The 2025 snow season will go down as Mt Hotham's second best for visitor numbers in the past decade, but overnight stays were down.
Official figures released by Alpine Resorts Victoria show that for the 121 days of season 2025 - from 7 June to 5 October - Mt Hotham had 189,496 visitors which was its second strongest season behind 2022 with 212,891 visitors.
It's visitor days of 392,873 was its fifth highest in the past decade, behind 2022's record year of 467,498 visitor days.
Mt Hotham Chamber of Commerce president Steve Belli said the numbers reflected shorter stays, with five-day visits contracting to three-day visits on the back of cost of living pressures, with many overnight visitors self-catering.
He said day visitation was through the roof at Hotham until about 27 August, but "fell off a cliff" on the back of the Porepunkah incident and ensuing visitation restrictions to the area, as well as a general seasonal drop-off in September, compounded by consumer confidence having been eroded by two previous bad snowfall seasons with people thinking there was no snow at the resorts, which was far from the case this year.
Latest Stories
"From our perspective even though September was a struggle to keep the doors open it was really important to do so until the end of the season because it builds confidence for next year...we had good snow, and while we didn't have many people in September those that came thoroughly enjoyed themselves," Mr Belli said.
"This season was a really good snow season with little rain but consistent snowfall."
In fact, Mt Hotham had 398cms of natural snow this season - including dumps of 70cms on the King's Birthday long weekend and in late August - with the snow depth reaching a high of 165cms, and being consistently above one metre, allowing some lifts and terrain to open all season, with all the resort's lifts and terrain opened from 28 July.
Mr Belli said CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Australians) was driving the significant rise in day visitation and while it presented some challenges in terms of management and resourcing - including education on chains, clothing etc - resorts recognised this are were looking to enhance the visitor experience.
"The new Snowplay Hub at Wire Plain that opened this season for day visitors was very much needed and was very well utilised...in school holidays it was definitely at capacity," he said.
Mr Belli said a concerted effort by all stakeholders to incentivise September visitation - through discounts on accommodation, resort entry, lift tickets, equipment hire and lessons, as well as food and beverages - had some success.
"It needs to be an ongoing push and we probably need to launch a bit earlier," he said.
FOR THE RECORD
Mt Hotham had 3842 visitors in its first week of the season and 4025 visitors in the final week of the season.
It's two busiest weeks of the season were the July school holidays with 20,362 and 22,653 visitors respectively.
Visitors exceeded 10,000 for eight successive weeks from the start of July to 24 August, but visitor numbers dropped to 9041 in the week ending 31 August and continued to decline throughout September.
Mt Hotham's final four weeks of the season collectively saw only 20,079 visitors - which was less than week one of the July school holidays.
