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Critical assessment of tourism in Chamonix (1950-1999)
A review of the appraisal of development sustainability

Bernard DEBARBIEUX - Director of the Laboratory of Alpine Mountain (LAMA), Grenoble, France
assisted by Françoise GERBAUX, CERAT, Grenoble, France

 

Chamonix is one of the largest, if not the largest mountain tourist resort in the world. It is estimated that over 4 million beds are occupied each year. This is the result of several decades of sustained growth which can be seen in both varying and complementary ways :

• demographic growth, with the commune's population having doubled between the middle of the 1940's and the latest population count in 1999, which was slightly over 10,000 ;
• an increase in housing, which was all the more impressive as it resulted in very heterogeneous town surroundings and was especially due to the increase in second homes. The number of tourist beds recorded rose from 7,000 in 1942 to nearly 65,000 in 1999 (of which approximately 64 % were second homes) ;
• increase in the quantity and flow rate of the ski lifts.

Moreover the price paid for these various developments was often very high : agricultural activity (particularly difficult in Chamonix) was abandoned ; there was a spectacular reduction in agricultural ground, an almost complete urbanisation of the bottom of the valley as well as numerous transformations to the natural environment.

These few indicators are sufficient to designate Chamonix as being one of the alpine sites whose tourist growth has been the greatest in terms of quantity and, without doubt, the most debatable in terms of quality.

Hence Chamonix does not, in theory, appear to be a prime example of a place where the principles of sustainable development have been implemented.

However, a number of developments over the last ten years make Chamonix worthy of interest, on the condition that sustainable development is seen to be an idea dealing with cultural and political processes, and not just concerned with the conservation of natural resources. In fact the relevance of the concept of sustainable development relies on Chamonix's ability to take into account three types of development :

• the development of the social view that the inhabitants have of their valley's resources and long term development
• the development of ways to promote the involvement of both private partners and public players
• the development of public debate concerning valley planning and the conservation of resources

These three points of view are why in terms of sustainable development it is both right and interesting to study the Chamonix case.

An idea which is breaking ground

From the beginning of this century up until the middle of the 1970's, it seemed that Chamonix was a resort repeatedly submitted to spells of breathtaking growth. The arrival of the railway in 1901 gave this already renowned but small resort, excellent accessibility. This resulted in the construction of the first significant tourist amenities in the mountains (including the Montenvers railway) and the first crisis in property growth.

The organisation of the Olympic week in February 1924 had similar effects notably in the domain of sporting equipment. Finally, a sustained period of growth started after the war and accelerated with the opening of the tunnel under Mont-Blanc and continued into the middle of the 1970's. Except for a few relatively short-lived breaks in growth (world wars and the crisis of the 1930's), Chamonix has witnessed an increase in tourism for most of the twentieth century.

During the whole of this period, development has been of the modernist and capitalist, and not of the patrimonial, type. Indeed, development was mainly designed as a function of the profitability of invested capital, whether this involved the local families largely controlling property growth or outside partners organising the construction of ski lifts and the planning of high altitude ski areas. Moreover, this development was strongly motivated by the idea that it was highly modern : the modern technicality of the ski lifts, many of which appeared very daring when built, the modern architecture of several buildings, the modern social and economic approach with a lack of interest for traditional forms of economy (essentially agricultural and pastural) and strong and early urban attitudes, particularly concerning sporting activities.

Thus, growth was essentially a result of combining local resources, whether they be natural (countryside, natural resources) or cultural (countryside, heritage, know-how, etc.) with real or presumed needs of the tourist clientele, for example :

• topographical modifications carried out to make skiing possible.

Changes made to slopes for skiing appeared even more necessary as for decades Chamonix was believed to be unsuitable for alpine skiing, mainly because of it excessively steep slopes.

• hydrography, where changes were made to rivers in order to enable the banks to be urbanised
• constructed heritage, including the radical transformation of existing buildings or their replacement by modern buildings.

On the other hand, all measures which were generally imposed by outside influences, with an aim of restricting action upon these resources, were looked upon as being illegitimate restraints. This is why several measures protecting the countryside and the natural environment, particularly classing the Mont Blanc massif a protected site in the 1950's, were reason for both considerable and consequential political and institutional conflicts.

