“Have Europe's ski slopes become inaccessible?” How much have the prices reached in some of the most famous resorts

Prices for ski holidays “have become completely unjustified and unacceptable”, criticizes the president of the Italian consumer protection association. In certain resorts in Italy, the subscription for a ski season has reached 1,800 euros. However, they are also expensive in Austria and Switzerland, writes Euronews.

According to a report by the consumer protection association Asoutenti, the prices of subscriptions for Italian slopes will be 40% more expensive this ski season compared to 2021.

For example, the Dolomiti Superski pass, which offers access to all 12 resorts in the famous area, will cost skiers €86 per day.

At Roccaraso, a resort in the Apennines, one of the resorts that has seen an increase in tourists, the price of a daily pass will reach 60 euros.

And when it comes to season tickets, the prices are also high. At Roccaraso, a resort located in the Abruzzo region, the price starts from 755 euros. On the other hand, in the much better-known Aosta Valley in the Alps, the price goes up to 1,800 euros.

Added to these price increases are the rising costs for renting ski equipment, as well as the ever-increasing rates at hotels and restaurants, writes Euronews, in the article titled “Have Europe's ski slopes become inaccessible?”

Resort facility operators blame the hikes on huge energy bills and maintenance costs.

Gabriele Melluso, president of the Assoutenti organization, says that this season's prices are “completely unjustified and unacceptable (…) both because inflation in Italy is under control and because energy tariffs, which increased costs for slope operators in 2022, have returned to normal”.

He added that these price hikes exclude lower-income tourists, turning skiing into a sport reserved for the wealthy.

Higher prices in other resorts too

A report published last year by the company Radical Storage shows that in 2023 the average price of a daily pass in European ski resorts was €66.46 – 24.7% higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

From 2005 to the present, the average cost of a ski pass in 100 of the most famous European resorts has increased by 92.6%, which means that skiers are paying almost double for the same slope compared to 18 years ago.

Expensive in Bulgaria too

The biggest increase was recorded in Bulgaria, where prices rose by an average of 34.8% from 2015 to date. Similar increases were also reported in ski resorts in Austria (34.3%) and Italy (33.1%).

The resort of Zermatt in Switzerland was last year the most expensive in Europe for skiers, with a daily pass of around 108 euros.

At the opposite pole, the cheapest was the Kopaonik resort in Serbia, where a day on the slopes costs only 37 euros.

In Romania, last season, the ski pass for a day was at least 50 euros, with prices that came close to those found in some resorts in Europe.