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Saas-Fee crowdfunds low-cost season ski pass

Skiers could get their hands on a whole season pass for just 222 francs ($223) in the Swiss resort of Saas Fee this winter – if enough people want one.

Published: 24 October 2016 10:17 CEST

Saas-Fee crowdfunds low-cost season ski pass

Saas-Fee is hoping to attract 99,999 season pass holders. Photo: Denis Emery/Photo-genic.ch

Based on the crowdfunding principle, the popular alpine resort will offer the low-cost season passes only if 99,999 people reserve them in advance.

From now until November 27th winter sports fans can book their discount WinterCard Saas-Fee online at we-make-it-happen.ch.

The deal kicks in once the target is reached. If it isn’t, passes will be sold at normal prices.

The offer is an 80 percent discount on regular season passes for Saas-Fee/Saas-Almagell – which, if the target isn’t achieved, will cost 1,050 francs – and is cheaper than a four-day ski pass for the area.

In a statement, the resort said: “Alpine tourism is facing a challenge due to an imbalance of supply and demand. In many areas, the surplus of resorts means that costs can no longer be covered. Saas-Fee wants to solve the problem by introducing a revolutionary price concept.”

“Our guests tend to stay for an average of four days,” added Pascal Schär, head of Saas-Fee’s promotion body.

“We want to make the price attractive for these customers. A four-day ski pass currently costs 259 francs; with the WinterCard Saas-Fee they can ski for less than that and, more importantly, for the whole winter.”

There is also a deal on three-year passes, available at 622 francs under the crowdfunding offer.

Further early-bird discounts apply to people signing up for the deal before November 6th, making the passes even cheaper.

According to Saas-Fee tourism the area normally sells 120,000 ski passes during the winter season, from one day passes to full season passes.

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EXPLAINED: Why is Switzerland so expensive?

Life in Switzerland is expensive. Photo by Claudio Schwartz, Unsplash

Besides chocolate, cheese and banks full of other people’s money, Switzerland is perhaps best known for being expensive.

The country is especially pricey when it comes to food, beverages, hotels, housing, restaurants, clothing, and health insurance – or pretty much everything you need.

While Switzerland is expensive for its residents, for people coming from abroad, high costs here are the ultimate culture shock.

READ MORE: Why Zurich ranks as the world’s most expensive city once again

Various studies have shown time and again that Swiss consumers pay much more for basic goods and services than their European counterparts, with the exception of Norway and Iceland.

For instance, one such study found that people in Switzerland have to pay 168 francs for a basket of consumer goods costing on average 100 euros in the EU.

Why is this?

Many reasons have been given to explain this phenomenon. Some of them however are based on popular beliefs rather than economic facts.

One such explanation that is making rounds in Switzerland is that prices in Swiss supermarkets are high because employees in Swiss supermarkets are paid more than their European counterparts.

While Swiss salaries are indeed higher than almost anywhere else in Europe, this explanation does not hold water.

Cost of living in Switzerland: How to save money if you live in Zurich

So what is the real reason for the high cost of consumer goods in Switzerland?

Among the most often cited ones are protectionism and lack of competition, which are inter-related, as the former invariably leads to the latter.

Trade protectionism is a policy that protects domestic industries from foreign competition.

A case in point is milk.

Milk can only be imported if it is in short supply in Switzerland, which is not currently the case. This means that Swiss milk has no foreign competitors vying for the consumers’ attention, and forcing it to lower its price.

This kind of protectionism extends to many other products as well.

But sometimes it works the other way too.

A study by the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland shows that foreign producers and suppliers impose large price increases in Switzerland, exploiting high salaries and consumers’ purchasing power.

This means that Swiss buyers are overpaying for their purchases by more than three billion francs, the study found.

This is the reason why so many people living in border regions go shopping in France, Italy, and Germany, where the same items are considerably cheaper.

Cross-border shopping: Vaccinated Swiss can now shop in Germany again

This practice is widespread in e-commerce as well.

Anyone who wants to order something online from a foreign store is often redirected to the supplier’s Swiss site, where the prices are often much higher.

This is called ‘geo-blocking’.

This practice finally spurred the public and politicians into action.

READ MORE: ‘Fair prices’: Switzerland moves one step closer to referendum on cost of living

A popular initiative tag-lined “Stop the expensive island” , which aims to fight against overpriced goods in Switzerland, was presented to the parliament in 2017.

It has been stagnating there for four years because PMs couldn’t agree on how to tackle this issue.

But in March, the initiative was revived and is heading toward a referendum (no date has been set yet).

If passed, geo-blocking’ will be prohibited. In the future, consumers and businesses based in Switzerland will have to be treated by foreign online shops the same way as domestic consumers

It is difficult to predict whether Swiss prices will drop significantly as a result of this initiative, but at least there is hope on the horizon.

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