Snow Season Central reveals online search interest in 2024 Southern Hemisphere ski season

Snow Season Central has released its analysis of the search volumes of more than 300 queries related to the Southern Hemisphere ski season in Google against 50 of the most populated cities to rank them in terms of their total search interest per 100,000 people.

With the ski season set to kick off on 7th June, the study from the ski resort job platform offers valuable insights into the anticipation and excitement building up across the country.

The comprehensive study found Bathurst is the city most interested in the ski season, with a search interest of 15,311 searches per capita, 191% higher than the national average of 5,267.

It also revealed a 9.6% year on year increase in search interest for the Southern Hemisphere ski season

Key highlights from the report include:

• The Australian cities and towns most interested for the 2024 ski season to start are Bathurst and Ballina in NSW and the Victorian city of Geelong, according to Google search data per capita.

• Bathurst’s search interest per capita was 191% higher than the national average.

• The places that had the lowest interest in the upcoming ski season were Bendigo, Newcastle and Wollongong retrospectively.

• Bendigo’s search interest per capita was 71% lower than the national average.

• Of the state capitals, Brisbane came in highest in 28th position, followed by Sydney (29th), Canberra (38th), Darwin (40th), Melbourne (44th), Hobart (45th), Adelaide (46th) and Perth in 47th position.

• New Zealand emerges as the favoured destination for Australian snow enthusiasts (up by 24% from last year)

Australia’s 20 cities most excited for the Southern Hemisphere ski season, according to Snow Season Central.

The analysis also looked at the comparison of search demand for different destinations and how this differs from the same period last year.

Overall, there has been a notable 9.6% increase in search demand for the same 300 keywords year on year, which suggests a growing interest in snowsports and trip planning from Australians with the majority of this growth was driven by interest in New Zealand as a destination, with a 24% increase year on year.

Conversely, demand for keywords relating to the Australian ski season experienced a slight dip of 1%. Meanwhile, South America as a destination saw an impressive growth of more than 14%, but remains a small percentage of the total search market.

Commenting on the findings, Snow Season Central Director, Ed Raine stated “we are thrilled to unveil these compelling insights into Australia's ski season trends for 2024. The data not only highlights the evolving preferences of Australian snow enthusiasts but also underscores the growing popularity of international ski destinations such as New Zealand."

Click here to view the complete study.

Main image credit Falls Creek.