Back to the list of speakers
Back to the programme

 

Conclusions of the debates

Prof. Peter KELLER - President of the scientific committee of the Chamonix Mont-Blanc Tourism Summits, Bern/Lausanne (Switzerland)
In collaboration with
Peter SCHMID - Expert, DETEC, Bern (Switzerland)

 

Tourism and climate change

The discussion on climate change focused on the film of the former vice-president of the United States, Al Gore, following its debut at the recent conference in Nairobi, and the lack of snow at the beginning of the current winter season 2006/2007. It also marked the inaugural debate of the 8th Tourism Summits.

According to the experts, airline transport is the largest source of tourism pollution in terms of the greenhouse effect. The motor car causes air and noise pollution. The majority of motor car pollution originates from the residents in the tourist regions and not from the visitors themselves.  

Local tourism appears therefore to be a victim rather than a deep-rooted cause of climate change. It is subject to the greenhouse effect impact, e.g. by the melting of the glaciers or by the elevation of the upper snow limit.

We should also bear in mind that tourist visitor flows are not the main cause of the current waste and pollution levels. Relinquishing tourism would therefore not be an option. We should not forget that tourism is one of the most popular forms of happiness in our societies, providing us with a means of escape to enjoy our freedom outside of the usual every day social constraints.

The transport needs of visitors as objective facts

The tourism transport needs and expectations must be taken seriously, even if they don't always meet with sustainable development indicators. They are objective facts that are just as important as the infrastructure or amenities.

Indeed, we note that potential visitors are mainly interested in the most favourable connections, as well as the speed, comfort and price of the tourist transport. They are practical and utilitarian. They are seeking the best solutions available in terms of the "trip" and "stay" transport networks.

Some of them view the trip as an objective in itself, providing them with an unforgettable experience. "Travel time is leisure time" particularly if it takes the form of comfortable public transport. Neither should we forget that the car trip has for a long time been a pleasurable Sunday leisure pursuit for many people. In terms of tourism transport, speed does not play the same role as transport for business purposes.

It is however remarkable that according to a German survey only 1% of travel agency customers of this large issuing country appears to be sensitive to tourism that is explicitly respectful towards the environment. A few years ago, the customers of an organised trip to a virgin forest in Poland were not content about paying a surplus for a guided tour. German sociologists believe that only attractive and entertaining ecological products have the potential of changing this behaviour.

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that these visitors do not wish their trip and stay experience to be disrupted by external forces or the negative impact of transport and traffic on the access routes and in the tourist regions and resorts. Nobody likes traffic jams, insufficient parking spaces, noise or pollution.

The transport offer and tourism development

New transport offers create demand. Major transport innovations have always had a significant influence on tourism facilities. However, we should bear in mind that the provisioning of transport infrastructure is only an initial investment that should be complemented by the provisioning of tourist services and amenities.

The large tunnels that are currently under construction in the Alpine area are not being built for tourism purposes. They traverse the Alpine underground and provide a transit route, particularly for merchandise. It is not easy to gain tourism benefits from these major tourism investments. There are few Alpine regions that have had as much luck as Valais en Suisse, which will be served by the base tunnel as from next year onwards, allowing the travel duration to be reduced significantly for visitors originating from major source markets.

Porta Alpina in the canton of Grisons is an example of an initiative that aims to benefit from tourism development via a large-scale investment in transport. This key project may facilitate the development of tourism throughout the entire region. This lift system could become a regional icon in the same way as the Eiffel Tower.

The "low-cost carriers" of the 21st century also have a structural consequence. They improve accessibility to traditional destinations in developed countries that have liberalised their aviation sector. They offer visitors or individual tourists the same advantages as the charter flights run by the travel organisers that have been offering collective or group tourism since the Sixties.

If we wish take advantage of this quick and reasonably priced form of transport, we must develop suitable tourism products. The users of the "low-cost carriers" have a budget that they have allocated towards the consumption of tourism products.  Service providers in the second home sector have already capitalised on this.

The destination as a laboratory for tourism transport

In principle, it is the upper echelon officials that set the framework conditions of tourism transport. Concrete measures must be taken in the tourist transport sector at destination level, involving a genuine cooperative platform between the operational sector and the local authorities.

