THE BUSINESS OF SKIING: How to Expand....

There's a conference this weekend all about the future of the ski industry - covered in Le Dauphine.

Here are some of the key points - with a few extra links where I've been able to find them.

1.  The space available for skiing can't be extended, limited by the existence of the national parks and the growing environmental lobby.

2. The days of mega-expansion are gone.  These days it's more about renewing the lifts, rationalising the existing ski areas, investing in artificial snow, and making sure the resorts can show they've been taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment.

3.  In a mature market, it's now about share of wallet - ie winning market share from other resorts.

4.  In the Southern Alps, the big recent debate has been all about expanding upwards, to the 3000m barrier.  It looks like Orcieres has given up on the Pic de Rochebrune, but Risoul is still dreaming of setting up a freeride area close to 3000m.

5.  There are more concrete plans now to do just this at Montgenevre, which is now making active plans for the Chaberton project - including four new chairlifts and 35km of pistes.  This has prompted controversy about the environmental impact.  For the resort, which doesn't have a particularly impressive vertical descent, this is all about competing against the rival Italian resorts to which it's linked by the Milky Way area.

6.   Similar situation over at La Rosiere, which is also looking to expand to close to 3000m in the Mont Valaisan area, again in a bit to make sure it compares well with its Italian neighbour over the border in La Thuile.

La Rosiere, looking back towards Villaroger and Arc 2000

7.   Size matters:  In the Mont-Blanc area, l’espace Évasion boasts 440 km of pistes.  However, they lack the link in the chain which would enable skiers to travel between Les Contamines and St Gervais.  Contamines has been suffering due to its isolation and a new lift to make the link betwen the two is planned for 2013.

8.  Things are moving also on the Savoie/Haute Savoie border.  In the Espace Diamant (see report on Crest Voland here), Les Saisies is planning to expand its area into the combe de Ballasta.  Its neighbour Praz-sur-Arly is looking at a new link with Megeve and the Espace Evasion.  With nearly 650km of pistes, the two areas would be hot on the heels of the Portes du Soleil.

9.  There's not one of these projects which hasn't caused controversy.  At Collet d'Alevard, works on the Clapier chairlift have stopped.  Similarly at Ste-Foy-Tarentaise plans to put 3 new charlifts into a new area at the combe du Clou have been put on ice.

10. Coming back to the issue of linking ski stations - the expectations are that they will increase revenues by anywhere between 10-35%.  The Les 2 Alpes - Alpe d'Huez link may or may not happen (for the moment, the resorts are only at the stage of spending €20,000 to study the idea).  If it doesn't, it may join other big schemes which were planned at one point, but which are now pretty dormant - for example La Clusaz - Grand Bornand and Valfrejus - Valloire.