Mark Holmgren

What Affects Demand for “The Greatest Snow On Earth?”

Utah has world-class ski resorts, seven located within an hours drive from the Salt Lake City International Airport. Such close proximity of resorts suggests a highly competitive market. This article empirically estimates how price, income, price at other ski resorts, weather, cost of transportation, and days of the week affect the number of visits for different groups of skiers at one resort. Skiers are responsive to changes in transportation costs and days of the week. The estimates are used to calculate the price elasticity of demand as well as the cross price elasticity of competing ski resorts. Results show that half-day skiers and college students are more price sensitive and hence more likely to select other ski resorts when own resort ticket prices increase.

Should I ski today? The economics of ski resort season passes

ABSTRACT A multistage decision process is involved when season ticket holders choose to go snow skiing. First, they decide whether to purchase the season ticket. After the ticket is purchased, each day of the season the skier decides whether to ‘hit the slopes’ that day. Empirical models are estimated to examine how prices affect the number of season tickets sold for different types of skiers and how snowfall, weekends and time of the season influence skier visits. The findings suggest that skiers will ski enough times to receive at least a 50% discount than the daily ticket price.