Tignes - from a “white” to a “green” summer

A study of Tignes’ development in alpine summer tourism

Tignes – från en ”vit” till en ”grön” sommar.

En studie av Tignes utveckling inom alpin sommarturism

Linda Stridh

Faculty of art and social sciences

Tourism studies

15 ECTS

Supervisor: Marcus Ednarsson

Spring 2014

Abstract

This study focuses on Tignes’ development of their summer season. Tignes is a tourist resort

in the Northern French Alps. Tignes has long been known for their glacier and tourism,

which, as an industry, has been the major focus since the original village of Tignes was put

underwater by the development of a large dam. Tignes is also known for its connection with

Val d’Isère, together creating the Espace Killy ski area.

The summer in Tignes used to be known for summer skiing on the Grande Motte glacier,

3656 meters above sea level. However, like many other winter resorts, Tignes has seen the

effects of global warming and climate change and these effects were especially evident in the

summer. A decision was thus taken to diversify attractions and try to create a different, yet

more classic, summer season.

Through interviews with resort management and access to visitor statistics as well as other

qualitative data it has been made clear that Tignes has developed the summer season

according to a well-planned business strategy and has step by step implemented new

infrastructures, new attractions and other marketing strategies in an effort to develop and

increase summer tourism.

So far these strategies have resulted in a great increase in visitors and in their diversification.

More detailed data is needed for further studies and analysis of visitor demographics.

However it is clear that the summer season still is very much reliant on the winter season for

its existence. There still seems to be a larger potential for the summer season and Tignes

Développement, the resort management, appears to now be working proactively in favor of

this.

Clear links can be done to theoretical models and concepts as well as previous studies and this

has provided another dimension and a clear view of where Tignes stands in its development

as a successful alpine summer resort.

Keywords: alpine summer tourism, tourism development, climate change, management,

visitors.

Foreword

I would especially like to thank Sébastien Mérignargues, director of Tignes Développement,

(director of the resort) for his time and effort in helping me gather material for this study and

for the interview, as well as Coralie Deschamps. Without the collaboration of Tignes

Développement this study would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank Marcus Ednarsson, my supervisor at Karlstad University for

answering my questions and helping me in the writing process.

Linda Stridh, Tignes 2014

Contents

1. Introduction 6

1.1Background and research area 6

1.2 Purpose 7

1.3 Research questions 7

1.4 Limitations 7

1.5 Other definitions 7

1.6 Outline 7

2. Methodology 9

2.1 Scientific approach 9

2.2 Choice of Method 9

2.3 Qualitative interviews 10

2.4 Statistical Analysis 11

2.5 Validity and Reliability 12

2.6 Limitations 12

2.7 Sample selection and evaluation of sources 13

3. Theoretical background 14

3.1 Seasonality 14

3.2.1 Attractions and attractiveness 14

3.2.2 Attractions as a commercial product 15

3.3 Tourist types 16

3.4 Destination development lifecycle 16

3.5 Climate change 18

3.6 Previous studies 19

4. Results 20

4.1 Results from interview and other qualitative results

from document analysis 20

4.2 Statistical results 21

4.2.1 General statistics overview 22

4.2.2 Tignes’ development compared to other resorts 24

4.2.3 Bike park statistics 25

4.2.4 Carte Sportignes statistics 27

4.2.5 Winter vs. summer statistics 28

5. Analysis 30

6. Conclusions 34

7. Reflections 35

8. Bibliography 36

9. Appendix 39

9.1 Questionnaire for interview in original language,

translated version in italics. 39

List of Tables

Table 1. Developments within the summer season 22

Table 2. Tignes visitor statistics 23

Table 3. Tignes vs. other resorts 24

Table 4. Time series analysis: Tignes vs. other resorts 24

Table 5. Index calculation Bike park vs. visitors 25

Table 6. Time series analysis: Bike park vs. general number of visitors 25

Table 7. Index calculation: Carte Sportignes use vs. distribution 27

Table 8. Times series analysis: Carte Sportignes use vs. distribution 27

Table 9. Index calculation: winter vs. summer frequentation 28

Table 10. Times series analysis: winter vs. summer development 28

Table 11. Summer vs. winter frequentation percentage 29

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background and research area

Tignes is located in the French Alps and is widely recognized as a skiing destination and

winter resort. The village of Tignes was previously located in what is now known as the Dam

of Chevril. Due to a need for power supply, the dam was built and finished in 1952, at which

point Tignes was relocated to further up the mountain.1 It was not until after this that one

started developing tourism activities. Tignes now consists of 5 smaller villages, Tignes les

Brevières, Tignes Les Boisses, Tignes Le Lavachet, Tignes Le Lac and Tignes Val Claret,

ranging in altitude from ~1550m to 2100m. In terms of tourism, Tignes is often referred to as

part of the Espace Killy ski area, which it forms together with its neighbor resort Val d’Isère.

Part of what is considered included in the Tignes ski area is also a part of the Vanoise

National Park2 which comes with its own restrictions in terms of use and development.

Tignes as a tourist destination is changing due to various reasons and particularly so in the

summer. Lately within tourism there have been debates about climate change and how winter

seasons are declining, and Tignes cannot exclude itself from this discussion. Within many

winter resorts, one can observe “responsive” actions against effects of global warming and

actions taken to reduce its effect on income from tourism. Irrespectively of what one believes

to be the reason for declining winters, the summer season is starting to become more and

more important as a way of reducing the pressure on the winter season and reducing

seasonality issues.

This also represents a sort of destination development that is very interesting

and the focus on this phenomenon has fairly recently become part of scientific studies.

However, these studies have focused on winter destinations developing a “green” summer

attraction from previously not having a summer season at all.3 However, this particular study

of Tignes will focus on the process of going from a “white” summer to a “green” summer, as

Tignes used to be skiable all year round with the Grande Motte Glacier as the main attraction,

something which is no longer the case. To an outsider, this is what seems to be the reason that

has prompted a development in other summer attractions, but it is something that needs to be

investigated further to substantiate the claim. Superficially, one can observe the creation of

new attractions as well as the use of other incentives to attract new types of visitors. A search

for other similar resorts with glaciers gave mainly results about how to preserve glacier

tourism, sometimes with fairly extreme measures4, but do mention diversifying as an option

5.

The focus of these studies was thus different than that which I wish to pursue. Other studies,

as mentioned above, focus on “regular” alpine resorts.

