Many French ski resorts are struggling to keep up with the times. Of the country’s nearly 600 ski resorts, 186 are now in a state of disrepair, RTBF reports. Each winter, around three ski resorts are forced to close due to a lack of snow or financial difficulties.
Ski seasons in many hotspots across the country are becoming shorter and less sustainable. In February 2022, one ski resort manager warned that skiing in parts of France will only be sustainable until 2050, at the latest. Snowlines are receding and rise an average of 150 metres with every 1℃ of global warming. Snow is increasingly giving way to rain, which creates icy conditions unfavourable for skiing.
This trend has given rise to “ghost resorts” which have failed to adapt to the changing climatic and financial conditions of increased global warming. These resorts have not necessarily closed down, still offering hiking and cross-country routes during non-peak tourist seasons, but no longer having enough snow for the peak months of the year.
“These resorts close for economic reasons under the influence of multiple vulnerability factors: lack of snow linked to global warming, competition between resorts, isolated ski areas located too far into the mountains, and an economic situation which means that skiing is no longer the number one sport as it was in the 1960s,” Pierre-Alexandre Metral, a geography researcher at the University of Grenoble Alpes, told RTBF.
Indeed, winter tourism is increasingly shifting towards many well-established mega-resorts, typically higher up in the mountains, which enjoy glacier access and more reliable weather conditions.
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The decline of many ski resorts is causing pollution concerns in some parts of the Alps and other ski areas. Decomposing chair lifts and other equipment leak plastic and fuels which contaminate the surrounding nature. A 2016 French law extends an obligation for resorts to dismantle ski lifts once they reach the end of their utility.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts that, by 2050, another 80 mid-mountain ski resorts will be forced to close. Alpine resorts account for two-thirds of these resorts, which have lost all profitability.
