Nature-SportEmerging · High opportunity

Trail running is quietly rewriting sports tourism.

Twenty million runners, ~12% annual growth, and a single event — UTMB Chamonix — injecting €40M+ into a mountain valley every August. This is what the data says about the segment, the destinations winning it, and what makes it structurally different from road-marathon tourism.

20M+Runners globally

~12%Annual growth

€40M+UTMB impact

2025–2026Data as of

01 · Scale & growth

A niche that stopped being niche.

Trail and ultra running have compounded quietly for two decades. The demand curve is now steep enough to reshape destination calendars.

20M+2025

Trail runners worldwide

ITRA estimate, growing ~12% year over year.

+1,676%

Ultra participation growth

Increase in ultra-trail entries between 1996 and 2018.

146,9332025

UTMB World Series runners

Across 55 events in 28 countries.

38%

Women in trail (ITRA)

Up from 15% in 2005 — the segment nearly tripled.

29,0002026

UTMB Finals draw entries

+16% vs. 2025 for the flagship UTMB; +14% CCC, +16% OCC.

611,0002018

Ultra entries per year

Baseline ITRA / RunRepeat figure.

02 · The anchor case

UTMB Chamonix: what one event does to a valley.

The clearest picture of trail tourism's economics comes from the sport's flagship. A single week absorbs the region's lodging capacity 18 months out and moves tens of millions of euros.

€40M+

Economic impact per edition

Injected into the Chamonix valley by a single event week.

€1,000+

Entry fee alone

Per runner, before travel, gear or lodging.

~50,000

Spectators & companions

Arriving into Chamonix during race week.

2,000

Volunteers from 15 countries

Powering the event on the ground.

18 months

Booking lead time

Hotels and rentals inside a 30 km radius fill this far out.

86%

Emissions from traveler flights

2024 carbon audit — the runner's trip IS the footprint.

Reach

Chamonix 2024 fielded 118 nationalities on the start line. The fastest-growing origin markets are North America and Asia — Europe is no longer the only recruiter.

03 · Beyond the flagship

What the wider circuit actually does.

Outside Chamonix, the UTMB World Series behaves less like international travel and more like a domestic tourism engine — with sharp implications for who benefits locally.

73% of UTMB World Series runners come from the host country or a neighbor

58% from the organizing country itself. Beyond the Chamonix flagship, the circuit functions as a domestic and regional tourism generator at each host site.

North America and Asia are the fastest-growing origin markets

Chamonix 2024 fielded 118 nationalities. Growth over the last decade skews sharply outside Europe.

Sorteo demand outstrips supply by 30×

Western States 100 drew 11,328 applications for 369 spots (2026). UTMB Finals: 29,000 entries. Scarcity is manufacturing the destination premium.

04 · Latin America

Where the segment is compounding fastest.

Documented cases from the region show measurable lifts in occupancy and spend — and deliberate use of trail events to activate shoulder seasons.

Patagonia Run

San Martín de los Andes, Argentina

US$ 60M estimated

6,000+ runners and ~20,000 people including companions. 71% hotel occupancy across the zone (80%+ on peak days). Avg daily tourist spend of ARS 270,000 per person, higher during the event.

Desafío Arrayanes

Villa La Angostura, Argentina

No consolidated figure

1,000 runner cap. Designed explicitly to activate shoulder season — outside the region's ski peak — a deliberate off-peak demand play.

Latin American Trail Circuit

11 countries (2025)

No aggregate figure

Grew from 5 races in 5 countries (2023) to 11 in 11. Put previously off-radar towns on the tourism map, with measurable lifts in lodging, gastronomy and cultural spend.

05 · What makes it different

Trail tourism ≠ marathon tourism.

Four structural differences separate this segment from road-race travel. They change who the destination should court, when, and with what offer.

Protected landscape is the product

National parks and nature reserves actively co-promote events — not just municipalities. The trail is the destination.

Activates shoulder & low seasons

Multiple events are positioned deliberately outside peak windows, unlike road marathons that pile onto high season.

Lower volume, higher spend per runner

Rarely above 10–25k runners (vs. 50k+ at road Majors) — but entry, travel, gear and longer stays push individual spend materially higher.

The traveler's trip is the impact variable

At UTMB, 86% of event emissions come from participant travel. Event design is starting to treat the journey as core, not adjacent.

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06 · Methodology

How to read these numbers.

Most economic-impact figures cited come from event organizers, local governments or tourism offices — not independent audits. Academic literature on trail-running tourism specifically is still thin, with recognized gaps in rigorous impact evaluation.

Sources

Curator · Practitioner in residence

Who curated this travel trend.

Carmen Gerea

Runner · Product & research lead · Santiago, Chile

Endurance runner focused on running tourism. I have raced international marathons — including Chicago 2024, one of the six World Marathon Majors — traveling from Chile to run them. I curated this brief from the real experience of planning, training, booking accommodation, and running in new cities, cross-checking every claim against the sources listed below.

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Personal curation lets us verify claims against lived experience, not just desk research.