The fact that Tignes is not developing a new summer destination but merely

changing its attractions is what makes this study different from previous studies, meaning also

that my study can then serve to give more light to destinations that do include glaciers as an

attraction and maybe separate these from other mountainous resorts. Changing attractions can

also mean a change in image and branding which may be relevant to destination

attractiveness. When it comes to branding within tourism destinations, it is still however

1 http://www.tignes.net/en/practical-info/a-little-history-1213.html, accessed on 2014-06-04

2 http://www.parcnational-vanoise.fr/fr/documentation-en-ligne/doc_download/376-carte-presentation-generale-

du-parc-national-de-la-vanoise.html, accessed on 2014-05-08 3 Flagestad, Arvid., Svensk, Göran., Nordin, Sara. & Lexhagen, Maria. (2004) Vintersportorten – året runt,

Harkman, Linda. (2007) Det gröna sälen – En studie om sommarturism i Sverige. 4 Purdie, Heather. (2013) Glacier Retreat and Tourism: Insights from New Zealand. Mountain Research and

Development. 33(4): 463-472. p.470 5 Furunes, Trude & Mykletun, Reidar J. (2012) Frozen Adventure at Risk? A 7 year Follow-up Study of

Norwegian Glacier Tourism. p.345

7

largely dependent on the attractions in the resort. The same is true for visitors, who come

there mainly for the attraction. It is then up to the resort to build a coherent image with the

visitors. Thus creating a harmonized image of what they offer and what the tourists want to

identify with. Tignes thus faces this challenge as well, going from unique summer skiing into

a more traditional summer role including downhill biking, hiking etc.

All of the above thus creates an interesting area of study. The goal will thus be

to investigate the resort of Tignes, as a case study, in relation to this recent summer season

development.

1.2 Purpose

My purpose with the study is to investigate how Tignes has changed in terms of developing a

multi-attraction summer season from being an all year round winter resort.

1.3 Research questions

To answer the purpose above I have decided on three study questions that are worth pursuing

in order to obtain relevant results:

- Which actions have been taken to develop Tignes as a summer resort and why?

- What are the consequences?

- How has the development changed the number and types of visitors?

1.4 Limitations

The study is limited to the sole resort of Tignes and focuses on the summer season

development as this is judged to be the more substantial change in destination development.

Actions taken during the winter season will therefore not be discussed if they do not impact

the summer season or are referred to in the results found. A limitation like this is necessary as

the scope would otherwise be too large to handle within the restrictions of the study.

1.5 Other definitions

Tignes is used both to describe the resort and sometimes together with the management.

However, when the resort management and their organization in particular are mentioned,

they will be referred to as Tignes Développement or TD in short. Guests, clients, tourists and

visitors refer to people staying in resort for more than a day, otherwise they will be referred to

as day trippers or excursionists.

1.6 Outline

The essay starts with an abstract giving a short summary of the study as a whole. Thereafter

the study starts with some background information as well as a presentation of the purpose

and the corresponding research questions corresponding as well as the limitations of the study

and other relevant definitions. This part presents why Tignes has been chosen and why the

resort is a relevant area of study.

In the methodological chapter, the choice of both qualitative and quantitative

methods is described as well as the respective implications for the study at hand. Discussions

on validity and reliability as well as sections on limitations and sample selections are included

in this chapter.

8

Following this, the theoretical background and related scientific concepts are presented. These

are seasonality, attraction and attractiveness, attractions as a commercial product, tourist

types, destination development lifecycle, climate change and a brief summary of previous

studies. This chapter serves to give a greater depth and explain in detail the touristic concepts

related to the study.

The empirical results are presented afterwards. Firstly the results from the

qualitative interviews with Sébastien Mérignargues and Coralie Deschamps. Secondly the

results from the statistical analysis of the documents Réunion Économique Publique and Bilan

été 2013 including time series analysis tables and graphs. Some other qualitative data from

these documents have also been included.

An analysis of the results as well as conclusions and reflections conclude the

essay and give a complete picture of the research having been carried out through the study

and the findings.

9

2. Methodology

2.1 Scientific approach

I have used two separate approaches in my study as I have used two different methods for

which they are respectively relevant. For my qualitative interviews I had a hermeneutic

approach where there was an element of participatory observation and the content was

analyzed. Hermeneutics as a concept in itself means to interpret6 and means that the

researcher’s analysis and interpretation is of value and helps complete the subjective reality

described in for example an interview. It is thus also the subject’s interpretation of reality that

is of worth to study and not an “objective fact”. A certain element of previous local

knowledge should also be noted as having been used in the study.

For the quantitative method; statistical analys, a positivistic approach was used as it is focused

on facts and numbers and the data was per se not interpreted. According to Hume as cited by

author’s DePoy and Gitlin, the underlying concept is that there is a discrepancy between facts

and how we interpret these.7 Focus according to a positivistic approach should thus be on the

facts. Veal presents this approach as studying the subject from “outside” through facts and

observation and using set models to explain results.8 This will also help achieve more

objectivity within the research and analysis.9

2.2 Choice of method

My intended purpose with the study was to investigate how Tignes, a French alpine resort,

has transformed into a multi-attraction year round resort from a single attraction (skiing)

resort, through focusing on the summer season development, and furthermore the

consequences thereof. Evaluating consequences or effects also mean judging the

successfulness of the development. The appropriate method for doing so will invariably

depend on what the purpose and goal of the study is and the research questions used, as is

described below.

Based on the purpose this meant investigating; how has Tignes’ summer season

changed in relation to a change in attractions? Tignes is different to other traditional skiing

destinations in the sense that they have been able to use the natural attraction of a glacier to

attract visitors in the summer and a previous slogan has been “Ski for 365 days a year”10

However, due to various reasons the glacier is receding11

and the use has started becoming

more restricted in the summer period and Tignes is now trying to diversify its attractions.

The purpose in itself is fairly complex, what does it mean to be successful? To

understand the situation and how well Tignes is doing in the summer, using new attractions, a

quantitative result will provide a fairly clear image. Results of this kind can be obtained

through for example statistics on visitor/tourist nights spent in the area. This is a relatively

easy and common method of measuring success of a tourist destination. However this would

only provide the data of what has happened and does not give insight into the management of

the resort development, in terms of how and why these numbers are changing. And the

quantitative data would therefore only provide a basic image of what is happening in resort.

6 http://www.ne.se/hermeneutik, accessed on 2014-06-06

7 DePoy, Elizabeth & Gitlin, Laura N. (1999) Forskning – en introduktion. p.30

8 Veal, Anthony James. (2006) Leisure and Tourism: a practical guide. p.37

9 DePoy & Gitlin. p.31

10 http://www.skivintage.com/PBSCProduct.asp?ltmID=13122916, accessed on 2014-03-08

11 https://glacierchange.wordpress.com/tag/grande-motte-glacier-retreat-melt/, accessed on 2014-06-04,

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4QDCN_grande-motte-tignes, accessed on 2014-06-04

10

Having someone “explain” in a deeper sense, the actions behind the numbers could allow for

a deeper understanding. Eggeby et al. states that statistics on their own can never prove causal

correlation, but that it still carries a lot of weight within research.12

This means that on their

own, quantitative results may not be sufficient and one needs to be careful in what

conclusions are drawn from the numbers.

Patel et al. also means that the formulation of the study purpose indicates what

type of research method is appropriate; in this case the formulation is open and allows for a

qualitative and/or quantitative method.13

As the purpose is to gain the most complete picture,

a one-method approach cannot be deemed sufficient in this case. If the purpose of the study

had been simpler in terms of evaluating how much summer tourism has increased, a simpler

quantitative study might have been sufficient. However, as the research question becomes

more complex, so does the research method. I have thus chosen to use a multiple method

approach, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data to the study, and then perform the

appropriate analysis as to be able to fully comprehend the situation that is being researched.

