During the 2023-2024 ski season, the pass for a day on the slopes cost on average 97 francs in the Grisons area of Flims-Laax, according to an estimate by the SRF. The resort thus ranks among the most expensive in Switzerland, behind Saint-Moritz (103 francs) and Zermatt (99 francs). With an average price of 82 francs, Verbier comes in sixth position.
Nearly 100 francs to ski for a day, isn’t that exaggerated? To this question asked by the German-speaking channel, the executive president of the Flims-Laax ski lifts, Reto Gurtner, responded in the negative. “Skiing is far too cheap today,” he asserts. “In ten years, the day pass for Laax will cost between 200 and 300 francs.”
Reto Gurtner puts forward his arguments. On the one hand, there is the inevitable increase in prices, and on the other hand, the demand set to refocus on high altitude regions where snow cover will continue to be guaranteed. Grison is convinced: there will be enough people willing to pay such sums in the future. “For golf, people already pay up to 1,000 francs for a course,” he compares.
“Relatively unlikely”
These price predictions multiplied by two or three do not convince everyone. Still on the SRF, the director of the Swiss Ski Lifts, Berno Stoffel, believes that “this is not realistic”. Even if he does not exclude that such increases are a vision of the future for certain luxury resorts, he recalls that the average growth in prices in ten years has reached 15%. “And we think that will continue.”
As for Christian Lässer, professor of economics specializing in tourism at the University of St. Gallen, he points out that in the medium term climate change will certainly lead to a reduction in the number of ski areas. “As cynical as it may sound, those at higher altitudes will benefit.” If we add to this the necessary investments which will become more important, prices of 200 francs per day are not totally absurd, he believes. Seeing them rise to 300 francs, on the other hand, is “relatively improbable”, unless there is a “massive process of concentration” of ski areas, as we see in the United States. A development that he considers unlikely.
