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Eric FOURNIER - Vice-Chairman of Regional Council, Rhône-Alpes, France

 

Minister,
Honoured Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of Anne-Marie COMPARINI (who asked me to represent her tonight) and of all my colleagues at the Regional Council, I would like to say how pleased the Rhône-Alpes region is to be involved in these first Summits of Tourism.

As a town councillor in Chamonix I am also extremely happy that the town and especially its Mayor, initiated this event, which is an audacious, but highly useful undertaking !

Firstly because Rhône-Alpes is a tourist region

It is the second most popular tourist destination in France (Paris being the first), the most popular mountain region, and it represents 80 % of the French "mountain" offer whether in number of beds, turnover of ski lift companies, or booking office reservations, etc.

Although Rhône-Alpes is a tourist region, it is also an area which is rich in innovation. This is because it is our job to be in the forefront of tourism and we would like to preserve our position. Moreover we believe the topics and questions that you will be dealing with are crucially important when considering and acting in favour of this tourism of the future which now has to be sustainable.

And also because Chamonix is symbolic of the Rhône-Alpes region

It is symbolic because of its particularly rich history and heritage, and also because of all the challenges of the future, such as land planning, urbanisation and especially transport.

With its outstanding tourist economy, Chamonix, is an important area for the region which necessitates considerable intervention using,

Minister, new resources which are not provided by current legislation.

It is therefore vital that the State, local authorities and socio-professionals together draw up the outlines of common action which will allow us to intervene in such areas.

For these first "Summits" you have chosen the topic of sustainable development. This is indeed an essential matter which must be put before both public and private decision-makers.

The question is obviously relevant to public policy and must necessarily evolve from a time when requirements and solutions were mainly in quantitative terms (cf. Snow Plan) to a time of qualitative and long-term management of the sites.

Even highly structured tourist organisations with good capacity and frequentation rates, of which there are many in the Rhône-Alpes region, may suffer from this changeover in the long term, even if they are helped by the (dynamic) action of the CRT and other promotional bodies.

In order to remain "competitive", our concept of tourism must change : tourism of the future, at least for us, cannot be made using yesterday's way of thinking, planning techniques and management methods.

A certain number of fundamental questions must therefore be asked :

• What are the "sustainability" factors in tourism ?
• On what areas must (or can) public intervention occur ?
• What form should this public intervention take to keep up with rapid market changes ?
• Sustainable development requires a better integration of tourist consumer trends

Tourist consumer trends change. They reflect deep-rooted developments in society, and depend on fashion which can favour one sort of destination rather than another and which reveal significant socio-cultural trends.

These tourist consumer trends also depend on other factors i.e. economic, with variations in exchange rates and technological, in terms of transport.

Although these trends can not be steered merely by tourist policies, they must obviously be taken into account: the desire to "consume intelligently" can be seen in the demands made on aspects of the tourist offer such as access to the resort, accommodation, etc.

In which case immediate, strictly practical, solutions to site malfunctions must be considered cautiously.

For example, responding to a parking problem by creating new car parks. Such facilities are certainly useful but often they do not withstand changes in consumer trends and behaviour.

Should we think of "temporary" solutions or at least those with a limited lifespan so that adjustments can be made to keep up with changes in demand ?

Some new concepts along these lines are currently being studied for tourist accommodation.

• Creating sustainable tourism probably means finding new, more global, wider reaching partnerships

Sustainable development, in tourist terms, involves a decrease in environment/planning antagonism.

We therefore need to successfully implement new, wide reaching forms of planning, development and conservation.

This involves real cultural change : and is not without cost.

Greater anticipation is required by bringing together all the various aspects and therefore providing better-developed strategies for the sites.

There are also direct costs since the introduction of new procedures implementing operations can prove very costly (or less profitable in the short-term).

To rise to these new challenges, new types of partnerships are needed, especially between public players. Traditional tools, such as natural reserves, etc. are not suitable.

The Espace Mont-Blanc is an example of this with a trial partnership aiming to implement a policy of sustainable development on an important area.

• Creating sustainable tourism also requires developing the relationship that the man has with the land :

This is an essential, but often ignored or forgotten factor of "sustainability". Sites such as Chamonix have been modelled by the man and their sustainability cannot be envisaged without taking into account the relationship that the local populations feel for them.

Although opinions may differ, the "marks" left by man on the landscape are now part of the site : sustainability and modernity should not be in opposition. Whilst tourism opens up outstanding places, it also provides opportunities for the local populations. Therefore local populations must be taken into account when elaborating and managing tourist offers (maintaining populations and encouraging them to accept tourism)

These many questions, as well as others, will be brought up over the next two days.

I hope these and the following Summits of Tourism will be a great success.Thank you all for your attention.