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Ski resort and ski habits of people has significantly changed. 30 years ago or so, anyone could afford skiing. A lift ticket and ski rental was within reach of most middle class families. Fast forward 30 years. A lift ticket is ten times the cost for a day pass. 1980 you could go skiing for $12 a day! 2013, even cheap resorts are $85 a day. A normal resort, $120. That is not even factoring in cost of ski equipment, lunch, or ski clothing.
Skiing is now pretty much for the wealthy. Call golfing a white man's sport? How many black skiers can you name? It is rare to see minorities skiing, except for Asians.
That seems the case the world over. I've been skiing and been in snow once in my life, in New Zealand, which was comparatively cheap. It was still like $65 a day just for the pass not including rentals.
Ski resort and ski habits of people has significantly changed. 30 years ago or so, anyone could afford skiing. A lift ticket and ski rental was within reach of most middle class families. Fast forward 30 years. A lift ticket is ten times the cost for a day pass. 1980 you could go skiing for $12 a day! 2013, even cheap resorts are $85 a day. A normal resort, $120. That is not even factoring in cost of ski equipment, lunch, or ski clothing.
Skiing is now pretty much for the wealthy. Call golfing a white man's sport? How many black skiers can you name? It is rare to see minorities skiing, except for Asians.
It is a shame what's happening to skiing. I'm finally reaching an age where I'm about to quit because of knee problems. However, a discounter offers day passes at Utah resorts from about $64 to $96 depending on the resort. Not surprisingly, Brighton is on the low end and Deer Valley is on the high end. Its clear the resorts see their main customer these days as a well-to-do person from outside the area.
I know very few middle class families that could afford skiing these days. I think much of the cost is taken up in the new equipment I'm seeing at resorts. High speed quad chair lifts get you up the hill quickly, but cost an arm and a leg.
When I was kid, at least half the children in my neighborhood went skiing. Today, its hard to find a family around here that does it. I basically see two groups at the local resorts:
1. People who literally sacrifice everything to afford skiing or snowboarding;
2. Out-of-state people with money who come here once or twice a winter.
I think what is interesting is how the upper middle class and wealthy now party, and their travel destinations reflect just that. The wealthy 25 - 50 yr old crowd now heavily factors in nightlife (and day life) and not just the drunken college frat guys. Just look at Las Vegas.....the top two nightclubs there grossed almost $100m in revenue each in 2011 and 2012. Yes, that is a nightclub making $100 million. Same thing with Miami, NYC, etc.
Skiing is now pretty much for the wealthy. Call golfing a white man's sport? How many black skiers can you name? It is rare to see minorities skiing, except for Asians.
How is race really a factor? A lot of it is exposure.
If you lived in the Detroit area, you are exposed to hockey. In Phoenix, not as much.
If you live in Colorado, you are exposed to skiing. I never was exposed to skiing until I accepted a private chef job at Wintergreen in Virginia.
MOST sports are getting to be for the wealthy. I will be in Arizona for the New Year and my team may be heading to the Fiesta Bowl. The tickets - the cheap ones - are $145. I think that I will be watching it on TV. (My last bowl ticket was $20.)
Working Class: Cheap charter vacation to Greece, Cyprus, Turkey or Spain. Camping vacation in Norway, Sweden or Denmark.
Middle Class: Charter vacation to Southern Europe and Egypt (mostly families), Thailand, Florida, United Arab Emirates, ++. Weekend in London, Paris, Rome, ++.
Upper Class: Caribbean, The French Riviera, Maldives, ++
Grew up in a working class household in a more upper-middle class part of the Chicagoland area (dad worked at a fast food restaurant, with a SAHM & 3 kids). Our vacations consisted primarily of camping/backpacking in the Upper Peninsula of MI, which is also where my Dad's family was from. We went to Mammoth Cave National Park one year on a camping trip. We went to Disney once on a shoestring budget (drove, did not stay at the Disney property, packed every meal). My great-grandparents lived in W. Palm Beach, FL when I was young and we did a few road trips down that way. We took a road trip to Washington DC when I was in 8th grade.
