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The main ski season is over. The prices for ski day tickets have increased. SRF evaluated the prices.
That’s what it’s about: In the 2023-2024 ski season, many destinations relied on dynamic pricing. SRF collected and evaluated the prices automatically. One thing is certain: 100 francs or more for a day ticket is now completely normal in some ski areas. And the prices for advance sales have also risen.
This is dynamic pricing: In ski areas, dynamic pricing works in a similar way to air travel or hotel bookings. Depending on the ski area, demand or weather are decisive for price increases. Simply put, the following applies to winter sports passes: If you book early, you will travel cheaper. But there are big differences between the destinations: in some places the day ticket costs 60 percent less if purchased in advance, in other places you can only save a few percent at most.
The extreme examples: St. Moritz, Zermatt and Flims-Laax set new high prices: St. Moritz sold the most expensive day ticket for adults on December 30th. Anyone who spontaneously decided to hit the slopes paid 118.50 francs. In total, St. Moritz sold day tickets that cost 100 francs or more on 43 days. Zermatt also demands a lot; this was the case there on 41 days and in Flims-Laax on 24 days.
Higher than last year: Prices in all three areas were significantly higher than last year. And it’s not just the day tickets that are expensive. Zermatt has increased advance sales by an average of 10 percent compared to the previous year. “We don’t control the prices, the algorithm does that,” says Markus Halser, managing director of Bergbahnen Zermatt. “We notice that demand has increased and so has the price.” Even if there are big swings towards the top: in St. Moritz and Flims-Laax you can save a lot if you book early: between 60 and 40 percent.
Here the price is moderate: The Gstaad ski area in the Bernese Oberland has not increased advance booking prices compared to last year. They are largely similar to before the corona pandemic. And the maximum price of 76 francs for a day ticket is significantly lower than that of comparable ski areas.
The explanations of the ski areas: When asked, leader St. Moritz writes that the prices for ski day tickets are set based on the season, demand and the time of purchase. The guests have now adjusted their purchasing behavior and many would purchase their tickets well in advance. St. Moritz and Flims-Laax write that the price fluctuations above 100 francs are driven by stronger demand. In Flims-Laax and other areas, the weather forecast also played a role. The ski areas emphasize that the dynamic pricing model helps to smooth out utilization over the season and consider the pricing model a success.
Methodology of data evaluation
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Dynamic prices in ski resorts are a “black box”. Although some ski areas declare the highest or lowest price, there are rarely average values. In addition, it is hardly transparent how the prices are actually calculated.
“10 vor 10” therefore automatically collected and evaluated all published prices for each day on the websites of ten ski resorts using the so-called “scraping method”.
The evaluation only takes into account day tickets for adults in the period from December 15, 2023 to February 25, 2024. The values are unweighted: only the ski areas themselves know how many ski passes are sold and at what price The cheapest price was only valid for a few tickets.