A Hedonic Pricing Model of Lift Tickets for US Alpine Ski Areas: Examining the Influence of Crowding

Abstract

This study applies the hedonic pricing model to lift ticket prices from 2011 for 181 alpine ski areas in the USA. Marginal implicit prices are estimated for a variety of ski area physical characteristics and skier amenities. While controlling for these other attributes, the analysis also investigates crowding effects in alpine downhill skiing. Increased crowding, approximated by additional skiers per hour per acre, is shown to raise lift ticket prices at first, before exerting a negative impact on lift ticket prices at high levels of crowding. The results provide evidence for the existence of both agglomeration and congestion effects in downhill skiing and support previous findings of non-linear crowding effects in other outdoor recreation activities.