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  What are the objectives of Chamonix Mont-Blanc's cultural strategies ?

Mr. Claude MARIN - Director of Cultural Affairs, Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France

 

In order to highlight the links between culture and tourism in Chamonix, I think it prudent to first take a brief look at one of the issues facing our town.

With a resident population of 10,000 inhabitants, we are a fairly small town.

As regards our economy, we are a large resort capable of offering accommodation to at least 55,000 visitors in winter and 65,000 in the summer season.

In terms of culture, our town councillors have had to take into account the legitimate needs expressed by the local residents. It is for this reason that we have a library, a youth and culture centre, two music schools and a museum.

All of these facilities are inordinately large. If I had to take an example, it would be the town library, occupying an area of 2000m², which offers 60,000 books, records and games for loan, and provides extremely pleasant reading areas and exhibition spaces. A library that is extremely large for a town with a population of 10,000, but which is logically sized given the tourist population we play host to and, more particularly, the numerous visitors with second homes in Chamonix as we have 8000 owners of chalets and apartments.
These regular visitors to Chamonix are familiar with and benefit widely from the cultural attractions on offer here which, it could be said, contribute to encouraging their loyalty to this region in the same way as the community's extremely rich network of associations. (Some of these associations organise quality events that are subsidised).

In Chamonix, the facilities and most of the services meeting the demands of residents form part of the variety of the resort's overall tourism offer. This is a positive strategy which, from time to time, involves significant investments and relatively high running costs for the town. 

In order to better define the aims of Chamonix's cultural strategies, allow me to take a look back and analyse where we have been so we can gain a better idea of where we are going.

Until the mid-XVIIIth century, the Alps were only crossed in a few more or less developed areas and passes: merchants, pilgrims and a few "travellers" en route to the cities of art on the Italian peninsula, for example at the Mont Cenis pass or the Grand Saint-Bernard pass, to name the close passes. The mountains were therefore hostile, demonized, marked by bandits and wandering souls. The travellers feared terrible storms and blizzards, even in the summer, in this miniature ice age.

A new combination of factors resulting from a development in the economic systems, the improvement of modes of transport and a relative stabilisation of the frontiers in Europe favoured movement and travel. Not only that but the literature of the time also played a major role as it put a whole new perspective on nature in general and on the mountains in particular. The stage was set for the entrance of a new player: homo turisticus alpinus, whom it could be said was born here in Chamonix in 1741.

Writers, poets and painters referred to the emotion of the mountains, scientists experimented with, analysed and explained these new territories and the travellers told of and commented on their trips and their conquests.

The invention of these high altitude tourist locations transformed the look, the surrounding area and the spirit of these sites: the accursed mountains became magnificent and these barren areas began to generate income. Thus alpine tourism was born out of a cultural approach to the mountains by the local residents and the prospect of a new economy for the mountain dwellers.

Winter sports would later emerge from a new perception of the mountains. The snow that once isolated, delayed work in the fields, this snow that was previously suffered, would become white gold for the resorts.

Thus, visits to the mountains by tourists came long before the organisation of the facilities and attractions on offer. Initially the resorts tried to meet the demand before structuring their offer so as to adapt it to the complex and varied behaviour of the customer of today. 

From a marketing initiative aimed at developing mass tourism, which primarily concerned products, targets and models, the resorts have moved on to a more anthropological marketing strategy which involves sense, value and authenticity. And it is for each to determine its roots, its founding myths, we could say. 

The Chamonix council and the Tourist Information Office have defined a strategy accompanied by a project station which offers collective vision of the development and clear positioning for those customers canvassed and in the face of competition. 

Beyond the quality of service that we are duty bound to provide, it was determined that it was the natural and cultural characteristics of our site which form the basis of its competitive advantage, namely our natural environment and the activities associated therewith – mountaineering, skiing and hiking, but also our history and our culture.

Chamonix's cultural policy therefore contributes to the definition of the strategy, its accompanying program and the overall development of the resort. And this initiative is not only carried by the community. When a ski-lift manager confirmed that he no longer wanted to be purely a carrier but that he wished to develop a range of cultural attractions on his site as part of a quality initiative, we then considered that we were all committed to a common prospective vision of our resort.

Perhaps that the most important thing in the mountains was not the legwork but the route planning.
So, in concrete terms, what are the objectives (and the means) of Chamonix's cultural strategy ?
Taking account of our peculiar nature, as presented at the beginning of this speech, namely Chamonix as a town and a tourist resort, 12 years ago, a Culture-Organisation service directly attached to the Council, was created here. We have several missions :

• To implement the actions defined by the council members,
• To ensure the coherence and co-ordination of all events,
• To support or organise events,
• To develop long term projects and programs.

 Some examples :

• In 1991, we created a Festival of Science which is held annually on a different theme and attended by thirty or so scientists. Over 3 days, the festival attracts around 1000 participants. Why a Festival of Science ? Because there are numerous scientists behind mountaineering and there are still numerous researchers working in the valley today: glaciology, geology, astrophysicists, botanists, ecology etc. In Chamonix, science and the mountains share a long history and one which continues to this day. With this festival, we create an area for reflection for citizen science, a communication tool for the resort and a source of stimulation and excitement for the school pupils in the valley. In 2002, we organised 84 talks in Chamonix schools.
• Together with the Musée Alpin de Chamonix and the Conservatoire d’Art et d’Histoire de Haute-Savoie we have put on numerous themed exhibitions which provide us with an opportunity to rediscover our history.

 These exhibitions have a triple objective :

• to provide a cultural service as part of the resort's tourism package,
• to rediscover and retell our history and our heritage,
• to establish factual communication conveying another image of Chamonix, and by another, I mean an image less expected than that involving major sporting competitions and extreme exploits, a gentler image than that generated by the dangerous nature of the mountains.

   

  • The history of skiing in the valley – 1876/1893
  • The history of the development of the mountains : from rail to cable
  • Fiction cinema to celebrate the centenary of the invention of cinema
  • 200 years of tourism
  • The scientific epic of the Vallot family
  • 500 years of cartographic history of Mont-Blanc
  • A look at the life of writer, Roger Frison-Roche,
  • and for 2003 : Crossing the Alps and Lartigue in winter

 We also endeavour to stick to the contemporary and to anniversaries :

• In 2000 (the Gates) – Year of the Mountains - International Year of Water
• Japan Year - Victor Hugo

Finally, we are currently developing a project for a new museum (of man and the mountains).

To go into specifics, I have chosen three examples which are representative of our cultural activities and the diversity of our objectives and the financial commitments involved in them :

• At the end of the next talk, we invite you to come and take a sneak preview of our future exhibition, Crossing the Alps, currently being assembled.
• There I will be introducing the Musée Alpin's latest acquisition: a view from Mont-Blanc by Signac, a post-impressionist painter, a picture the town of Chamonix has just recently acquired.
• And last but not least, a cross-border co-operation project with our Courmayeur neighbours, which is thus enjoying European funding:

 It is Luigi Cortèse however who will be telling you more about that particular project.