed could be used by outdoor recreation and tourism providers for both short-term decision making and longer-term planning and management activities, in particular those involving consideration of climate change and potential adaptation strategies.
Understanding of the nature of the relationship between weather conditions and participation in outdoor recreation and tourism remains relatively limited, despite the need to better comprehend these dynamics in order to prepare for the implications of projected increases in climate variability and climate change. This study addressed this gap through quantification of the relationships between daily weather conditions and leisure traffic activity throughout the US state of Michigan. Using a double-log model, daily leisure traffic counts were regressed against three sets of independent variables—weather conditions, economic conditions, and the availability of leisure time—across the four seasons. Daily maximum temperature had a statistically significant, positive effect on tourism traffic in spring, summer, and fall, with a slightly less pronounced impact in winter. Precipitation, in contrast, had a minimal impact on leisure traffic in spring, summer, and fall, but a negative impact in winter. These findings have implications not only for the current management and marketing of Michigan outdoor recreation and tourism providers, but also for the potential adaptation strategies they might consider adopting under conditions of climate change. In order to best capitalize on the opportunities presented by the changing climate, providers are advised to consider factors such as changing season length and diversification into additional, year-round activities and facilities. For winter sports providers, the ability to make snow will become increasingly critical.
Weather conditions often have an important influence on participation in recreation and tourism (R&T) activities, and many activities require specific sets of weather conditions to make them enjoyable or possible. Despite the intuitive nature of the relationship between weather and R&T participation, this topic has received little attention in the academic literature. This is even more surprising given increasing recognition of the likely implications of climate change for R&T activities. In light of this lack of research, the purpose of this article is to describe the development of a daily model of leisure traffic activity for a location within the US state of Michigan. Specifically, the model allowed investigation of the impacts of three sets of factors-weather conditions, economic conditions, and the availability of leisure time-on daily leisure traffic counts across the four seasons. Experimentation with a series of five functional forms revealed that a double-log formulation best fit the data. As expected, temperature had a statistically significant, positive effect on tourism traffic in spring, summer, and fall. Precipitation did not influence leisure traffic in the spring and summer seasons; in fall, however, a significant negative effect was detected, and this effect was even stronger in winter. The availability of leisure time had a highly significant, positive impact on daily leisure traffic. These findings have important implications for the providers of recreation and tourism opportunities, enabling them to model projected changes in leisure traffic with short-term and longer term variations in key variables such as temperature and precipitation. For example, destinations might consider the kinds of additional activities and facilities that could improve their attractiveness and competitiveness under projected conditions of climate change, and begin to incorporate those activities and facilities into their future planning and marketing efforts.
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