Everything But The Girl

[Beckmann AG]

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/11042637-113/ski-resorts-industry-sport

[michael.a]

What a load of bull.

The most expensive ski resort in Europe I believe is Zermatt/Cervina, where a 1-day adult pass costs around 70 CHF or 80 USD and that's SWITZERLAND. Most resorts in the Alps go for around 55-70 USD. In my neck of the woods I pay on average 30 USD for an adult one-day lift ticket. If we're talking about multi-day tickets, they are a better value in Europe than in the US, although I found some season passes in the US (like the Epic Pass) to offer an unbeatable deal, but if we're going to look at how much miles of quality slopes you get on a single pass than again, Europe wins over. Additionally, far better infrastructure, lifts, and grooming on the old continent, and I've also found accommodation to be twice or thrice more expensive in the US than Europe while at a lower standard.

Winter sports in the US are simply NOT a good value activity, especially for teenagers and students, and if you don't hook them in by then they're gone forever. Cutting prices in general by half (including lodge food), developing cheaper hostel-like lodging (and not turning every 300 ft bump into a spa), updating infrastructure and terrain (wider, flatter runs), offer 'bunny-slope only' or 'with-instructor only' tickets for beginners at significantly reduced prices, and start to seriously intertwin alternatives to skiing/snowboarding to make it a more 'natural, rustic sport' NOT by snowtubing and waterpark gimmicks but including cross-country skiing, snowshoe hiking, sledding activities, etc. Emphasize the sport, and not the image, and I'm sure this could get the whole industry moving, but that'll of course mean less profits for those wankers so all for not and I just wasted 10 minutes of my time typing this up.

Edited April 15, 2014 by michael.a

[Guest]

What a load of bull.

The most expensive ski resort in Europe I believe is Zermatt/Cervina, where a 1-day adult pass costs around 70 CHF or 80 USD and that's SWITZERLAND. Most resorts in the Alps go for around 55-70 USD. In my neck of the woods I pay on average 30 USD for an adult one-day lift ticket. If we're talking about multi-day tickets, they are a better value in Europe than in the US, although I found some season passes in the US (like the Epic Pass) to offer an unbeatable deal, but if we're going to look at how much miles of quality slopes you get on a single pass than again, Europe wins over. Additionally, far better infrastructure, lifts, and grooming on the old continent, and I've also found accommodation to be twice or thrice as expensive in the US while at a lower standard.

Winter sports in the US are simply NOT a good value activity, especially for teenagers and students, and if you don't hook them in by then they're gone forever. Cutting prices in general by half (including lodge food), developing cheaper hostel-like lodging (and not turning every 300 ft bump into a spa), updating infrastructure and terrain (wider, flatter runs), offer 'bunny-slope only' or 'with-instructor only' tickets for beginners at significantly reduced prices, and start to seriously intertwin alternatives to skiing/snowboarding to make it a more 'natural, rustic sport' NOT by snowtubing and waterpark gimmicks but including cross-country skiing, snowshoe hiking, sledding activities, etc. Emphasize the sport, and not the image, and I'm sure this could get the whole industry moving, but that'll of course mean less profits for those wankers so all for not and I just wasted 10 minutes of my time typing this up.

The biggest thing that European resorts have going for them is that they are surrounded by major metropolitan areas, with easy, fast transit to take all those people to the slopes. Given the number of people who visit and pay, they don't need to charge a lot for a ticket. As for the major resorts here in CO, UT and WY, we only have a few cities with any real population, and just don't get the number of people that Europe does, hence the higher lift ticket price. I live just outside of Aspen, and I happily pay what Aspen charges, as we don't have lift lines, we don't have ice, and we have 4 mountains to choose from. Not too shabby methinks, despite the price tag.

[michael.a]

That's a good point although I would say the vast majority of Europeans are a 4-8 hour car drive away from a mountain but undoubtedly you are quite right. Maybe in this regard a comparison would be between Northeastern US resorts, who have huge population centers located at similar distances. I checked out Killington and Hunter Mt as I used to go there quite often when I lived in the US. $89 and $70 for a weekend one-day adult ticket, respectively. YIKES

Edited April 15, 2014 by michael.a

[Dan]

You definitely get much more for your money skiing in Europe, and better food too. I wonder how much our sue-happy culture in the U.S. impacts costs here.

[BlueB]

I wonder how much our sue-happy culture in the U.S. impacts costs here.

Bingo! ^

[SunSurfer]

NZ prices at major fields are heading towards NZ$90-100 per day for an adult pass. Current conversion rate is around NZ$100 to US$86.

And we don't have the litigation prone law that the US has, we have a no-fault compensation & treatment scheme for treatment for injury with a public hospital system that does not charge patients to any significant degree, so that's not the driver of the cost.

Our season is relatively short, and because of our temperate island climate lots of snowmaking is necessary, so these may be part of the reasons locally.

We also have legislated minimum wages, both for staff in training(NZ$11.40 per hour) and for staff 20 yrs or older(NZ$14.25 per hour), and a business culture where tipping is not the norm.

Lots of things potentially drive a lift ticket price.

Edited April 16, 2014 by SunSurfer

[leeho730]

Or Straya. USD $110 per day on bloody icy or man-made snow...

In NZ, I've heard in 2012 Mt Hutt made a million dollar loss in lift/grooming operation but 2 million dollar profit on food and instruction.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[philw]

Old farts like me find this all rather bemusing.

Snow sports were the preserve of rich people in the UK when I was a kid. It took the establishment of low cost jet travel in the 1970s plus the time it took us to recover from WW2 before we could ride at all. Today it's simply much easier, and significantly cheaper, than it was in the past.

All you have to do is to correct the overall cost of riding for some cost-of-living index and you'll discover.. that the reason snow sports exploded was not because they suddenly became "too expensive". It's a market.