Ski in Austria: Prices are getting higher

The final preparations are also underway elsewhere; at Ski amade, Austria’s largest ski association, season and day tickets are already available online. The lift operators are increasingly relying on dynamic pricing: those who are flexible pay less.

Booking earlier and buying online has already been cheaper in many winter sports areas. A dynamic pricing model is new in some regions. Christian Prinz, Managing Director of the Großglockner Bergbahnen, said: “The whole thing is widespread in various destinations, in various countries – for example in Switzerland. (…) This makes it easier to control the entire calculation and division of operations” – more on this at kaernten.ORF.at.

Speaking to the Ö1 midday journal on Tuesday, Prinz said that the actual lift ticket prices are calculated by an algorithm that evaluates past capacity utilization, the sales figures for the current season, and weather-related data.

https://www.wts.web.tr/en/ski-tours/

According to economist Oliver Fritz from the Economic Research Institute (WIFO), “dynamic pricing” primarily gives lift operators better planning: “Companies want to take advantage of their customers’ different willingness to pay. This willingness to pay is different at weekends than during the week, different in the high season than in the low season, and for companies it’s about increasing their revenues and, of course, being able to plan their revenues better.”

Criticism from consumer protection

Concerns about the system come from consumer protection, as ultimately only companies would benefit from “dynamic pricing.” Gabriele Zgubic from the Chamber of Labor (AK) also criticized Ö1 for making the tariffs increasingly opaque: “The dynamics or price increases have already become even stronger through the use of artificial intelligence (AI, note), and you don’t actually know how the price is made up.”

The operators are resisting this. The president of Ski amade, Daniel Berchthaller, said that AI-controlled tariffs were out of the question for him, as it would only be to the detriment of families as core guests. On the other hand, he believes that an incentive system to book earlier is sensible and legitimate.

Prices of up to 76.50 euros per day

The Vorarlberg ski area Silvretta Montafon already switched to dynamic ticket prices last season – more on this at vorarlberg.ORF.at. According to marketing manager Thomas Ettenberger, the range for a day ticket was “approximately between 50 and 75 euros”. During the holiday periods and on weekends, the algorithm calculated the highest prices, but Ettenberger denies that this has made things more expensive in general.

In general, however, skiing will be more expensive again this season, with the Ski-amade association being one of the most expensive areas. The highest price there this year is 76.50 euros for adults at the box office.

Ski-amade President Berchthaller justified the price as follows: “I believe we have a very large and diverse range of offers within Ski amade, and I believe we have a fair price-performance ratio with the 76 kilometers of slopes” – more on this at salzburg.ORF.at, ooe.ORF.at and steiermark.ORF.at.