NEW research into the economic contribution and benefits of Victoria’s alpine resorts has found the sector contributes a whopping $2.14 billion to Victoria’s overall annual economic activity.

Commissioned by Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV), the research also found the six alpine resorts of Falls Creek, Mt Hotham, Mt Buller, Mt Stirling, Mt Baw Baw and Lake Mountain contribute to a diverse range of economic benefits for regional areas including more than 12,000 regional jobs, and they also create social and environmental benefits for all Victorians.

The findings, released by Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Steve Dimopoulos, also showed the sector annually creates 1955 full-time-equivalent jobs at Falls Creek and 1321 at Mt Hotham, while on-mountain spending generates $329 million in economic output at Falls Creek, and $247 million at Mt Hotham.

The report ‘Economic Contribution & Benefits of Victoria’s Alpine Resorts’ found that Mt Hotham, Falls Creek and Mt Buller make up 78 per cent of the state's alpine tourism.

ARV CEO Amber Gardner, said the new research, coinciding with a century of skiing being celebrated at Mt Buller, reinforced the critical role alpine resorts play in regional visitor economies - with economic contributions from off-mountain spending pumping $165m into the Alpine Shire economy and generating 1131 EFT jobs annually.

“Each year nearly 1.4 million visitors enjoy the alpine environment’s broad offering of nature-based tourism experiences, sustaining thousands of on-mountain businesses and making a significant contribution to the economies of surrounding towns in regional Victoria,” Ms Gardner said.

“In the High Country alone, the resorts account for a third of total visitation to the region, so act as the economic backbone of regional communities.

“The resorts are significant employers, and in addition to the economic benefits they generate, also provide important environmental, health and social benefits to the community.

"The findings also show visitors to our resorts are healthier and more productive members of society, and ecosystems benefit from environmental programs delivered by Alpine Resorts Victoria.

"The economic output of Victoria's alpine resorts are equivalent to economic output of Sovereign Hill, Puffing Billy and the penguin parade combined.

"When you put it in context like that, it’s pretty impressive."

The latest research was undertaken by consulting firm SGS Economics and Planning Pty Ltd.

It comes on the back of a busy 2023 season, where Falls Creek had 168,241 visitors (third highest in last decade) and Mt Hotham had 154,825 visitors (second highest in a decade).

The research is one of the first key commitments completed by the ARV, which was established in October 2022 to bring all six alpine resorts together into one organisation, with the aim of building the economic resilience of the sector, streamlining operations across the resorts and positioning them for strategic growth.

Visitation to alpine resorts

There are 1.38 million visitor entries to Victoria’s alpine resorts each year.

Survey data reveals the average visitor visits an alpine resort 3.9 times annually, which indicates there are around 353,000 unique visitors to Victoria’s alpine resorts each year.

This represents around five per cent of Victoria’s population, noting that some visitors are non-Victorian.

Key behaviour and spending patterns of visitors are provided in the table to the right.

Highlights include:

▪ There is a smaller share of day trippers in the winter season (28 per cent) compared to the green season (42 per cent). Reasons for this include that: 84 per cent of winter visitors are Victorian residents, while 90 per cent of green season visitors are Victorian residents; and 71 per cent of Victorian visitors in winter travel over 200 kilometres to access the resorts, while only 44 per cent of Victorian visitors travel this far in the green season.

▪ Winter visitors spend around 83 per cent more than summer visitors on average, with a much larger share spent at the resorts in winter (71 per cent) than in summer (38 per cent). The higher spend is mainly driven by higher costs to participate in activities (i.e. snow sports in winter compared to hiking or other activities in the green

season).