North Woodstock, NH – With cooler temperatures returning to New England, visitors flocked to New Hampshire’s ski resorts over the Columbus Day holiday weekend. The long weekend signifies the unofficial end to summer and fall with guests taking advantage of comfortable weather and fall foliage. The weekend proved very successful for the state’s ski areas with several areas already reporting exceptional business levels.
Offerings around the state included fall foliage festivals, Oktoberfests, Halloween-specific attractions and more. These activities combined with scenic chairlift rides, hiking and other traditional activities proved a popular way for guests to enjoy the New England fall foliage.
Waterville Valley Ski Area hosted their Fall Foliage Festival over the weekend. “Our annual town-wide tent sale saw its biggest sales ever and the race, beer garden, and other activities brought in unbelievable crowds. This has been a great summer for Waterville Valley and the Foliage Festival is always a great way to wrap it up and get us ready for ski season,” stated Chris Sununu, Waterville Valley’s CEO.
Becca Deschenes, Marketing Manager at Cranmore Mountain Resort reported similar positive results. “Overall for the weekend compared to last year’s holiday weekend, visits for the mountain adventure park were up 47%, visits for the aerial adventure park were up 27% and visits for the Ghoullog Halloween attraction were up 31%,” she said.
New Hampshire’s ski resorts already reported increased summer business levels thanks to major recent investments in attractions including zip-lines, aerial adventure courses, ropes courses, Segway tours, a mountain coaster, bungy trampolines, and more.
“After a slow start to the summer due to rainy weather we’ve enjoyed seeing our guests realize there are now so many more attractions available at our resorts in the summer months. It’s certainly an exciting period for our resorts and guests,” explained Karl Stone, Marketing Director for Ski NH, the statewide association representing 33 alpine and cross country resorts and more than 200 lodging and guest service properties in New Hampshire.