Liftopia’s Ski-Lift Ticketing System Begins To Snowball

Liftopia is an innovative ticketing system for ski resorts that brings the variable pricing structure of online airline tickets to the ski slopes. Using the system, resorts can adjust the prices of their ski lift tickets to suit demand, with customers getting an average 33% discount. It's a great idea, but one that had largely failed to take off until this year. Liftopia launched back in October 2006 but was met with widespread speculation skepticism from the industry, and had a hard time finding resorts that were willing to sign up. The company's initial plan was to concentrate on the Tahoe market (given that it was closest to Silicon Valley the company hoped it would perhaps be more willing to try out the new system). But after the major resorts rejected the idea, Liftopia instead partnered with a handful of smaller ski lodges scattered across the country.