As Breckenridge Ski Resort preps for an event-heavy season, local business owners and residents got insight into the 2025-26 ski season forecast. 

Breckenridge Tourism Office hosted its annual winter preview at Breckenridge Town Hall Wednesday, Nov. 5 featuring speakers from the tourism office and Breckenridge Ski Resort. Speakers presented data on topics like winter occupancy and new additions to the ski resort to the largest crowd turnout the tourism office said they’ve ever had for their winter previews.

Visitation outlook: expected lodging revenue and nights booked

Breckenridge Tourism Office Director of Operations Bill Wishowski provided early-season data indicating guest nights booked are about 1% above what they were during the 2024-25 season. Currently, there are around 93,118 guest nights booked for the season as of Nov. 2. Wishowski said by early November, only around 35% of the season’s bookings are made. On Nov. 2, 2024, around 91,910 bookings had been made for the season. On Nov. 2, 2023, around 94,844 had been made for the season.

“The big news here is that December is up 17% year over year … February is probably the scariest month,” he said. 

He said a group called Outside Life College Trips that brings college kids on trips will have a trip just ahead of Christmas and a trip in early January that are expected to bring some business to town. He said events like the Rockstar Energy Open snowboarding event, which starts Dec. 19, will also bring in more visitation in December. A chart he presented demonstrated the first week of February is expected to be the most significant dip in visitation compared to the last two years. Wishowski said part of the dip in February is there won’t be planned group trips through organizations like Outside Life that the town has seen in the past. Additionally, he said April is down about 10% year over year, but there is still plenty of time for it to make a rebound. 

President Lucy Kay said a glimmer of hope for travel is the travel price index running lower than the overall consumer price index, meaning, while travel costs are up, they aren’t as high as the overall inflation rate. 

A key performance indicator slide presented by Wishowski showed lodging revenue is expected to be up around 5% year over year at $53.9 million. The average daily rate lodgers pay is anticipated to be up 4% year over year at $579 a night. This equates to an approximate $21 in the average daily rate bump compared to last year. Average length is expected to drop slightly, around 2%, year over year down to 4.8 nights.

Breckenridge Ski Resort unveils what’s new

Breckenridge Ski Resort and Keystone Ski Resort Senior Communications Manager Max Winter presented information and videos giving a glimpse of the upcoming season, one of which featured the snowmaking team and their new snow guns. 

Breckenridge upgraded some of their snowmaking guns with ones fully equipped with weather stations. Snowmaker Pax Puran said in a video this is so the team can maximize production at more marginal temperatures. 

“We can really squeeze every drop of snow out of these guns,” he said. 

“This means more snow on the ground earlier, maximizing production in the early season and spreading out the skier base,” he later added. 

Winter shed more light on updates given by Chief Operating Officer Jon Copeland at a Tuesday, Oct. 28, Breckenridge Town Council meeting. Winter confirmed Breckenridge Ski Resort will be hosting the 40th anniversary of the Snowboarding World Championships April 17-19. 

“This event will be a love letter to snowboarding’s past, present and future, recognizing what an impact Breckenridge has had on competitive snowboarding, and also what an impact competitive snowboarding has ultimately had on Breckenridge,” he said. 

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">

<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A map shows the layout of the McCain Property, located on the north end of Breckenridge. Tract 7 will be home to the new free skier parking lot. </figcaption><figcaption>Family and Intercultural Resource Center/Courtesy image</figcaption>

</figure>

He said the event will include a hand-dug half pipe, a rail jam and more. 

He said the resort plans to give residents the first heads up on rope drops through a new pilot program. He said this will happen through text alerts when they solidify plans to open new terrain. 

Additionally, the resort plans to introduce pancake breakfasts at the Vista Haus for those who skin up the mountain in the early morning. 

Another new change will be the location of the free skier parking lot, which will now be located on the McCain Property off of Coyne Valley Road and Colorado Highway 9.