2.3 Qualitative interviews

Qualitative interviews are fairly complex and time consuming but also very flexible14

. To

minimize error, due to memory and in understanding, during the analysis process, the

interview was recorded15

using a phone application called Smart Voice recorder16

, allowing

easy transfer to digital format. The audio file was easily comprehendible and sound was

deemed to be very good. Even though the use of a recording device may somehow have

disrupted the subject17

this allowed a more correct representation afterwards, which was vital

for the analysis phase. The interview subject agreed that that the interview would be recorded

and that it was preferable for accuracy afterwards. Disruption is therefore deemed to have

been minimal. The transcription phase was very long as to gain a correct and accurate text file

of what was said, which was then used for analysis. The analysis used to extract important

information was that of sentence concentration as described by Kvale.18

This allows long texts

to be more concentrated and key concepts are identified and extracted and put into a more

usable form. This method of analysis was deemed most appropriate for the subject of the

interview and the results. Key concepts and sentences that were extracted are presented in the

results below.

To gain the most detailed information through this interview method, it was

conducted in the primary language of the subject, namely French. Using the subject’s

maternal language avoided any confusion about what was asked, whereas an interview in a

second language firstly might have interfered with the amount of information that could be

conveyed by the subject and secondly added unnecessary stress to the interview situation, as

explained by Patel and Davidson.19

No language issue was noticed during the interviewing

process, the transcription or the analysis phase. A semi-structured interview allowed some

freedom within the interview, although the results may be more varied as a consequence20

.

The questions were determined in advance and were sent to the interviewee for preparation to

12

Eggeby, Eva & Söderberg, Johan. (1999) Kvantitativa metoder – för samhällsvetare och humanister. p.135 13

Patel, Runa & Davidson, Bo. (2003) Forskningsmetodikens grunder. Att planera, genomföra och rapportera

en undersökning. pp.49-50 14

Bell, Judith. (2005) Introduktion till forskningsmetodik. 4:e uppl. p.158 15

Kvale, Steinar. (1997) Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun. pp. 148-149 16

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrwq.recorder&hl=sv, downloaded on 2014-03-24 17

Patel & Davidson. p.83 18

Kvale. p.174 19

Patel & Davidson. p.78 20

Kvale. pp.121-122

11

allow a more qualitative discussion, than had the interviewee not been briefed. This meant

that the conversation was more fluid and even though the questions were not done in the exact

order as they had been written, the subject was entirely covered and dealt with.

After the scheduled interview with Sébastien Mérignargues he also introduced

me to their intern Coralie Deschamps, who I afterwards had a short informal interview with as

she is there to help them investigate the weak points and what the next step in developing the

summer season is. This was unfortunately not recorded and there are just some notes from the

interview, these will be taken into account in the results as well. This second interview, as it

was not planned, was slightly less structured, but nonetheless gained insight into the matter at

hand. In a sense she had a very similar viewpoint to me as the researcher as she is working

with the same intent; To understand the summer development up till now, but also to

determine how to develop it further. This information was thus very useful, both in

understanding what tools Tignes’ are using to assess their situation as well as in gaining

another perspective on the research I was undertaking.

2.4 Statistical analysis

A statistical analysis is a quantitative process where one uses statistical models to analyze

numerical results. In this study, available material on visitor statistics and progress reports,

provided by TD, was used and an analysis have been performed to see how visitors/guests

have changed during the development of the summer season in Tignes. These changes mainly

include numbers of visits. TD provided two separate documents, “Réunion Economique

Publique” from July 2013 and a document, known as “Bilan été” describing the frequentation

and key numbers from the summer seasons and its development from 2008 which is when the

last “business plan station” was introduced. The facts and numbers from these documents

have been identified and extracted for the comparison with the qualitative results obtained. It

is important to note that this data is secondary, but there is no way of collecting primary data

on past events and therefore these must be deemed to be acceptable and appropriate for the

situation as the study’s purpose is to investigate developments up till this point in time.

The found quantitative data will be used in a time series analysis as this is

deemed most appropriate for attaining visitor patterns over time periods.21

The statistical

analysis thus serves to help answer the research questions; what are the consequences (of the

actions taken to develop Tignes) and “how has this affected the number and types of visitors.

The statistical results are especially relevant for the second question; “number of visitors” is a

question that is of a numerical value and the correct way to answer it is quantitatively. A

statistical analysis of visitors will help visualize the change in resort and further explain the

consequences of development. It can help determine the developmental trends and compare

different aspects in resort as well as identify key factors. Moreover it can either solidify and

support or contradict results from the interview. The correct analysis method must however be

used and the data must be presented in a relevant matter for this to be of use to the study.

Below in results I have strived to do just that. Graphs or tables will then also help identify

trends in resort development.

The qualitative results found within these same documents will be presented

separately and in relation to the other qualitative results from the interview. Compounding all

qualitative results is judged to be advantageous over using a separating approach which would

make results more fragmental as they would be split into more categories.

21

Eggeby & Söderberg. p.170

12

2.5 Validity and Reliability

Validity and reliability is described by Bell as the 6th

phase, known as verification, in an

interview study.22

It is by Bell described as two parts of the trinity which also includes

generalization.23

Reliability, simplified, is about whether the results will be consistent if the

study was performed in the same setting but during two different times. Bell argues that

reliability comes into question at two particular stages, during the interview, in terms of

leading questions, and during the transcription phase.24

The questions for the interview phase

in this study were formed to be very open and allow the subject to give their own answer.

Validity is about whether the results are relevant to what is being investigated and is

according to Bell something that is present as a sort of checklist during the entire research

process.25

Reliability and validity are important issues that need to be dealt with especially in

the transcription phase of the interview.26

The issue will be about performing a correct

transcription of the interview and using a language that will best convey the conversation that

took place, Bell implies that including a transcription is vital for transparency.27

The

transcription phase was time consuming but this was deemed necessary for a correct

transcription and was also done close to the time of the interview so that memory would not

affect the result.

In terms of the statistical analysis it is important to take into account how the

quantitative data was obtained and that this research process was outside of my, the

researcher’s, control. The data was obtained directly from the responsible party but are what

they have presented publicly as results and can therefore be said to have fairly high reliability

and validity as they could easily be verified by the responsible statistical company.

2.6 Limitations

Limitations with interviews involve the lack of transmission of physical cues such as body

language;28

however, given the purpose of the study, I did not judge it to be important to

record the interview audiovisually. In the interview I recall using hand gestures to describe a

model but this was noted down for future reference and subsequently included in the

transcription phase as to avoid any confusion.

It is furthermore argued that qualitative interviews cannot be objective29

and that

objectivity is something to strive for within research. However objectiveness is a very

complex subject and it can also mean to be free from bias. Kvale argues that an interview can

be somewhat objective but that in terms of interviews it is primarily an intersubjective

interaction.30

In terms of bias it is also important to try to avoid leading questions as to avoid

getting skewed results31

, something which was considered in the creation of the interview

questions. Other issues with qualitative methods include generalization, which will not be

possible as my study is a case study, studying solely the situation in Tignes. Furthermore any

comparison with other resorts will only include previous research. Generalization also

requires a certain size of data and representability.32

However Kvale questions the need for

22

Bell. p.85 23

Bell. p.207 24

Bell. p.213 25

Bell. p.214 26

Patel & Davidson. pp.150-151 27

Bell. p.166 28

Kvale. p.147 29

Kvale. p.64 30

Kvale. p.66 31

Kvale. p.145 32

Kvale. pp.97-98

13

generalizability with the question “Why is so much weight put on generalizability”33

, implying

there is also value in studying a unique situation and still finding valid information. This

means that there is some value in making a case study such as this even if the conclusions

drawn can only be used for the specific situation.

