Industry News
Every euro spent directly with ski lift operators — on passes, ski school, and related services — generates more than eight euros in total local economic activity, according to a major new study by global consulting firm PwC, commissioned by ANEF, Italy’s national association of ski lift operators. The report examined five major Italian Alpine ski regions: Valle d’Aosta, Trentino, South Tyrol, Lombardy, and Veneto — all of which hosted events during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics — and together form the heart of Italy’s ski industry.
Skiers Drive Local Economies
The study found that every €1 spent on lift passes, ski school lessons, and other services provided directly by lift operators generates:
- More than €5 in local tourist spending
- More than €8 in total local economic activity
In other words, a lift ticket doesn’t just pay for a ride up the mountain. It supports hotels, restaurants, rental shops, transportation providers, and countless other businesses that depend on winter tourism.
During the study period, €1.111 billion ($1,295 billion) in direct spending with lift operators generated:
- €5.576 billion ($6,5 billion) in total tourist spending
- €8.941 billion ($10.424 billion) in total economic turnover
- 75,236 local jobs, both direct and indirect
- €548 million ($639 million) in local and regional tax revenue
The researchers calculated that each skier contributes an average of €15.50 ($18.07) in tax revenue per ski day — a significant and consistent source of funding for mountain communities.
Resorts Continue Investing
The study also highlighted how much ski operators reinvest back into the mountains. In 2024 alone, lift companies across the five regions invested €291 million ($339 million) in infrastructure — new lifts, snowmaking systems, vehicles, machinery, and buildings. That represented 94% of all ski infrastructure investment made in Italy that year, concentrated almost entirely in these five Alpine regions.
South Tyrol led investment at 30%, followed by Trentino at 27%, Lombardy at 21%, Valle d’Aosta at 13%, and Veneto at 9%. For every €1 million in production value generated by lift operators, approximately €250,000 ($291,480) — a 25% reinvestment rate that is high by any industry standard — was channelled back into infrastructure.
Ski Lifts Are a Small Part of Tourism Emissions
Despite frequent criticism of the ski industry’s environmental footprint, the study found that lift operations account for just 6% of total CO₂ emissions associated with mountain tourism in the regions analyzed. The overwhelming majority of emissions come from transportation — primarily visitors driving to and from ski resorts.
Newer technologies are reducing even that 6% further. Energy-efficient lift systems and modern snowmaking equipment can reduce energy consumption by up to 20%, and many resorts are increasingly sourcing electricity from renewables including hydro and solar power.
- Related: Not All Snowmaking is Created Equal: New Austrian Study Challenges Carbon Footprint Beliefs
Mountain Communities Depend on Tourism
The findings illustrate how important skiing remains to the broader Alpine economy. Italy has approximately 2,500 mountain municipalities covering 35% of the country’s territory and home to more than seven million people — over 12% of the national population.
More than half of these communities rely heavily on tourism, averaging 17 overnight visitor stays per resident — more than double the national average. Across Italy’s mountain regions, more than 552,000 businesses — including 171,000 artisan craft enterprises — employ roughly 1.8 million workers, many of whom depend directly or indirectly on winter tourism.
Why It Matters
What makes the €8 figure so significant is the economic concept behind it — the multiplier effect. When a skier buys a lift pass, that money does not stop with the lift operator. The operator uses it to pay staff, who spend their wages at local restaurants and shops. The operator buys fuel, equipment, and services from local suppliers, who in turn pay their own workers. Each round of spending generates another, until the money eventually leaks out of the local economy through imports or savings. The total economic activity generated by that initial spend — across all those rounds — is what the multiplier captures.
Tourism is widely recognized as one of the highest-multiplier sectors in any economy, precisely because it is labour-intensive and consumer-facing: the money flows through human hands, and human hands tend to spend locally. Capital-intensive sectors like petrochemicals, by contrast, employ fewer workers per unit of output, so less wage money flows back into local consumption. Typical tourism multipliers in developed economies range from around 1.5 to 3 — meaning every dollar spent generates $1.50 to $3 in total economic activity. The PwC figure of more than €8 for Italian Alpine ski lift spending is exceptionally high even by tourism standards, reflecting the degree to which mountain resort economies are self-contained — with accommodation, food, equipment, instruction, and transport all concentrated in the same valleys and villages where the initial spending occurs.
As ski resort development faces increasing scrutiny over climate change, snowmaking, and long-term sustainability, the PwC-ANEF study provides one of the clearest measurements yet of the economic role ski lift operators play in mountain communities.
The report doesn’t settle debates about the future of skiing. But it does quantify what is at stake. When a ski area thrives, the benefits extend well beyond the lift company — hotels fill rooms, restaurants serve guests, local businesses stay open, and municipalities collect tax revenue. When a ski area struggles or closes, those impacts ripple throughout the entire community.
According to PwC’s findings, the equation is straightforward: every €1 spent with ski lift operators creates more than €8 in economic activity. That is a multiplier few industries can match.