Most of my vacations growing up involved tagging along with (very generous) friends to their summer lake homes in Wisconsin. When I had a job in HS, I paid for my own Caribbean cruise and went with my best friend + her parents. Also, we had some vacations that were definitely funded by other family members. My siblings and I would go to Wisconsin Dells every other year or so with my Uncle. My grandma and uncle paid for my flight to San Francisco once, where another uncle lived.
My husband is from a very similar family in upstate NY, and the only vacations they ever took were to visit aunt and uncles who moved all over the east coast. His first time on a plane was when he was 21 or so.
Fast forward to adulthood--we're now DINKs, both somewhere in the 25-35 age range, making more money than we could imagine having when we were younger. We are both in love with traveling and spend most of our "fun" money on it. We go overseas at least every year, primarily Europe with more focus on Asian countries in the future, with frequent long weekend vacations throughout the summer/fall. I've been to 26/50 states (plan to focus on seeing more of the US once we have kids) and 16 countries excluding the US. My husband is 5 years older and has been to significantly more places, both within the US and around the world. For us, the hardest part is getting the time off at the same time, and balancing trips to new places with trips home to see our family. In the 2013 calendar year, I had the following vacations (overseas locations) or long weekends (US), non work related:
2 trips to STL, 1 trip to Orange County & San Diego, 3 trips to Chicago, 3 trips to Upstate NY, 1 trip to Indianapolis, 1 trip to Germany/Austria (covered flight for husband's parents, too), 1 trip to London. I get 4 weeks of PTO + holidays and my husband has no official PTO balance ("unlimited" with the stipulation that work gets done). We both also travel for work around 20% of the year (primarily within the state we live in).
So, in a lot of ways, fairly similar to what you described. I think the travel situation is very driven by both money and paid time off. When I was growing up, there was very little money and not a whole ton of PTO for my dad. Now, we've got much more money available and much more PTO. Airline miles help a ton. Between actual flying and airline credit card miles, we earn enough for 1 or 2 roundtrip tickets to Europe/year. The international travel will definitely slow down when we have kids.
Maybe in the old days, and certainly not in the US, the land of new money and self-made millionaires...
Is there a problem with people who have pulled up their bootstraps, acted on an idea, and become a millionaire? I applaud them rather than maligning them.
It is a shame what's happening to skiing. I'm finally reaching an age where I'm about to quit because of knee problems. However, a discounter offers day passes at Utah resorts from about $64 to $96 depending on the resort. Not surprisingly, Brighton is on the low end and Deer Valley is on the high end. Its clear the resorts see their main customer these days as a well-to-do person from outside the area.
I know very few middle class families that could afford skiing these days. I think much of the cost is taken up in the new equipment I'm seeing at resorts. High speed quad chair lifts get you up the hill quickly, but cost an arm and a leg.
When I was kid, at least half the children in my neighborhood went skiing. Today, its hard to find a family around here that does it. I basically see two groups at the local resorts:
1. People who literally sacrifice everything to afford skiing or snowboarding;
2. Out-of-state people with money who come here once or twice a winter.
The middle income families that I know who ski have season passes to a local slope that cost them very little so they can go every weekend, and once or twice a season will go to one of the big resort areas to ski for a couple of days, and every other year or so will take their annual vacation as a week at a higher end resort.
Is there a problem with people who have pulled up their bootstraps, acted on an idea, and become a millionaire? I applaud them rather than maligning them.
Autocorrect responsible for most typos...
Don't recalling maligning them or anything of the sort.
Ski resort and ski habits of people has significantly changed. 30 years ago or so, anyone could afford skiing. A lift ticket and ski rental was within reach of most middle class families. Fast forward 30 years. A lift ticket is ten times the cost for a day pass. 1980 you could go skiing for $12 a day! 2013, even cheap resorts are $85 a day. A normal resort, $120. That is not even factoring in cost of ski equipment, lunch, or ski clothing.
Skiing is now pretty much for the wealthy. Call golfing a white man's sport? How many black skiers can you name? It is rare to see minorities skiing, except for Asians.
Yes, skiing has, for the most part, become a hobby for the wealthy. Even the "cheap" resorts cost a lot of money these days and a season pass is out of the question in a lot of areas.
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