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Grand Tourmalet approves an investment of 32 million euros for its ski area

Published: Sep 12, 2020

Gone are the days when a town would put a ski lift on the side of one of the mountains in its municipal area, and it would sell tickets for skiers. Currently having and above all, maintaining a ski resort involves enormous costs. You have to sell many passes, attract many customers and have good infrastructure for it to be a success that brings money.

Many of these local communities are overwhelmed, especially in the French Pyrenees . Only there, they have as many ski resorts as in all of Spain. The winter tourism market must be shared among all. As a consequence, some were left behind. To support each other and try to reduce costs, some created the N'PY company , although each winter resort continued to be independent when it came to investing in both ski lifts and hotel infrastructure.

Today many of these ski resorts are left behind and their future hangs by a thread. There are those like Luz Ardiden or Artouste who try to physically join others, but the cost is very high ; or those who seek to diversify their business with leisure alternatives both in winter and summer.

But the market in the Pyrenees is becoming more competitive every year. It thrives on local skiers . More than 80% arrive by car, and only a small part do so by plane to the resorts in Andorra or to one of the French Pyrenees.

That is why the French Pyrenees resorts associated with N'PY have wanted to give a new twist to the business model. If until now the brand was in charge of promotion and marketing, now it will have to start investing as well. It is a question that has led to some suspicion among some City Council, since they feared losing control of their resort, but finally on June 1 the first stone of conversion was laid.

N'PY will be renamed " Compagnie des Pyrenees " (CdP) in clear allusion to the Compagnie des Alpes (CdA), created in 1989 to give sustainability to the ski resorts in that part of France. A successful model that has made this company a world leader for many years, until the Vail Resorts model appeared in North America.

The objective of Compagnie des Pyrenees (CdP) is to find financing to invest directly in the ski resorts that are in N'PY, but it is expected that in the medium term other winter resorts may be incorporated from side to side of the Pyrenees.

To achieve this, they have the shareholder support of the Banque des territoires , an entity created in 2018 by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, a public financial entity of the French state. With a capital of more than 20,000 million , its objective is to help financially local projects. And one of those chosen has been the one presented by Grand Tourmalet.

The French Pyrenees resort has seen an investment of 32 million euros approved. That if, in 10 years. They will be used to reorganize and modernize the ski area and also the accommodation. The first phase we had to see this next ski season 2020-2021, but the health emergency and the uncertainty of being able to give continuity to the work, has caused everything to be delayed until next summer.

Changes will be made to the snow front and the slopes of La Mongie. In the part of Barèges there will be a development of accommodation , a cornerstone of attracting customers in the French Pyrenees, especially during the Christmas periods and school holidays in February. Blandine Vernardet. the new Director of Grand Tourmalet, ensures that,

"Our ambition is to make the Grand Tourmalet the standard model for the mountain resort of tomorrow, reinforcing technological and environmental innovation, diversifying its activities and supporting the economic development of this mountain territory.

This ambitious project will be based on an investment program of 32 million euros over the next ten years thanks to the support of the Occitanie Region and the Banque des Territoires ”

Grand Tourmalet