2023-11-25 05:58:07
For French tourists, it’s automatic: when you want to go skiing, you need a car. Foreign customers do not ask themselves the question: it will be the plane. Today, only 10% of vacationers choose the train to reach winter sports resorts and it shows. Transport represents almost 60% of the carbon footprint, not counting the nuisances and inconveniences linked to traffic.
According to a survey carried out by the National Association of Mountain Station Mayors (ANMSM) in 2022, more than half of tourists would be ready to take the plunge. On one condition, that we offer them “a suitable offer”. Understand: dates and times that suit their stay, but also the assurance of being able to reach their accommodation without inconvenience, sometimes much further up in the valley.
Offer “door-to-door” stays
The Compagnie des Alpes, which operates around ten ski areas such as Tignes, Les Arcs and Méribel, has understood this well: it has just launched a call to all European railway operators to offer “door to door” stays. to door”) from Belgium, the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.
This is not the station operator’s first railway experience. For two years, stays in the form of package – including the journey, but also the rental of equipment or even the purchase of the package – between London and Bourg-Saint-Maurice (Savoie), are already on sale by its own tour operator Travelski.
Accelerate and sustain the movement
This winter, supply will be limited “failure to provide trains” by Eurostar and SNCF. But above all, the company notes rather encouraging figures: between mid-December and mid-April 2022, around thirty rotations were carried out and 12,000 passengers were transported.
“We know that this movement responds to a need, we must now accelerate it and make it sustainable! »estimates the director of the distribution and hospitality division of Compagnie des Alpes, Bryce Arnaud-Battandier, who aims to launch new European lines from winter 2024.
A larger service
To reach the million and a half Belgian, Dutch and British skiers who visit the French Alps every year, we have to think big. The service, until now offered on board TGVs, could take place via night trains or intercity connections, on trains with a volume of 300 to 600 passengers.
“It all depends on what the carriers offer us,” specifies the Compagnie des Alpes, according to which discussions are underway with the main national operators for three-year contracts, in order to ensure better visibility on each side. The company could even open the door to other tourist operators in the region who wish to join this carbon-free transport offer.
Support from local elected officials
Jean-Luc Boch, mayor of La Plagne-Tarentaise and president of ANMSM, regrets that risks are taken by a private actor “to compensate for the failure of railway policy”in his words, to which are added the direct consequences of the closure of night trains or the drop in TGV orders.
“Today, all stations are asking for the train: it allows us to clearly reduce our impact and it responds to the growing environmental awareness of customers! “, recalls the elected official, who explains participating in this momentum by calling on the public authorities, and by putting in place strategies, on his scale, “which make life easier for tourists”.
Actions to encourage train travel
“Many communities and local stakeholders are working today to encourage the use of public transport”comments Alexis Pin, director of the climate association Protect Our Winters.
The Les Arcs station, for example, offers free access to the funicular for people coming by train, while several companies in Morzine-Avoriaz offer discounts to travelers presenting proof, with the Alpine express pass. The association has just launched “Pow Mobility”: a reservation platform for multimodal journeys “until the last kilometers”.
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