4 Montagnes Remix: experimenting to rethink a tourist destination

Against a backdrop of global change, accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism is a sector currently undergoing profound change. The increase in tourist and recreational mobility, the emergence of new publics and new practices have upset the balance in place in many tourist destinations, particularly between residents and visitors. The Vercors 4 Montagnes region is no exception.

In a perspective of societal transition from “visiting” to “living”, the notion of destination is also re-examined from the angle of local life and economic diversification.

The 4 Montagnes Remix teaching experiment, led by a team of UGA teacher-researchers and involving two Master’s classes (IUGA and UFR STAPS), is an opportunity to work collectively through a creative and innovative approach. The creative challenge on which the students are “working” is :

“How can we make the 4 mountains a lively, hospitable space, both for day-trippers and visitors and for its inhabitants?”

At the end of September 2021, the students will work for three days on this challenge, with the ultimate aim of creating a prototype, logically disruptive, and part of the problematic of the transition of mountain tourist territories.

The final presentation of the prototypes will be made to local stakeholders, including elected representatives, the former director of the PNR du Vercors and the director of a tourist office.

The students imagined and built models illustrating the tourism of tomorrow in the Vercors, against a backdrop of climate and cultural change and a health crisis. On the 3rd day of this creative experiment in Autrans, they presented their prototypes to the Vercors Regional Nature Park, local elected representatives, local authorities, community leaders and journalists.