Quantitative methods are limited in the respect that they are “only” numerical, and therefore

lack rich data. Analysis was therefore a simplified process of identifying and organizing

numbers which on their own did not give much insight to the research question at hand.

Limitations of the quantitative data are that they may also not be 100 percent complete.

Surveys using visitor statistics rarely are and it can be assumed that the same is the case for

Tignes. However, considering that the fall out numbers should be fairly consistent, we can

still use the numbers to identify trends and the general direction of the development. Another

limitation to this study is that the quantitative data is secondary. As primary data cannot be

collected one needs to just be aware of the limitations of the data.

2.7 Sample selection and evaluation of sources

The first interview was undertaken with the director of Tignes Développement, Sébastien

Mérignargues. Tignes Développement or TD, is the body that manages the resort of Tignes.

This was the most appropriate subject for the interview as he has access to all the information

that was sought after and can therefore provide the most comprehensive results. A second

shorter, less structured interview was undertaken with Coralie Deschamps, also working for

Tignes Développement, and more specifically, with the role of investigating the summer

season and its potential.

Choosing to focus on Tignes Développement and not on other stakeholders

within the resort was done consciously to get the most reliable and appropriate results. They

are the one body which can be said to have had a consistent role in the development and are

therefore the most appropriate choice of source for the interview. A limitation is that the

results will only show the perspective of one stakeholder.

In terms of the statistical analysis, the data used was also provided by TD. The relevant

numbers were extracted from the documents and put into a coherent and informative form that

allows for easy interpretation. The data is secondary but there is no means of collecting

primary data on past events and therefore these must be admissible. This is the case when

almost any visitor statistics is used as there are national and regional bodies that are usually

responsible for the collection of such. The data used in this study was originally collected by

Comète34

, a large statistics company within the alpine sector, and the information relevant to

Tignes has then been published by Tignes in the documents. The numbers can therefore be

seen as very reliable and valid. A personal gathering over several years would be too time

consuming and not justifiable considering relevant and valid data already exists.

For the theoretical background many printed sources and published articles have been used

and can be considered to have a high reliability which further strengthens the study.

Moreover, the concepts used are very well established within tourism research.

33

Kvale. p.261 34

Tignes Développement. (2013) Réunion Économique Publique. p.4

14

3. Theoretical background

3.1. Seasonality

Seasonality is a concept that is very closely linked with tourism and especially when it comes

to traditional winter resorts. Weaver and Lawton define seasonality as the variations in

demand over the period over a year, and three different situations can be found: high season,

low season and shoulder periods.35

The issue of seasonality is big both in the tourism and

sport sector and thus when it comes to sport tourism, the implications can be big. Higham

presents McEnnif’s statement that “tourism industry issues arising from seasonality ‘are

chiefly concerned with off-peak underutilization of capacity’”36

Furthermore Higham and

Hinch present the idea that tourism seasonality has two underlying major groups of causes;

natural and institutional, meaning factors such as weather and climate or cultural and societal

factors.37

This is still very much true as peak weeks can be identified within the season and

these coincide when major regions have school holidays, a factor which is institutional.38

A

period that restricts especially families in terms of availability to travel. Seasonality can thus

be said to be an interesting factor that affects tourists, business owners, workers, inhabitants

and natural resources. By developing the summer season Tignes is actively trying to change

when high and low season as well as shoulder periods occur. Furthermore it develops a season

where the resort can increase its income and revenue. As mentioned above, seasonality is

linked to climate, and therefore also climate change in some respects. Hill et al. mentions that

boosting the percentage share of summer tourism is seen as an adaptive measure needed by

winter tourism resorts to counteract the effects of climate change.39

This is supported by

Morrison and Pickering who state that development of year-round tourism is an adaptive

measure caused by climate change.40

Moen and Fredman mean that this strategy is the most

promising out of all strategies to counter climate change and that it is beneficial in terms of

reducing seasonality.41

Boosting the summer season also means working with and developing

the resort’s attractions.

3.2.1 Attractions and attractiveness

Attractions are what make a destination worthy of a visit. Weaver and Lawton also categorize

it as a “pull factor” and mean that having a diversity of attractions is something to strive for.42

Sometimes however, attractions become synonymous with destination.43

It is also said that

there is usually a “focal point” or main attraction for visitors.44

For Tignes, the main attraction

used to be the Grande Motte glacier but is now the Bike Park or the Sportignes cluster of

activities. These have been identified through main marketing strategies.45

Both of these have

implications for Tignes as a resort, especially when one considers how Tignes previously has

presented itself as outside and unaffected by climatic seasonality by offering skiing, a

35

Weaver, David. & Lawton, Laura. (2006) Tourism Management. Third Edition. p.209 36

Higham, James. & Hinch, Tom. (2001) Tourism, sport and seasons: the challenges and potential of

overcoming seasonality in the sport and tourism sectors. p.176 37

Higham & Hinch. p.176 38

Higham & Hinch. p.176 39

Hill, Margot., Wallner, Astrid. & Furtado, Jose. (2010) Reducing vulnerability to climate change in the Swiss

Alps: a study of adaptive planning. p.76 40

Morrison, Clare. & Pickering, Catherine M. (2013) Perceptions of climate change impacts, adaptations and

limits to adaptation in the Australian Alps: the ski-tourism industry and key stakeholders. p.174 41

Moen, Jon. & Fredman, Peter. (2007) Effects of climate change on alpine skiing in Sweden. p.431 42

Weaver & Lawton. p.129 43

Holloway, Christopher J. (2009) The business of Tourism. Eighth Edition. p.231 44

Holloway. p.234 45

http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-a-la-carte-activities-252.html, accessed on 2014-05-21

15

traditional winter activity, year round. However, currently it is actually changing and taking a

more “traditional/classic” approach by offering what is considered summer activities in the

appropriate season. In relations to this it would be interesting for further studies to see how

institutionalized seasonality factors are affecting tourism in Tignes.

Attractions make up the one sector that the destination has full control over in

terms of getting visitors and successfully developing a resort.46

The offer of attractions and

their management is thus very relevant in terms of resort development. Furthermore these

attractions can be natural or artificial, meaning that they can be pre-existing or created with

the specific intention of attracting visitors. Pre-existing attractions however need to be

managed correctly to be considered a tourist attraction.47

Weaver and Lawton stress that just

listing attractions for a destination is not enough but it is imperative to assess attraction

attributes for proper management. These attributes include things such as ownership, market,

status and carrying capacity.48

The management of the attractions can thus be said to be as

important as the actual product/attraction itself. Das et al. describe attractions as the major

factors influencing attractiveness of a destination.49

Other factors described are customer

satisfaction as a measure of attractiveness together with a willingness to recommend it. Kim

and Perdue discuss attractiveness as dependent on destination image.50

The same authors

continue to explain that destination image becomes the main factor for attractiveness because

the tourism product itself is intangible and that people usually lack experience and have

limited knowledge of the destination.51

Many factors can thus be said to affect attractiveness

and it remains a complex concept.

