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The price check! Has skiing really become more expensive?

Maintenance and innovation of lifts and snow cannons as well as other modernisations lower the budgets of ski resorts every year. This budget needs to be rebuilt. Easiest way to do so is increasing ski pass prices. Skiresorts-Test.com has now investigated. Has skiing really become more expensive over the years? We compared the prices for a main season adult pass in 2012/13 and 2013/14 of 100 ski resorts in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. These are the results:

Marginal increase of price in over 50 ski resorts

In 14 out of the 100 tested resorts there has been no uplift. Amongst them, mainly some of the biggest ski resorts in Switzerland, like Zermatt (75 CHF) and Adelboden Lenk (61 CHF), as well as some resorts in Austria and Germany, for example Hochzeiger im Pitztal (38 €).  Nevertheless, Switzerland still has the highest ski pass prices, even if they did not increase them this year. You also have to keep in mind the strong monetary value of the Swiss franc.

The majority of the surveyed areas have increased their prices marginally: In seven skiing areas in Switzerland and Austria the uplift was less than 2%. In actual numbers for example Brandnertal (39,50 €) and Rauriser Hochalmbahnen (36,50 €), both in Austria, had a price hike of only 50 cents. In another 40 ski resorts in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France the price of a day pass was increased by a maximum of one euro.

The biggest uplift was found in Saint Francois Longchamp in France and Lenzerheide in Switzerland, with a variance of 4 € and 4 CHF compared to last year´s price. The rise in Lenzerheide is however justified. Since 2014 the railway Urdenbahn connects Lenzerheide with the neighbouring resort Arosa- an investment of over 16,2 Million euros. The ski pass is priced at 69 CHF and is valid for both ski resorts. This means all in all over 225 km/140 mi of slopes all included in the before mentioned price. By comparison: The previous year, a day pass for only Lenzerheide and 155 km was priced at 65 CHF.

The ski resorts compared by countries and size

All in all, we detected an average uplift of 3,18% for the 100 compared resorts. Switzerland, for instance, with an average increase of only 1,69% or 0.95 CHF had the slightest uplift. Italy increased prices by 3,04% or 1,25€ in average and Austria by 3,12% or 1,21 €. Utterly the highest uplifts were observed in France with an average of 5,39% or 1,68 €. On the grounds of having only few ski resorts, Germany was not included in this evaluation.

Noticeable is that the size of the ski resorts did not play a significant role in the percentage uplift from the previous year to the present season. There is no substantial variance of the average price hike compared to the overall increase neither with the smaller ski resorts nor with one of the largest.

This is where you get most for your money

Three giant ski resorts, namely Portes du Solei (0,09 CHF per kilometer of slope), Via Lattea (0,11 €/kilometer of slope, price and kilometers refer only to the Italian part) and Ski Arlberg (0,14 €/kilometer of slope) are the most lucrative. The overall average this year charges 0,82 € per kilometer of slope, last year it was 0,80 €.

The survey´s conclusion  


For one thing skiing did not get more expensive in every resort, for another thing uplifts are however justified sometimes. Reasons for an increase reside in rising energy costs as well as maintenance and innovation. Investments like new lifts, modernised equipment and enhanced comfort are expenses that must be compensated by price increase.
created on 20 Feb 2014

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