The Impacts of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort Season Passes: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Single-Day Lift Tickets for US Ski Areas

• Main Author: Lai, Sijia
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2019
• Subjects: Ski; snowboard; ski areas; season pass; lift ticket; hedonic price; Econometrics; Industrial Organization; Leisure Studies; Recreation Business; Tourism and Travel
• Online Access: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2218; https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3226&context=cmc_theses

Numerous media analyses claim that supra-regional multi-resort season passes (mega passes) are negatively impacting skiing, snowboarding, and winter-sport communities. In particular, media claims that ski areas on these season passes are charging higher single-day lift ticket prices to nudge people to buy their season pass products. To test this claim, I use a hedonic pricing model to estimate the impact of season passes on adult single-day lift ticket prices. By applying OLS regressions to a dataset of 302 US ski areas for the winter of 2018-19, I find that the ski areas on the leading season passes (Ikon and Epic Pass) charge price premiums for their adult single-day lift tickets. However, the magnitude of the price premiums is much smaller after controlling for ski area characteristics and regional fixed effects.