The current price to ski on Cerro Catedral in the winter season is 115 thousand pesos. But this amount is no longer fixed, as it was years ago, and could increase in June or July based on the inflation index. The uncertain outlook generates discomfort among providers.
In April of last year, a pass of 29,000 pesos was approved, but at the end of the ski season, the regulatory body Eamcec authorized a 60% increase. “We don’t know if (the move to 46,400 pesos) is going to be enough in the face of the upcoming panorama,” said the general manager of Catedral Alta Patagonia, Manuel Pérez Diez, at that time. In mid-April of this year, a daily pass of 115,000 pesos was announced, but it is believed that this value will not be maintained at the beginning of the season.
The situation is the same in the Perito Moreno hill ski center in El Bolsón and they estimate that the values could be updated over the course of the winter. There the daily pass for a senior is 44,300 pesos in high season; 35,440 pesos for the mid season and 33,225 pesos for the low season.
Elio Claudio Aciar has been an independent ski instructor at Cerro Catedral since 1982 and considered that the value of the daily pass is «crazy«. «In The 3 Valleys in the Alps in France, the largest ski area in the world, the pass costs $60 and you have 600 kilometers of slopes“He objected and added: “It’s a lot of money for a typical family, thinking about the air, accommodation, passes and classes.”
He said that the value of 115 thousand pesos for Cathedral “generates discomfort since many people consult and When we pass the costs on to them, they don’t respond again. It affects all schools and those of us who make a living from this. As instructors, for example, we have an arrangement: our season pass costs us the value of the daily pass multiplied by 10. Last year, it was 340,000 pesos. With the current 115,000 pesos, we would have to pay 1.2 million pesos to acquire the season pass«.
Aciar considered that current values “scare away people who want to come. Skiing is not going to be for everyone but for those who can.
Sabrina Poinho Sainz de Vicuña, head of the Destino Sul tourism agency, assured that they have had multiple queries regarding to the last 300% increase in the pass in Cathedral.
«More than anything we receive concerns from people who already came to the city last year. They ask us what happened, why is it so expensive. We don’t know to what extent the value will impact. We believe that there is an audience that will look for cheaper alternatives, but the Brazilian with the most purchasing power is going to ski the same«said the tour operator.
Néstor López Dávalos, director of a ski school and owner of a place that rents equipment on Cerro Catedral, questioned that “the value of the pass beat inflation for two consecutive years” and considered that it is difficult to know if “it will have any impact on demand.
«The Argentine no longer knows what is expensive and what is cheap. The problem is that if you compare it with the rest of the ski centers, they are cheaper. There is already little demand in the market that could be directed elsewhere. In fact, there is a tendency to visit Cerro Castor, in Ushuaia, and Chapelco,” said the businessman of the hill.
He recalled that despite the increase in the pass last year, demand was very high. “I think they are trying to select the clientele, looking for an audience with higher purchasing power, to offer a better service so that it does not collapse,” concluded López Dávalos.
