All downhill for Pyrenees snow resorts?

Strategic business

Yet, the Catalan government considers winter sports a “strategic” business for the Pyrenees. A study by Esade and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra found that each euro spent on public transport tickets created an additional expense of six euros. However, the Generalitat is today the direct owner of seven of the nine Nordic ski resorts, in most cases after financial failure, and only two –Baqueira-Beret and La Masella– are still in private hands.

The most recent public acquisition was Boí-Taüll in December, after two years in which the resort has been unable to overcome its financial problems, despite generous loans. In all, the government spent 8.3 million euros on the deal: “The buy-out provides stability and is a guarantee of the future,” said Alins at the time.

Boí-Taüll's financial problems first emerged with the bursting of the housing bubble, and two years ago it was forced to go into administration and resort to loans from the Generalitat. Boí-Taüll is the second-largest tourist complex in the Pyrenees, with 46 kilometres of slopes and five hotels offering a thousand beds.

“Our position is that, as long as the economy of Alta Ribagorça does not become more diversified, the stability and maintenance of Boí-Taüll is essential for the county,” is how the secretary of Empresa i Competitivitat, Pere Torras, justifies the public buy-out, adding: “We are convinced that, with a process of investment and modernisation, it can be profitable. And we are going to put it on the market.”

The resort's former owners, Promocions Turístiques de la Vall, a company in the Madrid housing group Nozar, will continue to manage the complex for five years, according to the terms of the agreement: “They know the business and the resort. The problems are related to the bursting of the housing bubble and a lack of resources,” continues Torras. The Generalitat and the management are now developing a plan for the resort and looking into ways of raising more investment.

The rest of the Catalan ski resorts “are strong enough to overcome the current climatic and economic problems,” says the director general of the Generalitat's transport department, Ricard Font. The government and the sector are studying ways of working together to provide a response to the climatic effects on the business. Currently, the idea is to find a way of keeping the resorts open all year round: “The resorts have to be optimised to the maximum, so that the public investment guarantees profitability and a return,” says Font. This means adding activities to the resorts that do not require the presence of snow, such as trekking or canyoning.

Yet, even this solution is problematic, as it will provide competition against other companies that already provide tourist activities during the year: “As soon as you begin offering non-snow related activities, many companies might opt to move to Terra Alta or Montseny,” says López Palomeque, who insists that “the business will have changed in two decades' time. It will need to adapt and create unique products or compete on price,” he predicts.

One key to the diversification of the activities on offer will also require attracting different types of consumers. The average age of skiers is now 36, and in the past 10 years, the proportion of beginners taking up the sport has fallen from 30% to 19%, according to expert Laurent Vanat. Added to this are also the ongoing economic crisis, an increasingly sedentary youth and an ageing population. At the same time, the proportion of advanced skiers has actually risen by 5%, which leads Vanat to recommend the introduction of more skiing schools. López Palomeque agrees, saying: “The ageing of skiers is a worldwide trend. It is a question of fashion. It has to be reinvented,” he says.