Utah’s ski and snowboard industry organization Ski Utah announced that it expects its skier days to rise 3 percent this year to around 4.1 million.

Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty said Tuesday “that recent signs of economic growth in the national economy should lead to more destination travelers vacationing in the state than last year,” according to the Associated Press.

Rafferty and is organization are banking on an improving economy and monumental deals and discounts to put his state’s resorts back in growth mode after showing their first slow down last year since 2001/02.

Brighton and Solitude have opened for the season and Rafferty says Ski Utah’s Web traffic is up 9 percent over the same period a year ago.