SKI SEASON 2013/14: The French Market

Last season was the year when the British ski market finally halted its decline, although it remains well below pre-Crisis levels.

France remains the most popular destination for skiers this side of the Channel, and of course it has not been immune from the market conditions - for example in Les Arcs, the Edenarc development has taken an age to get off the ground.

Here are some of the current dynamics in the French market:

New Developments

Many of the larger resorts are continuing to invest in their infrastructure, for example in La Plagne, where there will be a new Montalbert telecabine for December 2014.  Ste-Foy has a new fast lift going up from the village this season, in Valmorel there are a number of new lifts and a new Club Med as well.

OK, but...

The Compagnie des Alpes, which owns the ski lifts for many of the big resorts, including Les Arcs, reports total skier days rising by 1% last year, with revenues up by 3%.  This of course was against the backdrop of a very good season snow-wise.  The view at the Paris Bourse is that these results are disappointing.

Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry's ski area
is now combined ina single entity: ADS.
This in turn is owned by Compagnie des Alpes

For Sale

France of course has many small ski resorts, and one of them is a vendre.  For €550,000, you can become owner of 3 teleskis, a chalet at the foot of the pistes and - drumroll - a piste bully.

Closed

The Pyreneean resort of Puigmal is €5m in debt, and is closing.

Angry

The French school holiday calendar has recently changed, and Easter hols are now much later.  This year, for example, the first zone (C) to break up for Easter holidays does so on 12th April, by which time many resorts will have closed.  Meanwhile, Zone A pupils will be waiting until the 26th until their holidays start.  The French ski resorts assoication is fuming about this and is lobbying the Government strongly.  They say that they are now only getting 2% of their revenue from the Easter season, compared with 8% before 2010.

THE SEASON SO FAR

It's been a pretty good season so far - snow depths are looking healthy, with La Plagne reporting 102/102 lifts open, and the Ski Club of Great Britain giving piste conditions an "excellent" rating.

And the skiers have duly arrived in resort to enjoy the snow.  Pierre et Vacances report a better season than 2011/12, and Odalys say they are 95% of the way to reaching their targets.  "We are surprised.  Everyone is surprised" they say, bearing in mind the depressing economic backdrop.  It's a bit early to know what this means for the British ski market, or indeed whether the Swiss are starting to recover.  Another barometer is the performance of the giant Compagnie des Alpes, who run the lifts for most of France's Premier League resorts.  The first part of the season was "satisfactory" - we need to wait until 25th April to see if they upgrade their assessment.

Les Arcs is one of the resorts run by
the Compagnie des Alpes

From a British ski business point of view, the big news is the "banning of ski hosts" by the Albertville court.  It's a complex issue - more here - and one which the tour operators have vowed to keep on fighting.  Twelve ski holiday providers, including Inghams, Crystal and Thomson, met last week, although they are pausing until they've seen the written judgement.  A useful update from the Telegraph is here.  And here's another perspective on the issue from The Good Ski Guide.

The abundant snowfalls also bring reminders of just how dangerous it can be.  Le Monde reports that 8 people have died over the last week in avalanches, including a guide and their client in Tignes.

Looking to the future....which resorts should we watch out for?  La Rosiere is clearly on the up, but watch out for more coverage of Montgenevre in your Saturday travel supplements.  There's been a lot of investment in accommodation, it's reasonably easy to access via Turin, and is having a marketing push aimed at Parisien and Northern European skiers.  It could do with a new website though...

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? New lifts for Les Arcs

It's more than 50 years since the first ski lift appeared in the area, linking Bourg St Maurice to Les Granges.  And the last 10 years have seen some big changes, with draglifts almost eradicated.  The whole Arc 1600/1800/Peisey flank of the valley can now be negotiated using fast chairs - more on the history here.

Before the Edenarc: The Chantel site at Arc 1800

The excellent Espace Arcadien site has carefully prepared a series of short essays on each lift.  Among the fascinating facts:

• The Peisey Lift was the first Leitner construction in France, and isn't ageing well
• The Pré-Saint-Esprit lift, at 15 minutes, is the slowest in Les Arcs
• The Bois de l'Ours lift reduced journey times from 7 mins to 3, and waiting times from 20 mins to 5...

What next?

It seems the next developments will be at Arc 1800, with a chair and potentially a mini-gondola to serve Chantel and Edenarc.

Meanwhile, no-one is clear when the 32-year old Pré Saint Esprit will finally be pensioned off. Espace Aradien reckons maybe around 2015.

And some have dreams that the Col de la Chal (the slope facing the Nancroix valley on other side of the Transarc) will be opened up by a new chairlift.  Others - the mairie at Peisey, the départemet and "the ecologists" are less keen.  This projet is very very unlikely to ever see the day. 

THE BUSINESS OF SKIING: The verdict (so far) on 2011/12

It's the final week of the season.  La Plagne is reporting 300cm on top, 125cm at the bottom.  There's been 45cms of fresh snow in the last 7 days and 96/128 pistes open. Despite a dry February and March, 2011/12 has generally seen snow in abundance, and this has to be the best end-of-season for years.

What has this meant for the ski industry?  Many French resorts have been struggling, given the mature state of the market, the high cost of skiing and the ongoing effects of the crisis.  In Switzerland, it's been worse, with the strong franc and an increasingly competitive Austria leaving even star resorts like Saas Fee with a headache.  The official line is that visitors from the eurozone are down, but this has been partially mitigated by the rise in Swiss visitors (for example in the small resorts of St Gall).  The stark reality is that Valais has seen a 6.4% fall in foreign tourists, Grisons 5-6% and at Engelberg 8-12%.

