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  Employment and career prospects for people who live in and around tourism sites

Bernard PRUD'HOMME - General Director of Chamonix Mont-Blanc Tourism Office, France

 

 

The Mont Blanc is an island

New concepts of training, new carriers, new individual initiatives… we have seen that tourism professionalisation can provide many job opportunities for the resident population of a tourist site.

Let’s thus focus on the

A. TOURIST RESIDENT = TOURISM PROFESSIONAL

equation and try to quickly answer four key questions.

1. How does the local population view the carrier opportunities provided by tourist resorts ?

Very simply, local people would like to :

• Work in their home country
• Enjoy the site as much as customers
• Pass the working tool to their descendants under better conditions.

Despite this threefold ambition, people will enjoy tourism growth only if it is controlled.

2. Is there any specific tourism carriers that require special educational backgrounds or training ?

As far as training is concerned, changes made to the curriculum of high mountain tour guide in the last ten years at the ENSA school (Ecole Nationale de Ski et d’Alpinisme) show to what extent multiple jobholding is an integration factor, and, more generally, helps energize the ski resort..But in Chamonix and elsewhere, the existing extracurricular and academic training is so poorly suited to the actual tourism requirements that – for instance – major specialized groups such as ACCOR have to define their own training cycle for their staff.

In accordance with its pilot role, Chamonix could initiate an educational project fit for modern tourism : a national school combining marketing, social and local culture (such as the ENSA).

3. What are the areas where we could create new jobs and careers ?

Today, the needs for a ski resort have been identified, the marketing part is provided by all experts from the ski resorts, and the resort manager should pay attention to developments focused on :

• The Environment
• The reputation and the recognition
• New technologies
• Services (consulting strategy for instance)

All these are drivers for new jobs.

4. How could seasonal workers and part time employees be better merged into the provision of tourist services ?

We must acknowledge that the increase in hosting facility productivity, and the decrease in trip length result in an increased number of customers – to keep the same sales volume – and weakened interchange, including cultural, between local providers and clients.

The making up for the deficit of this relationship assumes the training or rather the “accommodating” of seasonal workers to the local culture, and their loyalty to the wealthier valley in a ski resort like Chamonix where tourists come and go over an 8-month period.

These two objectives (accommodation and loyalty) are hard to achieve if the hosting cost results in them being more destitute than when they first arrive.

The answers we’ve just given assume an ideal scenario in which two well identified groups trade for services and resources.

SERVICE PARTNERS CLIENTS – TEMPORARY HOSTS.

And what is the reality in a valley such as Chamonix ?

The “administrative” classification of the population comes at the best time to support sociology, and emphasizes four categories of partners :

• Native people
• Seasonal workers
• Second homeowners
• Temporary hosts

Seasonal workers and natives easily find their affiliation to a service provider group, and temporary hosts are our customers.

Another category: the second homeowners who belong to neither one, or rather to a little bit of both, and that today play a passive but significant role by contributing to an inflation in the real estate market. That explains why it’s so hard to get a home in the valley, and thus to ensure the loyalty of seasonal workers.

Let’s focus for a while on the category of second homeowners

B – CRITICAL EVALUATION OF CHAMONIX RECENT PAST

They now live in most properties built in the valley, and these properties continue to increase, given the rarity of constructible areas and the willingness to develop the property bought.

You see here the progression of second homeowner beds compared to that of traditional accommodation, especially hotels, since tourist resorts are, for the most part, beds that are turned into second homes within ten years of their construction.

At the same time, entire sections of the local and traditional economy are gone: agriculture, handcraft, small industry, in favour of a focus on service and maintenance jobs, in other words a tourist “single culture” to the detriment of other job.

And, for a few years, we have noticed the negative effects of the real estate market inflation, which deeply transforms the way the economy works..Indicators of the formal economy do not change much, and are even steady compared to the underground economy that is very dynamic, and allows flexibility and mobility for new European clients.

Today, does it account for 50 % of the total economy ? No method or survey can answer this question.

As a result, in terms of job progression :

The 500 to 600 children of residents who will arrive on the job market within 5 to 10 years may only have the option to :

• Host excursionist visiting the recreational park Chamonix Mont-Blanc
• Or manage goods and services to customers with high purchasing power: an example of this progression is the increase in shopping for brand sportswear items on Paccard Street, which in the near future will invest in the recreational park

As for expectations regarding highly skilled jobs in the new technology area, we expect to see them transferred to Lyon, Paris, London, Dublin, and Frankfurt where the margin-to-cost ratio is much better than in Chamonix.

But then, how to boost the tourist life cycle within the ski resort ?

C – A SWEET LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS

Given the changes, are there any regulating factors that could allow the residents to settle for good in the site ?

The resort manager must support an economy, which relies mainly on tourism while making the community aware of the effects of certain forms of growth.

The above shows that on the long run, these effects are negative for main residents.

To conclude, let’s review together some of the regulating factors.

a) Increase the serviced land area in height, and thereby decrease the price per square meter ?

Short-term vision that would worsen over-occupancy cases.

b) Apply the same provisions as that defined in the coastal laws?.It may cause us to get involved in an absolute elitism, since the rarefaction of the offer leads to the increase of the square meter price.

But, that would give the community the opportunity to buy out more easily sensitive areas.

c) Fund seasonal accommodations by socioprofessionals from the ski resort and the community

The construction of “seasonal homes” is planned in many ski resorts, and pushed by the Ministry of tourism.

This vision will unfortunately not last, given the rarity of the serviced land.

d) Plan a dual real estate market, a price per square meter specific to primary homes, and a price per square meter specific to second homes. But today, how can we launch the process ?

e) By decreasing the inheritance tax on the working tool of the resident ? Measure complementary to the above, but that sounds unfeasible today in France.

The last three options imply a significant community involvement, and the following is the only obvious ending statement :

No regulation without community involvement.

Quite similar to what was done last year by taking shares in the valley ski lift Company.

On the other hand, elitist attempts should be avoided, as examples of concentration of “wealthy owners” show that they are not enough to feed the “islanders”.

Finally, to end on a more optimistic note, I would like to share a story with you :

“Joseph Tairraz, farmer, told me that ten years ago, his bees were complaining about not finding the fields fragrance alongside the new turfed square field, and that maybe we should plan a residential tax by compelling each owner to produce 10kg of honey a year. You know, he told me, 10 kg is the average production of a beehive, it does not need much work, only one to two inspections a week to see if the queen is OK.

Two inspections a week, 100 days of extra occupancy per second homeowners, very ingenious, Joseph ! But at that time, I was not resort manager…”

Thank you very much.

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