Station closures: an opportunity or a risk for the transition?

Will the closure of ski lifts in France this season provide an “opportunity” to reinvent winter tourism, or will it, on the contrary, jeopardize the ability of some resorts to make the transition to alternative development models? This is the question posed by researchers from Inrae, Grenoble Alpes University and Météo France for The Conversation, in their article entitled ” Skiing, the pandemic won’t necessarily reinvent mountain tourism “.

” The current crisis will have repercussions far beyond the short term and the activities directly affected by the restrictive measures and compensatory provisions. The threat thus looms not only over the dominant activity of mountain resorts, but also over the transition processes initiated by the territories “, write the authors. Among them are two members of Labex ITTEM: Emmanuelle George (Inrae), a researcher in tourism development and coordinator of the Tandem project – Transition touristique des territoires de montagne – and Hugues François (Inrae), a researcher in regional development specializing in mountain tourism and information systems management. Co-coordinator of a research project on the role of mountain bike tourism, Hugues François is also directing two theses, one on the sharing of water resources in Alpine winter sports resorts, the other on the contribution of cultural heritage to the diversification of the tourism offer in the high Alpine valleys (Maurienne, Lombardy, Mercantour National Park).