Tarentaise ski monopoly imposes “roaming charges”

The Espace Olympique comprises the ski resorts that participated in the 1992 Albertville games. One of the advantages of the Espace to users was that holders of 6 day or more passes could try out some of the other domains. The rules were never entirely clear but if you had your lift pass and receipt and had some wheels you could be centrally based and ski around the other areas searching for the best snow and off-piste. We’ve used the pass when skiing with guides to do a virtual safari of the area.

We’ve heard reports from people who had problems with partner resorts but this largely seemed to be down to them not having their receipt. Our experience is that the system, although often not known by the lift pass office staff, worked well as long as you had all the documentation. Now the virtual monopoly that runs the Tarentaise has imposed a roaming charge of 10 Euros if you want to ski in another area. They try to spin this as a benefit to users but even the name, the XXL Pass, conjours up pictures of fat cats at the Compagnie des Alpes (CdA) raking in even more money.

Remember that out of the participating resorts: la Plagne, Tignes, les Arcs, Meribel, les Menuires, Val d’Isere and Peisey-Nancroix are part of the Compagnie des Alpes with Val Thorens and Courchevel as the only sizeable independent ski areas. We use the term independent advisedly. The Compagnie des Alpes was established by murky state bank the Caisse des dépôts et Consignations through its arm: the Caisse des Dépôts - Développement (C3D) and although quoted on the stock market the C3D retains a substantial shareholding. Courchevel is owned by the Savoie Council. The tentacles of the Caisse des dépôts et Consignations are far reaching. They had a substantial stake in recently defunct Transmontagne which ran a number of second tier ski resorts (including interests in la Tania) in France and abroad. We were recently surprised to discover they also have a large holding in the SATA which controls the ski lifts in l’Alpe d’Huez.

You may be thinking that this move in needed after the hard 2005/6 season which saw a drop in turnover of 8% for the top 100 ski resorts. Not a bit of it. The Compagnie des Alpes was a beneficiary of the poor winter as skiers flocked from lower lying resorts. Tignes increased turnover by 3.73%, les Arcs by 2.96% and la Plagne by 2.09%. The figures are more or less stable if you factor in that lift pass prices rose by 2 to 3% last season. The Tarentaise portofolio of the CdA alone accounts for a whopping 27% of lift company turnover for France.

The CdA is also provoking anger futher south. It acquired a stake in Serre Chevalier in 2004 and has since consolidated its position. Robert de Caumont, former Socialist mayor of Briançon has slammed the CdA for its lift pass pricing which he claims is aimed at luxury guests and discriminating against poorer local skiers. He is particularly concerned with the dissapearance of tickets covering just small domains such as Prorel, Monétier-les-Bains, Puy St Pierre and Puy St André. He is also calling on the CdA to freeze prices for the coming season. We’ve been contacted by residents of Monétier who have echoed Mr de Caumonts sentiments. Serre Chevalier also did well last season with a 2.94% increase in turnover.

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