3.2.2 Attractions as a commercial product

If we choose to see attractions as commercial products one can argue that price is a critical

element.52

This is from the standpoint of the concept of the marketing mix, including the

elements; product, price, promotion and place.53

A product is defined as “Anything that can

be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want

or a need. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas.”54

The product is the base but needs the other elements to become attractive and in terms of

tourist attractions these are determined by management. A link to the gratuity of attractions in

Tignes can easily be drawn and is an important point of analysis. One can choose to regard

the destination of Tignes as a product in itself made up several different components.

However, it is also possible to regard the specific attractions offered within resort as

individual products which would then provide very specific insight into how each part of the

destination is working and whether they are a successful and useful component to the resort as

a whole. Tourist attractions together with the tourism industry can also be seen as ‘the tourism

product’.55

Holloway argues that selling a touristic product, like an attraction, is like selling a

46

Weaver & Lawton. p.97, 100 47

Weaver & Lawton. pp.100-101 48

Weaver & Lawton. pp.146-147 49

Das, Debadyuti., Sharma, Sushil Kumar., Mohapatra, Pratap K J. & Sarkar, Ashutosh. (2007) Factors

influencing the attractiveness of a tourist destination: a case study. p.103 50

Kim, Dohee. & Perdue, Richard R. (2011) The influence of image on destination attractiveness. p.226 51

Kim & Perdue. p.227 52

Weaver & Lawton. p.222 53

Kotler, Philip., Armstrong, Gary., Wong, Veronica. & Saunders, John. (2008) Principles of Marketing. Fifth

European Edition. p.49 54

Kotler et al. p.49 55

Weaver & Lawton. p.129

16

dream, as experiences are intangible.56

This aspect is important as not everyone will see

perceive the product in the same way. The product thus becomes the experience of the

product rather than the attraction in itself. Given that many attractions in Tignes are outdoors,

weather can also be seen as an important factor in the experience of the product. Essentially

the goal for Tignes is to create new experiences that can serve to lengthen the high season

period over the year, making it less seasonally dependent as mentioned above. Attractiveness

is furthermore a factor in determining the number and type of visitors that will choose the

resort as their destination.

3.3 Tourist types Segmentation of tourists is something that remains important to the tourism industry and

tourism research and allows destinations to identify their key marketing groups. Segmentation

can be done geographically, demographically, psychographically or behaviorally.57

Weaver

and Lawton claim that tourists are categorized into four major types primarily; domestic and

international, stay overs and excursions.58

However, they do recognize that travel purpose is a

main part of what defines a tourist.59

Examples include leisure and recreation and sport

tourists. Needham et al.’s study supports the fact that visitors seek out specific activities to

fulfill motivations and needs.60

For the basis of the study, geographical, demographical and

behavioral aspects are valued above psychographical. Knowing your market is extremely

important for resort development in order to choose the appropriate products and further

develop the resort to accommodate the needs of these people. If one wishes to expand and

attract new markets, the principle remains the same. Knowledge about tourist types and

clientele can thus be judged to be a major factor in destination and product development.

During the development of the resort the numbers of tourists also vary as is explained by

Butler’s lifecycle model below.

3.4 Destination development lifecycle

The Butler sequence is a well-known, used and applied model within tourism research and is,

simplified, an S-shaped curve showing the development of a resort within its lifecycle.61

The

different stages are, as based on Weaver and Lawton’s work62

;

Exploration

Tourism as an industry is practically non-existent and so is the number of visitors. The stage

can be seen as a “pre-tourism” where any visitors must make all arrangements themselves

based on what is available in the local community.63

Involvement

During this stage, number of visitors start to increase, as does the efforts within the

destination to accommodate them. Tourism is seen as positive and income is increased.64

56

Holloway. p.10 57

Holloway. pp.66-69 58

Weaver & Lawton. p.35 59

Weaver & Lawton. p.29 60

Needham, Mark, D., Wood, Colin J.B., & Rollins, Rick B., (2004) Understanding summer visitors and their

experiences at the Whistler Mountain Ski area, Canada. p.239 61

Weaver & Lawton. p.307 62

Weaver & Lawton. pp.308-316 63

Wever & Lawton. pp.308-310 64

Weaver & Lawtn. pp.310-311

17

Development

During this stage a rapid growth can be observed as well as major changes within the resort.

A key factor is for the resort to remain in control of the development.65

Consolidation

This stage involves a decrease in growth rate, however the general trend is still positive.

Tourism exists on a large scale and the economy depends on it. Furthermore, seasonality

issues arise.66

Stagnation

Within the stagnation phase peak number of visitors has been reached and there may be too

much capacity. The resort can be seen as out of fashion and rely on return visitors.67

Decline or Rejuvenation

Decline happens when resorts fail to attract new or return visitors, or when stakeholders do

not try or fail to develop their products.68

Rejuvenation occur when new touristic products are introduced and the

destinations image and unique features once again become attractive. This positive

development is usually a consequence of proactive planning and strategies. 69

An application of this to already established destinations will put the focus within the

consolidation, and thereafter, the stagnation phase. From this point onwards, managerial

decisions regarding long term planning will determine the inevitable fate of the destination;

rejuvenation or decline.70

As mentioned above, Weaver suggests that one reason for decline is

that stakeholders within the destination do not attempt to revitalize the attractions or touristic

products or that these measures fail.71

Rejuvenation is not believed to occur naturally but

through a deliberate decision and development process carried out by stakeholders.72

Weaver

and Lawton suggest that for ski resorts in general, many are now going through the

consolidation stage and stresses that viability is largely climate dependent, despite artificial

snow making.73

However, should an attempt at marketing a resort for its summer attractions be

considered a well-established destination or do we indeed need to separate this development

completely and look at it as a separate resort from the start? This is interesting in terms of

looking at the specific summer development instead of at Tignes as a whole. If we regard the

summer specifically, thus respecting the focus and scope of the study, it may be more

appropriate to place Tignes in an earlier stage of development. Holloway stresses that a resort

will always benefit from being unique and by offering more benefits rather than being an

‘identikit’ destination and furthermore that this, like the Butler sequence suggest, depends on

constant development and rejuvenation.74

Models such as the Butler curve can be useful in

terms of explaining the stages of development in resort as these often remain fairly general

and can be applied globally.

65

Weaver & Lawton. p.313 66

Weaver & Lawton. p.314 67

Weaver& Lawton. pp.314-315 68

Weaver & Lawton. p.315 69

Weaver & Lawton. p.316 70

Weaver & Lawton. p.315. 71

Weaver & Lawton. p.315 72

Weaver & Lawton. p.316 73

Weaver & Lawton. p.143 74

Holloway. pp.215-216

18

The Butler sequence

Source: Butler (1980)75

The results obtained in the study will help further place Tignes on the curve and determine at

which stage in the development they are. This will be done through presenting statistical

results as a graph and through the interview where aspects such as growth and development

are discussed. The curve can also help predict what Tignes can expect in terms of growth and

stagnation, depending on their own actions. The Butler curve, although still somewhat

generalized, remains a measurement tool for development and is therefore still relevant to the

development of Tignes as a summer resort.