The destination is a laboratory for innovating in the tourism transport sector. This began with the French super stations as the forerunners for incorporating a solution to access, parking and visitor flow problems within the destination. These stations always provide examples of best practice.

Car-free resorts or towns provide another form of managing the local tourism transport problem. This is a solution that demands specific geographical and topographical conditions. It can be problematical when the transport flows reach significantly high levels. The examples of Venice and Mont-Saint-Michel demonstrate this.

The example of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc demonstrates that the main traditional resorts are also resourceful when it comes to improving and resolving transport problems. As the largest tourism centre in the Alps, it has successively introduced an extensive pedestrianised area at the heart of the resort with underground parking systems. It has provided these visitors as well as the residents with a range of public transport options, such as a bus network, a shuttle service to alleviate congestion between heavy traffic points and a tram-train service providing a combined transport solution incorporating a ski area section.

Are there alternatives to the individual private car?

Tourism thrives essentially on mobility, which is today mainly geared towards automobility. 83% of European Union residents use the private car to get around on a daily basis and for tourism holidays and stays. There is therefore no credible alternative to the car.

We should on the other hand take into account what the economists refer to as the external factors or irrationalities in relation to the most fitting economic behaviour, e.g. the continuing trend of consumers purchasing less fuel efficient private cars such as the famous "off-roader".

There is still a great deal of room for development in terms of individual motorisation and airline transport in the main emerging economies. The holiday behaviour of a western European is quantitatively 40 times higher in terms of kilometres. In the United States, 780 cars are owned per 1,000 inhabitants. In Western Europe this figure is reduced to 500 and in China, only 2. A few years ago we calculated that if the Chinese adopted the same behaviour, the petrol reserves would be completely depleted within a period of ten years.

The Gets resort is 100% car free. This is an example of a strategy that attempts to control the problem of the car and which places more emphasis on other forms of "soft" mobility options, which are not only ecologically more efficient but are often more suited to the tourism experience of transport, which means that the transport modes can be slow, entertaining or quite simply, extraordinary: "the coaster" in the resorts, which appear to have come straight out of "Lunapark", bicycles in Lyon for visiting the old town, the city's world renowned cultural heritage.

It is important that soft mobility achieves popularity with the general public as demonstrated by "Suisse Mobile" with its cycling tracks or hiking with "slow up". These may be entertaining and sporting examples of being active in a sustainable manner in areas that are located in close proximity to nature.

The opportunities and limitations of the tourism transport policy in the market economies

If we are aiming for freedom of travel and the freedom of choice in terms of transport means, developing a tourism policy for visitors that is both attractive and energetically efficient is going to be a real challenge.

The authorities wish to encourage tourist mobility initiatives. These efforts improve the competitivity of the site and the tourist regions. The development of soft mobility in all of its forms is not possible without the policy backing and financial support of the regional and local authorities and taxpayers. This is for example the case with the Rhone-Alps regional government, who are encouraging this form of mobility and wish to organise the 2008 world skiing championships in the region as a "car-free" event.

This is the case with Chamonix, where the Town Hall is at the forefront of all of the practical measures that it funds by way of public securities, supported by other business interests.

Indeed, the authorities are often obliged to take action following popular initiatives aimed at combating the negative effects of over-motorisation. This is the case in California where the electorate has forced a conservative government to enforce quotas and taxes on individual private transport use.

We must moreover not forget that we live in a market economy where mechanisms can often resolve problems better than the authorities themselves.

("Road Pricing" is an efficient method for resolving the problem of traffic in large towns. This instrument cannot be replicated by the holiday resorts given that they do not represent worldwide daily peak demand. Enforcing taxes in the competitive world of tourism is problematic. The example of Venice demonstrates this clearly).

The price elasticity of demand and the choice of transport mode

The price of a tourism transport service is an important variable. It is clear that low prices are consistent with a high rate of tourism. They open up new destinations to tourism and directly influence tourist behaviour.

The recent rise in petrol prices has revived interest in the impact on travel and tourism. Up until now, the rise in petrol prices has not yet had an influence on decisions to set off on holiday or the choice of transport mode. However, despite technical progress aimed at greater efficiency in the area of fuel consumption, over the long-term we should envisage a rise in transport prices.