However, from the middle of the 1970's to the beginning of the 1980's and perhaps as a reaction to the effects of previous political behaviour, the first signs of a shift in local feelings were observed. These signs which appeared virtually simultaneously were :

• an electoral upset in1977 causing the replacement of a municipality known for its ambitious nature in terms of all-out growth by a municipality elected with a programme advocating a distinct slowing down of tourist developments
• the pure and simple halt to highly ambitious urban actions and the adoption of a very restrictive land development the creation, under an initiative by the inhabitants of Chamonix, of a vast natural reserve (Les Aiguilles Rouges) on one of the last parts of the valley still untouched by developments and protective measures inspired by outside influences.

More recently , this change in feelings and political action was confirmed on several occasions and in several areas. It can be interpreted in many ways and from several points of view at once :

• echoing what happens in all western societies, the local population showed an increasing importance for a standard of living which they believed to have been altered by the conditions of growth in previous decades. Indeed, many demonstrations hostile to substantial planning developments, to the mercantilism shown by some entrepreneurs and to the harmful effects brought about by certain equipment, saw the light of day. This is notably true in the case of the Mont Blanc tunnel motorway which to begin with was thought of as a considerable opportunity for improved access, but is now seen as a source of atmospheric and noise pollution due to the lorry traffic that it carries.
• Local representatives gradually became aware of the limitations of the previously adopted tourist growth model. This awareness was, to begin with, a result of the site's congestion and the rare opportunities for growth in terms of both building at the bottom of the valley and the construction of facilities up the mountain. However, this awareness was also in favour of a new appraisal of the natural resources. In fact the latter were gradually being threatened by the degradation of the landscape and the natural environment, at a time when their exceptional nature seemed an eternal guarantee of economic prosperity. Moreover a succession of catastrophes (flooding caused by the overflowing of the river Arve in July 1996, the killer avalanche in the hamlet of Montroc in February 1999 and the fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel in April 1999) emphasised the fact that the tourist system and local society were seriously concerned by the destabilisation of the natural or anthropoid processes, even when not due to tourist growth itself.
• Even though many entrepreneurs continued to believe, of course, in easy growth with a quick and rewarding return on investment, many of the most influential entrepreneurs have decided to invest in improvements to the quality of services available. This development is especially true for some of the major ski lift companies who are investing heavily at a time when opportunities to expand the ski areas and to increase capacities seem extremely restricted.

The progression of a converging awareness of the various players may be read as a sign of the obsolete nature of a growth model founded on the intensive and short termed exploitation of local resources, and as the beginning of a thinking process concerned with the longer term, recalling one of the basic notions of sustainable development. As this way of thinking has mostly been at the initiative of the local population, it is another proof of a change in attitude: indeed it is well known that the idea of sustainable development has all the more chance of being transformed into concrete and lasting action if it is brought about by local people.

The provision of a method to understand and to act collectively

Beyond this awareness by the players in the tourist system, a group of decisions taken seem to illustrate the change in the organisation of public life of these new notions, notably :

• The creation of a local tourist observatory to determine as accurately as possible the development of property susceptible to accommodate holidaymakers alongside trends in tourist growth. Even if the competencies and the resources available are modest, this observatory shows a desire to produce information useful in the management of communal affairs.
• The adoption of a traffic flow plan aimed at diverting traffic and car parking to the outskirts and making it easier to walk around the resort on foot.
• The drawing up of a "resort project" with the intention of mobilising all local partners of the tourist system in a analytical and strategic consideration of tourism in Chamonix. Analysis led to an appraisal of the number of tourists, shortly after the slight reduction in numbers from 1992 to 1994 had alerted the professionals. Future aims were to define and adopt a strategy to improve products and tourist communication on the one hand and collaboration and local decision making on the other.
• The commissioning of a critical appraisal study of the five decades of tourist development may be seen both as parallel and complementary to the self-appraisal which the inhabitants of Chamonix have been prepared for by the resort project. Indeed, the study was handed over to a team of researchers from Grenoble (member of the Lama-TEO, Université Joseph-Fourier, the CNRS and the CERAT - Université Pierre-Mendès- France, and the Institute of Political Studies). By mobilising outside partners, the critical appraisal of tourism in Chamonix could be bolstered by analysis based on a comparison with other tourist systems whilst the resort-project had to depend on an internal critical deliberation.

Moreover, coming three years after the launch of the resort-project, this critical appraisal was able to carry out an initial assessment of this internal process.

The major points of the critical appraisal

The working methodology used for the critical appraisal was drawn up independently from the commissioning body. The latter had certainly made the work possible by providing the researchers with all the necessary information and by allowing investigators to meet, at length when necessary, elected representatives and technicians. However, it never intervened on matters concerning protocol and the overall framework of the work's direction.

