French authorities halt tourism-focused development at ski resorts

Several years ago, projects such as building hotels or tourist residences, constructing roads to natural attractions, installing ski lifts, or expanding ski areas would have met little opposition in Alpine ski resorts. Today, they divide residents, between those who want to continue developing the mountains for skiing and tourism and those who would like to put a stop to this, which has brought prosperity to the whole region.

More and more organizations are challenging development projects backed by elected officials in court – and are succeeding. In the space of a month, the resorts of l’Alpe-d’Huez and Le Grand-Bornand, both in the French Alps, had their urban development plans rejected by the local administrative court, which also canceled a chairlift project at Aussois on March 5.

The Alpe-d’Huez plan included the construction of three hotels and two tourist residences (2,400 beds). The reasoning behind its cancellation was an “insufficient environmental assessment,” “inconsistencies” regarding the need for new tourist beds and a lack of resources devoted to renovating existing accommodation. The Grand-Bornand project has only been suspended. The impact of tourism projects on water resources, in a resort heavily dependent on snow cannons, was questioned. “In the space of four years, water consumption linked to artificial snow alone has increased by 53%, and now exceeds drinking water consumption,” said magistrate Emilie Akoun.

The tone was set in 2023 when one decision caused quite a stir: the cancellation, on May 30, 2023, of the territorial coherence plan for Maurienne, a document voted for by 62 Savoyard communes, including 24 resorts. This roadmap outlined the extension of ski areas and the construction of 22,800 tourist beds, including a 1,000-bed Club Med in Valloire, which sits on the border with Switzerland.

‘Tipping point’

These decisions call into question an entire philosophy based on the expansion of ski areas and the growth of tourist construction. This comes as a shock to these resorts, which believe they need this construction to finance an increasingly expensive system (declining skier numbers, rising energy costs, growing use of snow cannons), and to offset the growing proportion of their “cold beds” – apartments occupied for less than four weeks a year.

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“We’ve reached a tipping point,” said Philippe Bourdeau, a researcher at the Université Grenoble-Alpes specializing in mountain economics. “Senior civil servants are increasingly sensitive to environmental issues, and to public spending that fails to take them into account. The recent report by the French Court of Auditors bears witness to this. There is less benevolence towards this ski economy.”

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