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While doing some research for my answer in are ski areas shutting down? I was a bit shocked by the American prices for lift tickets. Vail is at $220 and while this may be an exceptionally expensive resort, the average price in season 16/17 was at almost a hundred dollars and for sure has not decreased since.

Compared to Europe, this is outrageous. Ski Arlberg, probably the biggest resort in Austria is at 56€ this season with other top resorts in Austria being close to this. Even if we take expensive Switzerland, most resorts are in the 55 to 65 CHF with top resorts like Zermatt International being at 90-100 CHF (they have dynamic pricing). This is basically a factor of 2 and more to American resorts.

Can anybody tell me reasons for this?

(At the time of writing, $1 = 0.98 CHF = 0.93 €, therefore about the same magnitude)

Ken Graham
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Manziel
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  • I don't know what the right answer is, but I imagine healthcare costs and accident liability has a lot to do with it. – Greg Hewgill Feb 20 '20 at 19:23
  • The average price isn't necessarily the most useful statistic, since a few extremely pricy resorts (like Vail) can really skew the distribution of prices. The median price might be more informative. Anecdotally, only one ski area in Washington state, Crystal Mountain, is close to $100/day for a peak time ticket. The other areas are well below $100/day. Of course there aren't any "destination" resorts here. – Charles E. Grant Feb 20 '20 at 19:56
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    It may be a cultural difference. As an American, I see skiing as "something rich people do." Perhaps it's more of an everyperson activity in the European countries you mentioned. – csk Feb 20 '20 at 20:26
  • I just checked a few places in Vermont. Stowe, Sugarbush, Killington, Bolton Valley. Minimum was 70$ for Bolton Valley, Stowe was the most expensive at 149$ (bear in mind Stowe is part of Vail Resorts). So I think it's highly dependent on location and popularity i.e. offer and demand. They are also all within about an hour of each other. – Gabriel Feb 20 '20 at 21:11
  • @csk skiing is definitely very popular in Austria and Switzerland but still one third of the population is skiing. However, once had to consider that both countries are quite mountainous. https://www.statista.com/statistics/801047/europe-share-of-population-skiing-by-country/ – Manziel Feb 20 '20 at 23:47
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    Looking at Vail and asking why ski resorts are expensive is like looking at Disneyland and asking why theme parks are expensive. – Mark Feb 21 '20 at 02:08
  • @csk no difference. A European family of four skiing in the Alps for a week also has money to burn. A summer hiking vacation is much cheaper as one can camp and lifts are optional. – gerrit Feb 21 '20 at 09:46
  • @Manziel Residents often get reduced prices for ski passes and don't need to pay for tourist accommodation. It's much more expensive for visitors. This difference is far less pronounced for a summer hiking vacation, as camping is relatively cheap (camping for a ski resort vacation is rare). – gerrit Feb 21 '20 at 09:53
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    Probably just market and demand, i.e. if the resorts can get away with high prices and if there are enough customers at those prices, why not? Whistler is also at about $100CAD/day but other local ski hills near Vancouver are considerably cheaper, around $50/60. In North America, I think it's mostly down to whether the resort is a prestige destination or not - i.e. are you going to lotta-Instagram it or not? – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Feb 21 '20 at 18:54
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because ultimately is a question of economics the sister site https://economics.stackexchange.com/ should be checked. – James Jenkins Feb 26 '20 at 17:34
  • Some questions about expense are in scope for TGO example here where sleeping bags in the same market are compared, and presumably there is a quality difference. Comparing world ski resorts in different countries, is not in scope. They are all different markets. The majority of customers for US ski resorts live in the US, no one in the US is going to fly to the UK to save $50 or $100 to ski for a day or two. – James Jenkins Feb 26 '20 at 17:53
  • And thinking that those places (like Stowe that was mentioned) are not anywhere near as big as some much cheaper small resorts in the Alps... – njzk2 Feb 26 '20 at 22:33
  • North American resorts usually exclusively own all the land you ski on. European resorts do not. – DJClayworth Mar 03 '20 at 22:12

2 Answers2

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I've wondered that too. I think the answer is limited supply combined with substantial barriers to opening new resorts. In the US, most mountainous areas in the West are owned by the federal government and administered by the US Forest Service. The permitting process for new resorts on USFS land is ludicrously expensive, slow and complicated (and expansion of existing resorts, though this isn't quite as difficult). You can get into the double digits of millions of dollars before even breaking ground. Then factor in the numerous protests, lawsuits, etc. ANY change in use of federal land goes through and opening a new resort is nearly impossible. Side note: some tracts of private land large enough to develop into a ski resort do exist. However they're rarely offered for sale and needless to say are extremely expensive

Most ski resorts in the West were opened when permitting was much easier. Now you have many more skiers (because of US population growth) and about the same number of large resorts as there were in the 70s (and many less small ones, but that's a different topic). So ski resorts are basically this fossil resource that we can't make any more of as demand increases

Also consolidation in the ski industry (lookin at you, Veil Resorts) probably contributes

Shane
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Because enough people pay this price for the resort to stay in business.

Sister site What Creates the Price in the First Place

supply and demand depend on a whole range of (hypothetical) prices. However, the equilibrium price (which is a certain price and different from the range of potential prices) is that price where both supply and demand meet. Source

James Jenkins
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    While I feel the question isn't very high quality itself, I'm not sure this answer is much help. Two people (including myself) pointed the phenomenon out in comments (supply/demand). If I felt the question needed more than 1 sentence to answer I might have done so, but in this case, should the question even remain open? – Gabriel Feb 26 '20 at 17:25
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    @GabrielC. I think it is a question for https://economics.stackexchange.com/ as written I don't really see how it fits on TGO. I think this answer and similar comments support this being a question of economics. – James Jenkins Feb 26 '20 at 17:32
  • P.S. If the question is closed as I think it should be, I will delete this answer to facilitate auto delete of the question. – James Jenkins Feb 26 '20 at 17:43
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    Supply and demand is the ultimative answer to all economics questions. The interesting part is why they are so much different in different regions. I think we got already quite a lot of indications in the comments and should keep this out at least migrate it. Deletion is a waste of the time of all the people involved – Manziel Feb 26 '20 at 18:53
  • @Manziel I respect your opinion, but dig a little deeper, compare the price of camping and hotels in the same countries/regions you are looking at ski resorts in. How do other outdoor activities measure up? – James Jenkins Feb 26 '20 at 19:22
  • This could be the answer to literally any 'Why does x cost y' question. Everybody knows this already and it's not helpful – Shane Feb 27 '20 at 07:54