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  How the town of Chamonix Mont-Blanc has put into practice the results of the cycle of conferences on sustainable development?

Mr. Bernard PRUD'HOMME - General Director of the Chamonix Mont-Blanc Tourist Office, Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France

 

In answer to this question, I will give you a few success stories, but first of all, Chamonix strongly believes that there can be no social progress without economic progress. This assertion has a daily influence on decisions taken locally, even though 4 years’ worth of Tourism Summits have only superficially touched on economic questions.

Let us take a look for a moment at the economic development of the resort: the constraints and advantages of the site which this natural resource brings to the destination have resulted in the development of private enterprise of all shapes and sizes, from owner-operator companies to holdings with 600 employees, covering all the specialisations in tourism and facilities.

Based, for more than 5 years, more on quantitative than on qualitative questions.
At the beginning of the Tourism Summits, we made a critical study, in tandem with Professor Bernard Debarbieux, of the development of Chamonix over the last 50 years.

At the same time, economic circles at the resort were looking at this problem: let’s study “more or better clients” and how to respond to the requirement for productivity, and Mr Bidaut of the Compagnie du Mont Blanc, considered this question at the 3rd Tourism Summit, which was devoted to the improvement of productivity and the labour market.

Today, the desire for profitability, the need for companies in the Valley to be pro-active rather than re-active, impose on us the obligation to develop margin rather than turnover in order to satisfy the rules for the control of tourist flows which we considered several times at the 1st Summits.
And at the same time to measure the cost of the effort put into prospecting for business and into the quality of the service which the professionals at the resort have to offer, in close co-operation with the community.

As an example, I shall mention the accounts made by Ms. Mara Manente on the subject of Venice, and by Mr. Smeral, economist in Vienna (1999) “The Prospects and Limits to Growth in Tourism”
In order to reach a better understanding of the public-private partnerships in a resort, let us linger for a moment over the complex role of the institution of the community, so well described by Mr Debarbieux in his critical appraisal:

• Administrative relations with the government and the local Governor, and consequently the responsibilities for security, the police and the municipal registry office. Security which, in view of the particular circumstances of the site, imposes upon us the duty to reflect, in accordance with the development of the law on mountain rescue, upon the consequences of such evolution (is the privatisation of mountain rescue either possible or desirable?)
• Fiscal and Financial relations. The Town Hall has a certain number of tools which allow it to take on its various missions, examples being the law on the mountains currently being reviewed by the Government, the institution of a tourist tax received by the community, the purpose of which is to top up the financing of tourist facilities which are too burdensome for the 10,000 inhabitants of Chamonix, the development of the Professional tax, all these are opening up to us a part of the revenues of the local community.
• Political relations. The Town Hall represents the population in the management of public good, expressed through regulations for the occupation of the community land, currently in the news with discussion about Local Town Planning (PLU).
• Human relations, with the whole population of Chamonix, who belong to a local identity developed over more than 300 years. With a stable electorate for the last 20 years, who have, little by little, to integrate the European dimension of this extraordinary place, visited by people of more than 30 different nationalities.

Today our overall challenges turn on our natural resource, “the Mont-Blanc Chain”. What resources should we put into play to protect it, to respect it, while continuing our own development?

What influence can the local community have upon the cursor of development mentioned earlier: no social progress without economic progress?

To illustrate this problem, I will make so bold as to quote 3 examples of public private partnership which are specific to the resort, and to which we return day after day.

1. Promotion

Based upon the model of the GIE Maison de la France (the GIE is an Economic Interest Group), formed during the 80s as an association between the socio-professionals in tourism and the Ministry, financed 50% by each side, we have created another GIE, Chamonix Promotion, to bring together the ski-lifts as one third, the socio-professionals in the resort with an interest in the promotions which we organise through the travel business as another third, and the Tourist Office forming the last third of the budget.

The goal of this group: to reinforce the image of Chamonix among winter travel agents originally, and today, all year round.

Nevertheless, the development of demand through news modes of communication, the development of the Internet, and the concentration of tour operators, forces us to reconsider our objectives and to define the limits between promotion and marketing.

Today, partnerships are looking essentially towards the promotion of the destination.
Tomorrow, the public service may market a tourist destination on behalf of the private sector, who will take on the promotion.

Decisions taken at this very moment in time, at the Conference on Tourism of the Maison de la France, permit us to catch a glimpse of many different possibilities, by way of example:

• 40% increase in promotional budgets this year
• Fiscal incentives to encourage the construction or renovation of tourist aparthotels
• Multiplication of local initiatives
• Travel agents, Town Halls, and transport Companies of the Ile de France are to set up an Economic Interest Group in January 2004 in order to sell the Ile de France offering.

2. Ski-lifts

At the 5th Round Table in the 2nd Tourism Summits I presented to you the methodology for grouping together all the ski-lifts in the resort into one single entity, the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc. The originality of the Chamonix idea was that through the semi-public company, Chamonix Development, the community could enhance the value of its shares in the future holding company, and at the same time to dispel fears of seeing an international company taking them over.

Carried out 3 years ago, this development satisfied all the shareholders, and we should take note of many developments:

• Merger of all the ski-lift companies to form 2 divisions, Cie du Mont-Blanc cables and Cie du Mont-Blanc refurbishment. As of today, the holding company which made this arrangement possible has been emptied of purpose. The subsidiary, the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc could perhaps absorb its parent holding company if the need should arise.

Economies of scale and the enhancement of the value of the capital of the smaller shareholders would justify this development.

But the local semi-public company proves the need to take a better look at the economic data of the company and on the basis of such exercises to specify its objectives, for example:

• Encourage local development rather than outside development
• modernise the ski-lifts urgently
• maintain the interest of the partners in the semi-public company
• maintain the free circulation of public transport services serving our guests and the local population.

The renewal of all our lifts is shared by all of us, but the development cost poses a number of questions of balance.

Faced by these constraints, the shareholders of the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc wish to maintain the opportunities for outside development.

The problem of the profitability of the investment in ski-lifts is posed through the whole circumference of the Alps. The race to the high-tech can no longer be absorbed only by the customers, and here is the supreme paradox, such a prestigious site as Chamonix should have facilities and equipment of the very highest level.

You can see that the game is not an easy one and that the goal of the Chamonix Développement semi-public company, whose object is transport, has plenty of future. It has sketched out for the coming 5 years an even more ambitious project: the Tram Train, a project which we presented on the occasion of the Sustainable Development Prize in 2002. The semi-public company is now dreaming of providing itself with the means to become the tool for the integrated management of the resort, and in this way to bring into being a real public-private partnership.

One last example: seasonal accommodation.

Chamonix is today creating a new semi-public company, Locale Chamonix Logement.
This partnership between the public and the private will enable us to respond to our most important common worries in our valley, to social economic and tourist challenges.

The town of Chamonix is seeking how to create this semi-public company between the partners. It is proposing to the companies hit by the difficulty of finding accommodation for its seasonal staff that they join in to the tune of 100 shares at a price of € 75 per share, making up a shareholding of € 7,500.

This financial contribution to the capital of the semi/public company grants the following:

• Reservation rights for 30 years
• right to designate the candidate to the housing

But nevertheless for financial stability it needs an undertaking by the employer to guarantee the settlement of 12 months’ worth of rent.

This small discussion shows how far the major equilibriums of the resort concern us, and Professor Bernard Debarbieux will in a few moments explain to you how local lessons can be learned, general questions posed by the Tourism Summits.

Thank you…