Consequently, this appraisal was within the guidelines of the concept of sustainable development. This actually means that the sustainability of tourist development in Chamonix is not uniquely judged on its ecological achievements as may be suggested by a very narrow views of the concept. Admittedly it is possible to analyse the mistakes in the tourist system as a whole which alter the quality of the environment. These aspects have or will be studied, and will be discussed later in the text.

However the aim of this study was rather to look at the basic notions and limitations of sustainable development, by investigating social views, local management methods and tourist decision making.

This is why this study consists mostly of interviews conducted with a sample of people of the communal population and a group of people who seemed to play a major role in decision making. This part of the work resulted in the emergence of a few important issues which were not without their contradictions :

• The local population clearly manifested its expectations in terms of standards of living. However these expectations differed according to whether importance was placed on the guarantee of financial rewards or on the quality of the environment. Now in Chamonix, these two objectives appear to be increasingly difficult to reconcile, with tourist growth having become responsible for the pollution clearly felt and identified by the population (cost of living, traffic, signs of social anomie). Furthermore, the population is divided into two groups of inhabitants which are quick to differ: the "real" Chamonix people, descendants of "established families" who demand a quality living environment and the "new inhabitants" many of whom declare themselves to be ready to tolerate the disadvantages of tourism in order to benefit from the financial advantages. Consequently, the growing importance given to the quality of life by the valley's population may be perceived to be an awareness of the quality of the social and natural environment of Chamonix's population and therefore of the tourists, and is also the reason behind internal tensions within the local population because of the diversity of opinions.
• Decision makers are now well aware of the limitations of growth which relies on an increase of tourists and a totally individualist management of the tourist activity. This increase in awareness can be seen both at public meetings organised as part of the "resort project" and through certain decisions, especially those relating to the modernisation of the tourist tax (the "resort card" system) and those concerning the capital of the ski lift companies. This progression can also be seen in the virtual disappearance of controversial topics such as "planning versus protection" which had punctuated public debate over the last few decades.
• However the ability of the inhabitants to come up with, and the decision makers to promote, an alternative in terms of development is limited by several unfavourable elements. Three will be given to illustrate this point, the first taken from processes suffering from a certain inertia (1), the second from impacts induced by social views (2) and the third from the perverse impacts resulting from what may be termed a relative activism of public authorities (3) :

1) in spite of an undeniable will to slow down the rate of constructions, the Chamonix municipality is confronted with the need to authorise certain constructions whether to respect past contractual obligations or to take account of a socio-economic state which requires the sale of land and property construction as a source of income for the inhabitants and a means of providing a guarantee that future children will be the owners of their own chalets.

2) The importance given by many inhabitants to the quality of the environment encouraged the denunciation of the pollution brought about by the Mont-Blanc Tunnel's traffic, all the more so as it appears to be mostly through traffic that generated very little financial return. At the time of the enquiry this traffic is frequently quoted as the reason for sound and atmospheric pollution in the valley. Now, although it is undeniable that this traffic generates pollution, this is just as true for other forms of pollution, caused by planning and widespread social practices considered to be legitimate (individual car travel, wood heating, etc.). But these practices and their impacts, undoubtedly incorrectly estimated, seem totally overshadowed by objections to pollution caused by transalpine traffic.

3) One of the major original features of Chamonix lies in the fact that it is both town, tourist and holiday resort. Public affairs must therefore be the object of a town management tuned to professionals and essentially preoccupied with corporate performance. Now these two management modes, which are usually derived from two types of culture are eminently linked and even misunderstood, risking a certain amount of confusion in the roles and the dissatisfaction of many players who voluntarily declare themselves unable to find their place within the system. This interlinking has led the municipality to create very tight connections with the ski lift companies, to play a considerable role in those areas traditionally handled by specialist organisations (tourist offices, transport companies, etc.) and to sometimes assume a leadership role in mobilising the socio-professional players, etc.

This would not be detrimental in itself if it did not have perverse impacts. By appearing omnipresent, the municipality appears unavoidable and all powerful to those wanting to participate in one way or another to the public debate. By concentrating the public debate on collective matters, the municipality sometimes fails to give the private partners responsibility in policies aiming at structuring tourist management in the long term.

It now appears that certain conditions favourable to a deliberation of sustainable development exist in Chamonix. The development of public debate is undeniable proof of this. Nevertheless, the limitations to such development are also noticeable in areas as varied as the social environmental views or the social-political organisation of management and tourism decision making. This situation proves the complexity of the social, economical and political implications that arise from a question initially built around environmental implications, that of the sustainable development of tourist areas.