The mountain in winter is a business of nearly 24 billion

A billion-dollar business for the winter mountains, which in the 2023/2024 season generated a total turnover of more than 23.7 billion euros, an 8% increase over the almost 22 billion of the previous season. This is the sum of direct, indirect, induced and spin-off effects on the supply chain of companies providing other ancillary services. The most important chapter is that of direct benefits, 11.2 billion, or almost 47% of the total, from goods and services consumed by tourists during their stay in the mountains during the winter months. Another 3.6 billion is related to indirect benefits, 3.1 from induced benefits, while the supply chain legacy is worth 5.8 billion. These are the most significant economic values that emerge from the latest edition of the Italian Mountain Tourism Observatory produced by Jfc, a tourism consulting company.

For the next ski season, whose start on the calendar coincides with the Immaculate Conception long weekend, total turnover is expected to be close to 11.7 billion, of which almost 5.8 billion will be spent on hotel and non-hotel facilities, another 4.5 billion on equipment hire, ski lessons and ski passes, and 1.4 billion on trade, catering and entertainment. Specifically for this year, Jfc forecasts a 4.2% drop in Italian customers. This loss is countered by the +7.5% increase in international clientele with an increase in arrivals from China, the USA, Canada, Scandinavian countries, the UK, Poland and the Czech Republic.

As always, Jfc's Italian Mountain Tourism Observatory analyses prices for the current season and compares them with recent years. For this year, increases in hotels, ski passes, restaurants and ski schools are more or less in line with inflation. In fact, on average, the hotel stay sees a +5.1% increase over the previous year, while the skiing week stops at +3.6%. Quite different are the increases on weekends and in high season where resistance to price increases is lower: the average for these periods rebounds to +8.4%. Increases of 6.9% for ski schools, 6.2% for ski passes, 8.1% for bars, restaurants, pubs and pizzerias.

The picture that emerges from the analysis of the last three years is quite different: in the 2024/2025 winter season people pay 34.1% more to stay for a weekend or during the high season in accommodation facilities; slightly less (+31.5%) is the increase practised for bar and restaurant services. The increase in prices for ski lifts, on the other hand, is +25.2%, similar to the increase practised over the three-year period by hotel accommodation facilities for both accommodation/services (24.9%) and skiing holidays (22.3%). Slightly lower is the price increase practised by ski schools, equal to +21.5%. So spending a winter holiday in the snow will cost on average 5.9% more this year than last winter. In other words, for a skiing holiday for an adult, an average budget of 1,453 euro is required, for a couple with one child 3,720 euro. A weekend in the mountains is worth an average of 571 euros for an adult and 1,630 euros for a family.

As far as destinations are concerned, the Dolomites stand out. Cortina d'Ampezzo leads the observatory's overall ranking of the top 25 skiing destinations, followed by Madonna di Campiglio, Livigno, Cervinia, Ortisei and Courmayeur. As far as the top 20 ski resorts are concerned, the Campiglio-Dolomiti del Brenta ski area wins, ahead of Alta Badia, Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, Livigno and Plan de Corones. The Italians' favourite slopes are Longia in Val Gardena as the most scenic, Spinale Direttissima in Madonna di Campiglio as the most adrenaline-pumping, and Dantercepies, also in Val Gardena as the most fun. Alpine skiing remains the most popular discipline, but the observatory notes that it is dropping from almost six hours a day pre-pandemic to four hours and 20 next season. Other activities in the mountains are growing, such as ski mountaineering, which shows an increase in practitioners of 68.7%. The amount of time spent in the mountains increases by about two and a half days compared to last year.