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Inaugural debate

Mrs. Claude COMET - Savoie Mont-Blanc Tourism project manager, Chambéry, France

 

Following the very important Summits that were held last year, in which we discussed travel to and around tourism sites, this year the Tourism Summits will address a burning issue in our minds – real estate – from the boom to the instability of the tourism industry…

Tonight, I would like to make a few comments:

• First of all, for the past five years, an average of one ski resort per year has been built in the Alpes du Nord region,
• while hotel rooms are vacant and renovations have not yet been undertaken to any significant extent, after more than 10 years of initiatives,
• while the number of visitor overnight stays has tended to level off or even slightly decline…

On the one hand, of course, we can be glad

• that these rooms that are sprouting up everywhere, most of which are tourist lodgings,
• correspond most closely to customer demand.

But for how long and to what end?

What is surprising

• is that there seems to be no land planning strategy behind all of this new construction,
• just a sort of powerlessness in the face of the situation.
• There is powerlessness on the part of the mayors, who are working alone, unheeded, and under-equipped to resist permit requests. Because, in the end, it is the mayor’s job to sign the construction permits.
• And you have to have strong convictions to dare to say no, when all personal interests lie in profiting as quickly as possible from the rise in prices…

Over the span of these three days, we will undoubtedly hear many times that this difficulty between the real estate market and the functioning of the tourism industry is not unique to France…

With this hot topic – the issue of controlling real estate development –

• we get to the heart of the notion of landscape, a notion that is not shared by all or even well defined,
• and yet is one of the fundamental attractions of our region;
• and we get to the heart of sustainable development, of course, in all of its aspects, whether environmental, economic or social.

Moreover, I feel it is important to point out, just before we begin this debate,

• the work that the ANEM (National Association of Elected Officials of the Mountain) has done to address the “challenges that the mountain must face in addition to global warming,”
• and the very engaging sustainable development charter that the ANMSM (National Association of Mayors of Mountain Resort Towns) recently launched, which Gilbert Blanc-Tailleur, the organization’s president, will discuss with us on Friday, at the same time as the results of the working group he led for the National Tourism Council.