Le tourisme hivernal de montagne

Commissariat général au développement durableJul 3, 2019

Apparues en France au cours de la première moitié du XXe siècle dans les Alpes, les stations de sports d’hiver sont devenues, en quelques décennies, un moteur de l’économie touristique de montagne. Cependant, les impacts environnementaux occasionnés par leur aménagement et leur fonctionnement (artificialisation des paysages montagnards, développement urbain, pressions sur les ressources, etc.) associés aux conséquences du changement climatique remettent aujourd’hui en cause ce modèle de développement.

Appearing in France in the first half of the 20th century in the Alps, winter sports resorts have become, within a few decades, a driver of mountain tourism's economy. However, the environmental impacts caused by their development and operation (artificialization of mountain landscapes, urban development, pressure on resources, etc.) coupled with the consequences of climate change now call this development model into question.

4 chapters

Ski resorts and mountain municipalities
Resort distribution
Ski resorts have been developed across all mountain ranges in mainland France. In 2017, 309 ski resorts located in 405 mountain municipalities are recorded in France.
Disparities between massifs
Their distribution within each mountain range is highly unequal. Most ski resorts are developed in municipalities located in the Alps massif, followed by the Pyrenees.
Ski resort attendance
Global ranking
Depending on the year, French ski resorts rank between 1st and 3rd place worldwide in terms of tourist attendance.
Attendance trends
Despite some annual fluctuations, attendance at the country's ski resorts has remained globally stable over the past fifteen years. The 2017-2018 season totaled nearly 54 million skier-days.
Mechanical lift facilities
Resort diversity
Not all ski resorts are alike: the size of the mechanical lift park, the number of skiers that can be transported, and the power of the equipment impact the extent of the ski area and its attendance. In 2017, with a total of 3,771 mechanical lifts, France ranks first worldwide in the number of devices (17% of the international park according to STRMTG).
Power moment
The power moment, calculated as the product of the number of skiers per hour transported by each lift multiplied by its vertical drop, measures a mechanical lift's capacity to gain altitude for skiers. This indicator is notably used to determine the size of a ski resort. The Northern Alps, home to the country's largest ski resorts, concentrate most of this power moment (nearly 70%). Unlike the mechanical lift park, this indicator continues to increase (+ 20% between 2000 and 2017), highlighting the continuous development of ski areas.
Installed electrical power
The installed electrical power of the equipment continues to grow at a particularly rapid pace (+ 70% between 2000 and 2017), reaching a total of 780,514 kW in 2017 for the entire operating park. This indicator highlights an increase in the potential electrical consumption of mechanical lifts.
Artificial snowmaking
Climate change effects
With the decline in natural snowfall, mountain tourism faces the direct effects of climate change. To maintain alpine skiing, ski resorts have progressively equipped themselves with snow cannons, which consume water and energy, to produce artificial snow.
Artificial snow coverage
Over the past ten years, the coverage rate of ski resorts with artificial snow has increased by 16 percentage points, rising from 19% to 35%.

Further reading

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