The ski industry squeeze
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Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. A couple of weeks ago, I went skiing, or at least attempted to ski, in Vermont. And I got curious about the economics behind the snow sports industry. Turns out it's an industry in flux, and it's getting more expensive, both for new people who want to try to learn snow sports and for folks who've been doing it for a while. I heard about this a lot when I was talking to some folks on the ski hill.
Costs have been definitely going up. It makes family skiing with two young daughters a little bit tricky.
Yeah, I mean, if you get the passes that they do, multiple mountain passes, I think it's a little more affordable. But when you go for the day, you can spend close to $200 just for the ticket, never mind equipment and staying and eating and all that. Skiing is innately expensive, but it's so important to Vermont youth. You know, we have four or five months of winter, so I'm really happy. It's worth the investment.
I do think the climate has taken a toll. I think that they're forced to make a lot of snow, which obviously costs more money.
Yes, climate change is one major factor affecting this industry. So to get smarter about all of this, I spoke with Daniel Scott while I was up in Vermont. He's a professor at the University of Waterloo, where he's an expert in sustainable tourism. We got into how the industry is changing and what that means for casual skiers in the U.S. So first of all, are you a skier, snowboarder, winter sport extraordinaire?
It comes with the Canadian passport, yes, and then my wife's family is Austrian, so she gets double the skill level I do.
What factors are driving up the cost of snow sports?
Once the kids start flying past me, I'm just in catch-up mode.
Which one do you do?
We do ski, but yeah, Nordic ski, downhill, all the snow sports around here is sort of a way of life.
Okay. The cost of a ski trip in the U.S. has really shot up over the past decade. What are you seeing driving prices?
Yeah, that's happened in the entire North American market. And part of it's a bit of consolidation in the way some of the bigger resorts or resort conglomerates, they're buying up multiple resorts in different regions. And in part to get you to pay for your pass ahead of season. So you don't know what the weather is going to be like, but they get your money back. to get those Icon or Epic passes, they price those lower so that those who ski frequently, you get a good deal. But if you're going one weekend, as you maybe just are, or you're going with the family for a one-day pass, those prices have really skyrocketed so that it's almost more value if you buy the pass. But many people, if you're only going once or twice a year, aren't willing to do that.
So that's made it really difficult for families and beginners just getting into skiing. It's something you're not going to commit yourself to. But in Europe, we haven't seen that same sort of market trend, so it's a bit different over there.
If you could explain this past system a little bit more, because I actually did run into a lot of people talking about this, and I'm a very beginner when it comes to snow sports, and I you know, was surprised at the cost of like the tickets to do it and the rental gear and everything like that. But folks were complaining also that the passes, even if they may save you a little bit of money as a regular skier, it's contributed to, they were complaining about crowding on the slopes and you can't really determine the conditions. How do these pass systems work?
Yeah. So, I mean, the upside of the passes is, again, if you're going to ski regularly every weekend through the winter or something, you'll get your money's worth. And so that's good. The other thing that they do provide is those passes are good at multiple resorts. So perhaps multiple ski areas in Colorado and Vermont. And so you can try out different places. And if ski conditions perhaps at one aren't great, you can go to another and it gives you a bit of climate resilience as a skier in that respect.
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