A Note from Arley, Partner Enablement & Analytics at Liftopia

There is an increasing trend of skiers looking for and buying ski tickets well ahead of an upcoming season. Our recent pre-season reports show that there is significant demand during spring/summer for next season, and some skiers are even purchasing tickets now for next winter. While you may believe the revenue opportunity is insignificant, a recent analysis shows that resorts earn a notable percentage of their total revenue for the season before the lifts start spinning.

To perform this analysis, we calculated the amount of revenue booked before opening day (we call this “RBOD” at Liftopia, catchy right?) for each of our resort partners. We identified a partner’s opening date as the first trip date for which revenue was booked. Revenue earned on Liftopia.com or a partner’s website from Cloud Store were both included in this analysis.

In the 2018-19 season, the average resort on the Liftopia platform earned 5.6% of its total date-specific ticket revenue before its opening day, with some resorts earning as much as 18%. Additionally, the average amount of pre-season revenue earned for each resort increased 45% over last year’s average, a trend that indicates growing interest in buying dated tickets well before the season begins. The resorts who earned the most pre-season revenue capitalized on this interest by offering lift tickets online months before they were scheduled to open, as early as June.

By offering tickets online earlier, your resort can also capitalize on this revenue opportunity. Skiers will be able to browse and book at your resort, locking in revenue well ahead of the season. If you’d like a few suggestions on pricing strategies that work to drive early bookings, please check out this post, or contact us at partners@liftopia.com.