Four leading industry experts gathered at Mountain Travel Symposium 2026 to share what's reshaping mountain travel.
THE MODERATOR
Marie-Josee Legault – EVP, Growth & Strategic Initiatives, MMGY Global
THE PANEL
Robin Thurston – Founder & CEO, Outside Interactive
Mario Siedler – Head of Tourism, Obertauern, Austria
Belinda Trembath – VP & COO, Whistler Blackcomb
Justin Downes – President, Axis Leisure Management
At this year’s Mountain Travel Symposium in Whistler, British Columbia, a group of four experts gathered to discuss what’s shaping the future of global mountain travel. As the panel’s moderator, I had the pleasure of discussing the world’s biggest emerging trends in a room full of people who are doing more than just thinking about what this means for the industry – they’re creating it.
THE YEAR-ROUND MOUNTAIN
Perhaps the biggest topic of the session centered on the new reality of the year-round resort. The days of the winter-only mountain ski resort are gone, and the operators embracing that are reaping the rewards.
Justin Downes, president of Axis Leisure Management, put it bluntly: “Don’t even put the words ‘ski resort’ in your brand. You’re a resort that just happens to have skiing for a couple of months. Stop thinking it’s all about winter, because the potential is in the summer. The proof? One resort north of Beijing attracted over 1.5 million summer visits last year and only 400,000 winter visits.”
In Europe, the emerging motivation behind residents heading up the mountain in summer might not be what you think: “People escape to the mountains in summer because they can’t stand the really hot days at the sea anymore,” said Mario Siedler, head of tourism for Obertauern, Austria. “When you have 38 degrees Celsius and the water is 30 degrees, they prefer being in Obertauern at 2,000 meters, swimming in a lake that’s 18 degrees.” Climate is sending travelers uphill.
Robin Thurston, founder and CEO of Outside Interactive, added a data-driven dimension: “Outside Interactive’s platforms log five million activities per month. When you look at the underlying data, these are people doing three to five different types of activities a year: skiing in winter, then mountain biking or hiking in summer. Birdwatching is absolutely exploding in North America. When I think about an active lifestyle person, they are literally always thinking about what they’re going to do next.”
“Don’t even put the word ‘ski resort’ in your brand. You’re a resort that just happens to have skiing for a couple of months. Stop thinking it’s all about winter, because the potential is in the summer,” says Downes.
THE TRAVELER HAS CHANGED
Who exactly is this traveler looking for great skiing in the winter and equally good mountain sports in the summer? Turns out this audience has lost its monolithic qualities, splitting into those looking for hyper-Instagrammable experiences and those seeking an emotional connection with nature.
The first type of mountain traveler is harder to impress and increasingly allergic to the ordinary, thanks to social media raising the bar. “People are sharing their picture-perfect holidays,” said Belinda Trembath, VP and COO of Whistler Blackcomb. “Whether that’s the views, cultural activities or culinary experiences, people want to replicate what others are enjoying and demand that level of experience.”
But not everyone is chasing the feed. Siedler described a growing countermovement among European travelers: “It’s more emotional,” he said. “People want experiences without sharing them on social media. They want to go on the mountain before the lifts open, be alone, enjoy the nature and beautiful views, and when others arrive, they want to go back to the hotel and have breakfast.”
Thurston framed this through a broader societal shift. “I have three kids,” he said. “I don’t want my kids on screens when we go skiing. That’s the beauty of being on the mountain eight hours a day.” This highlights a new trend for families: how they are choosing to unplug and reconnect.
Underpinning it all is a fundamental reorientation of consumer values. “The biggest global change is the shift from materialism to spending money on experience,” Thurston added. “That is the big switch. And it’s a trend that’s going to stick.”
“The biggest global change is the shift from materialism to spending money on experience,” Thurston said. “That is the big switch. And it’s a trend that’s going to stick.”
WHERE IS THE NEXT NEW FRONTIER?
The answers may surprise you. Downes, who’s worked in the Asia tourism industry for 18 years, painted a vivid picture of two very different markets. “The Chinese market is almost exclusively domestic. They might ski for a couple of hours, but they’re really looking for other experiences to complement it,” he said. “And it’s all about food. They’re choosing destinations based on where they’ll get a good meal. Meanwhile, Japan is a mature, internationally driven market where snow quality reigns supreme.”
The engine behind China’s explosive growth? Government. “They’ve made conscious efforts to control pricing to make it affordable,” said Downes. “It doesn’t matter how much money you have, everybody is being exposed to the sport, and the government’s making sure people can afford to stay with it. With 80% of Chinese ski participants new to the sport, retention is accelerating rapidly.”
Looking further afield, Downes flagged Southeast Asia as the next frontier. Places like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have massive populations starting to get hungry for winter sports. They’re less interested in skiing and more interested in the whole experience – the culture of being in a new place.
Closer to home, Trembath drew on her experience in Australia: “Years ago, folks from Asian backgrounds were sightseeing, throwing snowballs,” she said. “They’re now skiing and on the podiums at Interschools Championships.”
INVESTING IN THE RIGHT THINGS
When the conversation turned to capital investment, the panel’s consensus was clear: The best investments get people closer to nature, not farther from it.
Trembath described Whistler Blackcomb’s philosophy. “The investment we’re making in our infrastructure is a means to accessing experiences. What’s driving the investment in the Showcase Quad this summer is that we want people to go into the Blackcomb Glacier – the closest thing they’ll get to a heli-skiing experience,” she said. “Once they’re in there, there’s no other infrastructure around them, and they get that sense of escapism.”
Siedler echoed the sentiment. “Nature is not a theme park. Keep it basic, because it’s so important for families,” he said. “It’s not about roller coasters. It’s the mountains. It’s nature.” He described Obertauern’s most popular summer program that proves that the simplest experiences resonate the deepest: a simple outdoor adventure day where a guide takes families into the mountains to discover nature.
In Japan, Downes noted, the investment calculus is almost inverted. “People don’t seem to care about old infrastructure. It’s like being in a history museum of old chairlifts, and people don’t care about riding a rickety 50-year-old single chairlift. It’s part of the experience. It’s part of the adventure.”
CLOSING
The mountain travel industry is seeing new markets awaken. New seasons being discovered. New travelers finding their way uphill for the first time.
As the theme of MTS 2026 called out, “Fortune Favors the Bold.” And that couldn’t be more apt. The brands that will lead the next decade won’t be the ones who waited to see what worked. They’ll be the ones who, like the best powder runs, committed to the line before they could see the bottom.
Want to chat outdoor marketing? Reach out to me: [email protected].
