Investigating skier demand for environmentally sustainable ski hill management

A discrete choice experiment was used to evaluate the demand of skiers to Whistler (n = 405), British Columbia, for environmentally sustainable ski hill management initiatives as a component of a ski hill’s operations. The hypothetical choice sets presented thirteen ski hill attributes. Although few differences emerged between a priori segmentations (such as length of stay and place of residence), through the use of latent class segmentation it was determined that four distinct skier groups exist. Overall, the majority of skiers preferred environmentally certified ski hills, and considered an environmental surcharge to be unacceptable. Generally, skiers also preferred ski hills with greater amounts of skiable terrain, an advanced form of ski run distribution, shorter gondola wait times, and some form of backcountry access. These finding illustrate which ski hill attributes influence destination choice and show that demand exists amongst skiers for some forms of environmentally sustainable ski hill management.