3.5 Climate change

When discussing development of tourism one cannot exclude climate change as a factor and

reason for development. The Butler curve above discusses deliberate actions and their effects

but fail to include other factors such as climate that are also affecting tourism potential.

Unfortunately most development is responsive action and not proactive, meaning it is only

when the consequences of climate change has been seen that the action to develop or

counteract is taken. A more proactive approach would be recommendable as it allows a longer

timescale to implement changes. Several studies involving the Alps, alpine resorts and their

future have been done in relation to climate change. Needham et al. also mentioned studies

supporting the summer season as a potential offset to effects of climate change on ski areas.76

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) states that tourism is an

especially climate sensitive sector and furthermore that winter sports tourism is “inherently

sensitive to climatic conditions”77

Tignes situation is as mentioned earlier unique in the sense

that the glacier has allowed “traditional winter sports tourism” outside of the winter season

and therefore what is relevant climatic changes for winter sports tourism is also relevant for

summer tourism in Tignes. Tignes, a high altitude resort might however at least initially

benefit if lower altitude resorts are affected by climate change and have to reduce opening

days, especially in the winter.78

Furthermore, Tignes, like other high altitude resorts in Soboll

and Dingeldey’s study, should be manageable in terms of snow availability even in the

future.79

Climate change is obvious if one looks at the status of glaciers and their retreat over

the last century, including in Tignes. Shijin et al. states the fairly obvious; the retreat of

75

http://www.hotelmule.com/management/attachments/2010/07/26_201007120616002WInG.gif, accessed on

2014-03-14 76

Needham et al. p.234 77

Soboll, Anja & Dingeldey, Alexander. (2012) The future impact of climate change on Alpine winter tourism: a

high-resolution simulation system in the German and Austrian Alps. p.101 78

Soboll & Dingeldey. p.109 79

Soboll & Dingeldey. p.115

19

glaciers also has an effect on glacier tourism.80

It is important to note that Tignes is not

excluded from climate change but in terms of attractiveness for tourism and future potential,

Tignes can still be considered in a favorable position, for all seasons, if one is to draw any

conclusions from previously mentioned research. Moreover a few studies have been done in

relation to these subjects and are therefore relevant to mention.

3.6 Previous studies

Previous studies focusing on summer development include studies such as “Vintersportorten -

året runt”, a project under ETOUR, European Tourism Research Institute”.81

This study

serves to give light to especially Åre, and its development from a winter resort to an all year

round attraction. The study has compared the development to other resorts such as Whistler,

Ischgl and Oppdal. Furthermore it highlights different factors that they have identified as

common factors for success from the different resorts. These include vision, organization,

ownership structure, activities, market, brand, company cultures, natural resources and

cultural heritage82

. In this study parallels can be drawn to how Tignes has been developed and

the success factors are similar and thus further support how Tignes worked with the summer

season so far. The authors further agree that number of visitor nights spent and especially the

increase of such as well as using the resorts capacity is an important indicator of success.83

This supports the need for a quantitative aspect when it comes to measuring the level of

success in development of a resort, which is in accordance with this study.

Another study regarding the development of a summer season in a traditional winter resort

has been carried out by Linda Harkman.84

The purpose of which was to carry out a case study

to investigate Sälen’s potential for development of a summer season and to become a

functioning year-round resort. Harkman’s study includes a brief comparison with other resorts

to be able to compare and evaluate Sälen in terms of current summer activities, strategies for

future development, key stakeholders, target groups and marketing. Harkman concludes that

Sälen sets itself apart by having a separate group responsible for only summer tourism. This is

a contrast to Tignes which has one organization that is responsible for resort management.

Furthermore Harkman mentions success factors in other resorts such as Idre where one has

managed to attract high profile athletes and thus improving the image of the resort.85

The

same strategy is being employed in Tignes. Harkman also discusses the issue of branding and

like the above study mentioned, concludes that it is an advantage of having a strong winter

brand to benefit from, but that it can also be hard to integrate new attractions into an already

existing brand.86

80

Shijin, Wang., Yuanqing, He. & Xiaodong, Song. (2010) Impacts of climate warming on alpine glacier

tourism and adaptive measures: a case study of Baishui Glacier No.1 in Yulong Snow Mountain, Southwestern

China. p.167 81

Flagestad et al. Vintersportorten – året runt. 82

Flagestad et al. pp.6-7 83

Flagestad et al. p.9 84

Harkman. Det gröna sälen. 85

Harkman. p.29 86

Harkman. p.28,30

20

4. Results

4.1 Results from interview and other qualitative results

These results include the qualitative results from the interview as well as important facts and

statements taken from the same documents that have been used for extraction of statistical

results. These have been separated from the quantitative results as to provide a clearer

overview. These facts and information include long term strategy regarding investments and

budgetary allocations as well as other information that is relevant to the content discussed in

the interview.

The interview confirmed that what prompted the development of the summer season was that

the glacier was no longer skiable all year due to climate changes and that one needed to make

the decision whether Tignes should go for a limited one season approach or to keep the

summer season but in a different format. Through the interview, a key action was identified as

a start to the development; the politicians at the time decided in favor of the summer season

when faced with the decision of stopping it in its current form or to change it. This was at the

start of the 2000s. As in many other places the decision was probably taken in a later stage

than it should have as one did not react until the effect of climate change on the glacier was

noticeable.

Through the development the image of Tignes has changed as well from being focused on

skiing to a more traditional summer program, but with certain unique features such as gratuity

and innovation in regards to new activities or attractions. A focus on the change was also put

in place by hosting international Beach soccer events which clearly was not a part of Tignes’

previous image. TD also notes how gratuity is replacing skiing as the differential/unique

factor for Tignes.

The development since have followed multi-year plans that have been carefully put together

and implemented step by step. In short below, the implementations which were a part of the

latest business plan for the resort (2009-2013)

2009: free carte Sportignes

2010: free bike park and lifts

2011: free lifts for pedestrians

2012-2014: consolidation of offer87

Before this, the bike park existed but in a paying form, as did the carte Sportignes. From the

start of the development about 2002, one developed infrastructures such as the Lagon, the

sport beach and football fields. A side note is that the tourism income in 2012, with free

activities is 12000€ less than in 2008 which was the last summer that the carte Sportignes was

not free.88

The strategy for the products and Tignes as a resort was clear and Tignes wanted to create a

versatile and varied offer of activities, which were free. The strategy was to move away from

the one-attraction setup and thus become less dependable on it. Furthermore, one really strong

attraction, equivalent to that of skiing would be hard to create. Creating a wide and therefore

strong array of activities to choose from was seen as the solution. However, the strategy was

to first develop the product to attain a certain value and then add a supplementary value to it

87

Tignes Développement. Bilan été. p.107 88

TD. Réunion Économique. p.31

21

by making it free using the thesis that “A gift is not really a gift if it’s not worth anything”89

The strategy of diversifying was made possible to some extent due to the natural resources

that do exist in Tignes, such as the lake, which is an asset that not many alpine resorts have.

