Shortly before going to press we received a letter from a reader in France who operates a small ski resort in the French Alps. We print it in its entirety. We think that his observations on his market with the European economy as background are well worth thinking about to the extent they apply to us. And perhaps they apply to a greater degree than we are at first prepared to admit. —The Editors.
From a distance, I enjoy reading your magazine, and this enables me to make extremely interesting comparisons between the problems of the U.S. ski resorts, and our own resorts, large and small, here in Europe.
It is clear to me that, with the impending energy crisis, and the whole change of habits, way of life that goes with it, the pattern of the ski area management has got to change.
So far in France, and elsewhere in Europe, the explosive development of the ski areas can be assimilated with a real estate speculation. The politics of real money, currency devaluation and endless wage increases, combined with the new popularity of skiing, has made it an attractive investment to purchase a second home in the mountains. The snow promoters (in France at least) have certainly used the opportunity, and have built thousands of apartments in the new snow areas, which have sold well. These sales have permitted the construction of a number of lifts, slopes, hotels, etc.
Today, the trend is clearly reversing itself: loans are harder to find, economic recession is looming all over, and the price of skiing has gone up substantially. What hope remains for the ski-area operators?
In the first place, a very careful survey should be made about the snow customers. I mean the real ski addicts. In the experience of our little resort (2500 beds, in the French Alps), one would find the following main groups, as a very rough guess:
- a. 50 per cent children, age 10 to 18, maybe one-half accounted for by the local population (this could be different in the U.S.), and half to the apartment and hotel dwellers.
- b. 25 per cent young people, age 18 to 25, either university students or young workers, coming to ski independently from their families, and eager to find cheap accommodations.
- c. 25 per cent older grown-ups, apartment and hotel customers, naturally wealthier than a or b), but less enthusiastically addicted to skiing.
In the long-range perspective, keeping in mind the shifting economy, and the fact that a young skier will probably be a life-time skier, the following patterns could be followed with advantage, in order to keep the ski areas busy and moving:
- a. build more and cheaper facilities for the young, with more accent on the volume and the low cost, i.e. for example less individual comfort, collective rooms, self-service restaurants, etc.
- b. develop the habit of so-called “snow-classes” whereby city schools move themselves as a unit to the mountains for two or three weeks, including teachers, for uninterrupted school teaching. This requires specialized facilities at the snow areas.
- c. less accent on the glittering side of the ski areas, with their night life and all that goes with it, and more insistence on the true benefits of a few days in the snow, without concealing the roughness, the cold, even the real danger sometimes. In short, appealing and catering to the challenge of mountain skiing. A whole shift in attitudes.
J. Desvallees
Peisey – Haucroix
