AUGUST 2002JOURNAL OF TRAVEL RESEARCH Perishability, Yield Management, and Cross-Product Elasticity: A Case Study of Deep Discount Season Passes in the Colorado Ski Industry

ated a deeply discounted season pass program, offering a 75 % discount from the previous year’s prices to Front-Range skiers (Colorado residents). The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of this discount program on skier be-havior. Specifically, the influence of the discount programs on skier behavior, cross-product elasticity, and market alienation was assessed, comparing the 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 seasons. While the results are somewhat con-founded by the poor snow conditions of the 1998-1999 sea-son, the discount programs appear to have significantly in-fluenced skier loyalty to the respective resorts. Finally, while declines in destination skier satisfaction with the levels of lift line and slope crowding were also identified, the discounted pass programs do not appear to have directly influenced the destination skiers ’ overall satisfaction. The evolution of tourism marketing theory and strategy is predicated on understanding the distinguishing characteris-tics of the tourism experience (Pine and Gilmore 1999). Building on the services marketing literature (Shostack 1977; Berry 1980; Fisk, Brown, and Bitner 1993), intangibil-ity and perishability are clearly two of those characteristics. Intangibility, the inability to effectively sense the service product (particularly prior to purchase and consumption), has been described as “the most basic and universally cited difference between goods and services ” (Zeithaml and Bitner 2000, p. 12). Due to service intangibility, in combination with the related concepts of heterogeneity and simultaneous production and consumption, service quality has evolved as the central or core research topic in services marketing (Fisk