Other attractions, such as the bike park are also dependent on the natural resources.

There is an awareness that Tignes is now still growing in the summer due to constant renewal

and a well-developed plan and that this can change if one stops. They regard staying dynamic

as a vital point to a continued success and realize that even if the growth rate now slows down

the resort will still be doing well, especially compared to other resorts. Other points of

development are seen as summer events, golf and disabled sports. To gain an outside

perspective and investigate weak aspects and points of development a student on a trainee

program, an intern, has been employed.

The success of the long-term strategy can be clearly seen in a comparison with

Val d’Isère who was forced to make their bike park free when Tignes did so, as the two

resorts are linked, but they however lacked the background development to make this move.

Out of the 110 000 people using the bike park in 2013, 85 000 come from Tignes. A clear

long term strategy with part time goals can thus be seen as important.

There is also a belief that the summer season is allowed to exist within its current form with a

strong focus on the product, which also takes the main part of the budget, about 70 percent

because the winter season is so strong and consequently Tignes as a brand, which they take

advantage of in the summer. Only 20 and 10 percent respectively is spent on animations/small

events and communication/marketing. TD decided in the business plan for 2003-2008 to treat

Tignes as a brand instead of as a product leader, meaning a change of focus away from

product qualities and creating a brand that has an added intrinsic value to it.90

The brand

focus, or what sets Tignes apart in the summer, has now changed from skiing to free

activities. A point for the future is to find the correct mix of events and product focus as it is

believed that none could exist successfully without the other. As of right now it is recognized

that there is no major event in the summer, only larger animations during the weeks.

Visitors to Tignes in the summer used to be 80 percent skiers, something which was

considered a mono-culture, another term for a single attraction destination. After the current

developments there are only 10 percent of people who ski, which is an important change,

even when considering that the number of visitors have gone up by 36 percent in the last 6

years. In terms of visitors there are, like the activities, a wider variety of types of tourists in

terms of interests, age etc. This is a contrast to the winter when the stereotypical ski tourist is

still very strong. Targeting several smaller markets through different attractions has created a

larger tourist base and visitor potential. By changing and expanding the activities and

investing in infrastructures they have been able to attract new groups of tourists/markets to the

resort, such as high level athletes and downhill bikers. A difference between the summer and

the winter season is that the typical winter tourist is more stereotypical whereas there are

more different types of tourists in the summer, more diversity.

4.2 Statistical results

The results found from the documents provided by TD are presented below in graphical form

accompanied by an explanatory text.

89

Interview Sebastien Mérignargues, Tignes Développement. 2014-03-13. Author’s translation, see appendix

9.1. 90

TD. Bilan été. p.52

22

The visitor statistics have been collected by the company Comète which is independent and

deals with statistics from resorts all over the Alps.91

It has been noted that the statistics regarding visitors is less detailed than in the winter period

where more information is gathered. The summer period is thus only explained in number of

total visitors. The statistics go back to 2008.

The most relevant method of analysis for this data will be a time series analysis as described

by Eggeby and Söderberg.92

The analysis will include a breakdown to index which will

facilitate the comparison of values as well as defining trendlines for the data. This analysis is

of use when two factors in relation to each other need to be compared in development over

time. How the time series analysis and the calculations have been done is explained more

thoroughly below.

4.2.1 General statistics overview

Table 1. Developments within the summer season

Source: Tignes Développement. Réunion Économique Publique and Tignes Développement.

Bilan été 2013

91

TD. Réunion Économique Publique. p.4 92

Eggeby & Söderberg. p.170

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Fre

qu

en

tati

on

Developments within the summer season

Number of nights

Stays

Carte Sportignesdistribution

Carte Sportignes users

Bike park users

Pedestrians using lifts

23

Table 2. Tignes visitor statistics

Source: Tignes Développement. Réunion Économique Publique and Tignes Développement.

Bilan été 2013.

Comments on statistics above:

- The number of nights and numbers of stays correspond. Stays are multiplied by 6 to

reach the total number of nights as this is the standard amount of days.

- Highlighted numbers in the table are specific numbers mentioned in the documents,

the others have been calculated to an approximation from a percentage graph

displayed in the document.

- The numbers also appear to have been rounded off in the documents, from which they

have been extracted, which may skew results slightly.

- Below the number is the percentage increase using the start year for each category as

100 percent.

Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Number of nights 259500 264690 316590 324378 331800 352200

100% 102% 122% 125% 128% 136%

Stays 43250 44115 52765 54063 55300 58700

100% 102% 122% 125% 128% 136%

Carte Sportignes users 24700 50200 69700 101500 125900 132000

100% 203% 282% 411% 510% 534%

Carte Sportignes distribution 1500 18000 25000 27000 32200 36100

100% 1200% 1667% 1800% 2147% 2407%

Bike park users 23600 55800 80000 100000 111000

100% 236% 339% 424% 470%

Pedestrians using lifts 15000 23600 33400 35000

100% 157% 223% 233%

24

4.2.2 Tignes’ development compared to other resorts.

Other important numbers include the comparison of Tignes’ development compared to other

alpine resorts in France which represent their main competitors. This is one way that success

is often measured. Below is a representation of Tignes’ development in relation to the mean

development of other resorts. This already includes a calculation using time series analysis

and index numbers. However to further clarify these trends a graph using trendlines has been

added. For this part index numbers already existed.

Table 3. Tignes vs. other resorts

Source: Tignes Développement. Bilan été.

Table 4. Time series analysis: Tignes vs. other alpine resorts

Comments: Tignes has compared to the average alpine resort had a very different

development over the past couple of years, showing that there is likely to be one or several

factors that differentiate the resort from its competitors.

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Ind

ex

Tignes vs other alpine resorts

Tignes index

General developmentalpine resorts index

Trendline Tignes

Trendline generalalpine resortsdevelopment

25

4.2.3 Bike park statistics

The first complete time series analysis includes a comparison between the increase in number

of visitors and the increase in number of people using the bike park as this has been deemed

to be the main attraction. The base year is thus set to be 2009 as data is not available before

that. The index for 2009 is thus 100. The index is thereafter calculated using by dividing the

value of year x with the value of 2009 and then multiplying by a 100.93

Index = (value year x/ value year2009) *100

The calculations give the following table:

Table 5. Index calculation Bikepark vs. visitors

Year Bikepark Index Visitors Index

2009 23600 100 264690 100

2010 55800 236 316590 120

2011 80000 339 324378 123

2012 100000 424 331800 125

2013 111000 470 352200 135

Source: Tignes Développement. Bilan été 2013 and Tignes Développement. Réunion

Économique Publique.

