Official kickoff of the winter season in Alpes-Maritimes, which has 15 resorts in our department.*
With 233 alpine ski slopes (covering 469 km) and 29 cross-country ski trails (184 km), an exceptional level of sunshine (more than 300 days a year), and optimal accessibility to the resort sites (about 1h30 from Nice and 3h from Paris), the Maralpine resorts welcome about 300,000 non-Azurean tourists in winter and 120,000 in summer.
What better spokesperson than Charles-Ange Ginésy, former mayor of Valberg and President of the ANMSM (National Association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts), who has called for the complementarity of the tourist offer?
“These resorts offering a high level of services and embodying a strong capacity for innovation, thanks to numerous investments, are a tourist and economic engine, complementary to the coast,” recalled Charles-Ange Ginésy in front of a gathering of stakeholders in the departmental council chamber. “These stakes are all the more significant when we know that for every €1 spent on a ski pass, an additional €6 is spent by the customer at the resort, which reflects a dynamism that we must support.”
“We are expecting a promising season,” continued Charles-Ange Ginésy, who announced a communication plan visible on large billboards, in local media, bus shelters, train stations, and shopping centers.
The ANMSM – Atout France (G2A) mountain resort indicators are positive: nationally, the Christmas week shows a forecast occupancy rate of 58% of tourist beds already booked, and the New Year’s week at 51%.
Locally, Valberg: 63% for Christmas week, 67% for New Year’s week; Isola 2000: 70% for Christmas week, around 100% for New Year’s week; Auron: 70% for Christmas week, 100% for New Year’s week; La Colmiane: around 50% for both periods.
However, France (51.1 million skier-days) has just lost its leading position to the United States (54.7 million) and Austria (52.1 million) in terms of skier-days.
How to regain lost ground?
As a knowledgeable figure, the president of the departmental council, himself an entrepreneur in the sector, has the answer: “To be competitive, we must clearly communicate on vectors, on brands. That’s why we support the CRT Côte d’Azur (€2.65M in departmental support), which has launched the Côte d’Azur France brand. Moreover, French promotion needs to be done with a more global communication tool. This is what we are doing with France Montagnes, to promote our resorts in France and internationally.”
But that is not enough, and we need to go further, and his message is clear: “To strengthen the attractiveness of French resorts, entrepreneurial mayors must continuously invest in infrastructure. Today, we cannot deny climate change: it is a reality, and the resorts have understood this as they adapt their strategy and functioning and diversify.” *
Wearing the hat of the departmental President, he does not shy away from his role: “This support is notably reflected by a massive contribution from the Department to the joint unions of the resorts. Since the beginning (17 years now), the total amount of our contributions has amounted to €206M. This year, we are providing them with €16M (€1.1M more than in 2016).”
Charles-Ange Ginésy concluded his remarks by setting the course: “This reflects the ambition that drives us to continually strengthen the ties that unite us with the resorts. This long-term strategy has borne fruit.”
The “tracks” are laid out; now we must take them…
