Willingness to pay for “green skiing”

Abstract

In this note we provide preliminary empirical evidence on Norwegian alpine skiers’ willingness-to-pay for season pass attributes that make alpine skiing more sustainable. We focus on two key attributes; (1) compensating for the CO2 emissions associated with the activity by purchasing CO2 quotas and (2) compulsory use of public transportation to/from the ski resort. The results show that there is a substantial interest in season passes that includes CO2 compensation. However, combining season passes with compulsory use of public transportation (ski bus) does not seem to be attractive to Norwegian alpine skiers/snowboarders. The optimal prices of the two alternatives are approximately 11.5% higher (CO2 version) and 25% lower (ski bus version) when compared to are gular season pass.