The new(ish) Arpette lift at Les Arcs

If you're interested in all this, the best people to follow on Twitter are: @ausommetfr, @adepierrefeu and @skibatblog, which highlighted this report from Les Echos.  To summarise:

• 150,000 people work in the industry
• Overall, French ski resorts are reporting a 2% rise in skier numbers - after a 5% fall during the poor season that was 2010/11
• It's been a good season for "low cost" resorts like Brides-les-Bains and upmarket resorts like Courchevel (which reports a 6% rise)
• Between the two, the middle-of-the road resorts are doing less well
• One reasonably new "innovation" which is doing well are the 4-hour tickets
• Overall, not too bad.  Now on to see if they can do anything to improve summer visitor numbers.  Which is quite another story

This general view is echoed by the hoteliers.  Their association describes the season as "OK but nothing to write home about".

One to watch will be the results of the Compagnie des Alpes, who have a near monopoly of the big resorts.  These come out on Thursday 26th April.  There's some background here.

In the southern French Alps, which serve a different market to the Northern resorts (Belgium, E and S. Europe, Italy), the initial verdict has been that things are "plutot satisfaisant", which is hardly a ringing endorsement.  

And a pretty similar pattern over in the Pyrenees.  The late start to the season caused problems.  For example, Piau-Engaly lost 30,000 skier days by not being able to open until 18th December (compared with 26th November in 2010).  February was good, but then the weather was warm in March and then snowy just as they were closing....

THE BUSINESS OF SKIING: The Season So Far

It's true that many of the ski instructors we see are actually farmers, plumbers, shopkeepers etc in the local villages.  The second part of this video gives you a "day in the life" of Les Arcs.  But, aside from the small resorts with a drag lift or two, the lift systems need investment, and therefore are serious business propositions.

The bulk of the French Premier League resorts are owned by the Compagnie des Alpes: La Rosiere, Les Menuires, Meribel, Chamonix, Avoriaz, Les 2 Alpes, Valmorel, Val d'Isere, Tignes, Serre Chevalier, La Plagne, Les Arcs....

Arc 2000

They are also into theme parks: the portfolio includes four "Parcs Walibis" (whatever they are), Parc Asterix and (scene of various Tour de France stages), Futuroscope.

The story of the season so far, announced in CdA's latest results, is a bit mixed, really:

• Late snowfall which meant everyone was on edge until the second week into December
• Having Xmas Day and New Year's Day on a Sunday
• The heavy snowfalls in the first week of Jan (see below, en direct from Bourg St Maurice...)

The result: skier numbers are down 1% on last year.  The CdA pronounces itself "satisfied", at least for the moment.  If this is how well the big reports are doing in these uncertain times, one wonders how the smaller ones are faring.  Certainly the news from small resorts in the Pyrenees hasn't been great.  The Crystal Ski Report 2011 reported a 5% fall last year in the number of Brit skiers, on top of 13% and 11% falls in previous years, but claimed the market was "set to rebound".   It will be interesting to see if the record snowfalls do prompt some "floating skiers" to go, or indeed whether it's the economy, rather than the snow, which plays the upper hand.  We'll see.

On the other hand, all is good for the theme parks: revenues up 13%, and lots of plans for the future.  Onwards and upwards!

THEN AND NOW: The Les Arcs ski area 2002-2012

Without wanting to stretch any metaphor too far, Les Arcs has certain similarities with Tottenham Hotspur: one of the best known resorts in France, yes.  But perhaps not always seen as among the best.  Click here to see which resorts are Manchester United, Chelsea etc...

Both have seen pretty rapid progression in recent years, and both now can make claim to a Champions' League place.

A glance at the 2002 lift map for Les Arcs is a reminder of what's changed.  Lots of this development was powered by the Arc 1950 development, and the Compagnie des Alpes, which now has a near-monopoly on the big resorts, has continued to invest.

In 2002:

• There was no Vagere chairlift at 1800.  The "Vagere" lift(s) were drag lifts, at the top of the golf course
• There were two slow old chairs going out of 1800 - the Chantel and the Carreley: the latter has now been taken down
• There was no Droset lift to bring you back to Arc 2000 from Villaroger - you had to ski round to Pre St Esprit
• The Marmottes lifts in 2000 were drag lifts; there was now Arc 1950 at this time!
• There was no Grizzly lift; there was a chair from the middle of the Peisey-Vallandry mountain, which is now no more
• There was a Gollet chair out of 1600 - an old 2 man.  This was taken down a few years ago, much to the irritation of some of the proprieteres
• Various lifts which were slow have now been replaced by detachable fast chairs.  These include:
• Grizzly
• Peisey
• Marmottes
• The Derby
• Bois de l'Ours
• Mont Blanc
• Arcabulle
• Mont Blanc
• Indeed, the entire mountain is now covered by fast lifts, with the only weak links really now in the area below 2000: the Pre St Esprit and Comborciere are agonisingly slow.  Other slow lifts remain (eg Renard, Villards) but they play a supporting rather than pivotal role.
• This is of course leaving out the arrival of the Vanoise Express and Paradiski...

View from Montchauvin, January 2012

More on the history of the ski area in the 1970s and 1980s here.

And for a potted history of each lift, click here.

A Note on the Piste Maps

In 2002 the piste map was presented on two sides - the 1600/1800 on one side, the 2000 area on the other - which amplified the size of the ski area.

Today's "Freestyle Park" was called the "Espace Surf".

The map was presented "avec Playstation".  It still is.

There is a lovely blue from the bottom of the Combe run in Peisey.  This has been decommissioned for 2011/12, which is a shame - a new, slightly less interesting, red run has been created slightly higher up.

The 2011/12 map includes La Plagne's pistes on the other side - which works better than the unreadable "Paradiski" map.  A month into the season, the Les Arcs website has yet to put the new map on the site.  So, here's the 2010/11 map.