This gives a graph with the following result:

Table 6. Time series analysis: Bike park vs. general number of visitors

Comments: Shown on the graph is also the trendline which gives displays the mean increase

in the same timeline. From this graph it is abundantly clear that the bike park represents a

major increase compared to the total number of visitors and therefore reinforces its status as

the main summer attraction and a large factor in the summer development process. One

weakness with the Bike Park data is that it includes data from Val d’Isère. This is a limitation

that needs to be noted as the Bike Park is an activity offered by Tignes and Val d’Isère 93

Eggeby & Söderberg, p.173

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Ind

ex

Bikepark vs. general number of visitors

Bikepark index

Visitor index

Trendline Bikepark

Trendline visitors

26

combined. It is therefore difficult to separate numbers properly. We can however observe that

the percentage of the number of people using the bike park is increasing, from 2008 where it

is at almost 9 percent of visitors and in 2013 where it has increased to 31.5 percent of all

visitors.

27

4.2.4 Carte Sportignes statistics

If we thereafter look at the carte Sportignes we can see the following development:

Table 7. Index calculation: Carte Sportignes use vs. distribution

Carte Sportignes use

vs. distribution

distribution index users index

Mean number of activities per

card

2008 1500 100 24700 100 16.47

2009 18000 1200 50200 203 2.79

2010 25000 1667 69700 282 2.79

2011 27000 1800 101500 411 3.76

2012 32200 2147 125900 510 3.91

2013 36100 2407 132000 534 3.66

Increase x24

x5

Source: Tignes Développement. Bilan été 2013.

Table 8. Time series analysis: Carte Sportignes use vs. distribution

Comments: The carte Sportignes was made free in 2009 when we can see the big jump in

distribution numbers. However what is especially interesting to look at is that the number of

cards distributed has increased by 24 times and the frequentation only by 5. Furthermore we

can observe a mean number of activities/frequentation per card which has rapidly decreased

as the card was made free. The carte Sportignes is delivered to all tourists in resort who

purchase their accommodation from Tignes agreed list of partners. Furthermore the card can

be purchased if one is not staying at an accommodation eligible for the card.94

Since we can in

no way differentiate between these two groups, a comparison between distribution and use is

more interesting than comparing it to the total number of visitors.

94

http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/sportignes-card-850.html, accessed on 2014-05-21

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Ind

ex

Carte sportignes use vs distribution

distribution index

use index

Trendline distribution

Trendline use

28

4.2.5 Winter vs. summer statistics

This study focuses mainly on the summer but it is important to gain a perspective on what the

winter is like in comparison below is a table using visitor statistics from 2008 till 2013

followed by a time series analysis graph.

Table 9. Index calculation: winter vs. summer frequentation

winter vs. summer frequentation

winter index summer index

2008 2104300 100 259500 100

2009 2055000 98 264690 102

2010 2036200 97 316590 122

2011 2059000 98 324378 125

2012 2044800 97 331800 128

2013 2051000 97 352200 136

Source: Tignes Développement. Réunion Économique Publique.

Table 10. Time series analysis: winter vs. summer development

Comments: This show how the summer development is still very much growing compared to

the winter which seems to have stagnated and has remained fairly stable for the past 6 years.

However if we look at a comparison, Tignes’ summer visitors are only up to 12-17 percent of

the winter occupation, as shown below in table 11.

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Ind

ex

Winter vs. summer development

Winter developmentindex

Summer developmentindex

Trendline winterdevelopment

Trendline summerdevelopment

29

Table 11. Summer vs. winter frequentation percentage

Summer vs. winter frequentation

percentage

winter summer summer percentage %

2008 2104300 259500 12

2009 2055000 264690 13

2010 2036200 316590 16

2011 2059000 324378 16

2012 2044800 331800 16

2013 2051000 352200 17

Source: Tignes Développement. Réunion Économique Publique.

30

5. Analysis

Looking at what decisions have been taken in Tignes and the visitor statistics one can see that

from 2009 to 2010 there is a strong increase in nights spent in the resort which coincides with

the gratuity of the bike park. Afterwards there is a strong increase in clients using the bike

park but that has now started consolidating and is not increasing at the same rate. The first

year it was free usage, the number of visitors more than doubled from the year before. The

same kind of behavior can be observed in relation to the carte Sportignes, which doubled in

use from 2008-2009 when it became free. Interestingly enough if one looks at how many

Sportignes cards were used and distributed we can see that distribution has gone up to 24

times as many but the frequentations is only 5 times as many in 2013 as in 2008. Pedestrians

using lifts did not have quite the same effect but still increased by 50 percent when made free.

Gratuity as a strategy can thus so far be seen as successful, at least in the initial stages. As

seen above, it is confirmed by the different activities separately. The successive development

and infrastructure investments are also mentioned by Flagestad et al. as a success factor.95

These steps above, related to the relevant statistical figures shows a strong connection

between positive development and active planning. Below is a more detailed explanation into

the factors relevant to Tignes’ summer season development.

Tignes in relation to the Butler curve can thus be placed somewhere in the end of the

development phase or start consolidation stage, which is recognized by TD through their

business plan. The stagnation phase is interesting in the aspect that the summer season already

sees a major underutilization of capacity, even in the current peak periods. However, the

question remains; what can be seen as peak number of visitors and what is the actual limit for

summer tourism within Tignes? The next step will however be to improve further or possibly

face a decline. Active management resort have the intention of keeping Tignes’ positive

development and delving into new markets and attractions to keep the curve going up, and

judging by previous strategies they are in a good position to do so. TD also seems aware of

this concept of destination development which can only be seen as a positive aspect. TD in

the interview mentioned that one wanted a more varied offer and a wider spread of activities

and emphasized being dynamic in further development as a key factor. One can still see that

the bike park now accounts for over 30 percent of the visitors, which is nowhere near the 80

percent that used to be there for skiing but still represents a large number and percentage. TD

seems aware of the concept that Butler curve represents and such knowledge is important

together with a deep understanding for the resort and its assets. Something which is sought,

for example, by employing someone to investigate the specific development and points of

improvement. This kind of asset analysis is also recommended by Weaver and Lawton.96

Furthermore their strategies include several years and can be seen as long-term planning for

the resort. There are so far some areas that have been identified for further development, like

the golf course or disability sports. However, to judge whether these are viable potential

future attractions a more in depth study is needed.

It appears Tignes’ multitude of offers have really made a big impact on the number of visitors

and one can clearly see that the bike park is a strong point for the resort as well as the carte

Sportignes. The bike park is out of the two, the more attractive attraction and a stronger point,

as shown through the quantitative results. The two activities can easily claim the status as

main attractions even though one of them in itself represents a cluster of products/activities.

Flagestad et al. states that summer visitors are often reluctant to book their activities in before

95

Flagestad. p.16 96

Weaver & Lawton. pp.146-147

31

arrival due to factors such as weather.97

This favors a setup like the carte Sportignes where

activities have an ‘à la carte’ setup. The activities are almost considered as a bonus, an extra

that may not attract customers in itself as much as the bike park but will add value to the

product of Tignes. The distribution of the cards has increased more exponentially than the

frequentation. It appears the use of each card has gone down as a consequence as well,

meaning that because the card is free, the people do not feel like they have to make the most

of it, but merely use it for whatever suits them as no financial cost or loss is experienced by

the visitor. Tignes sees this as a positive note and as a way for a tourist to “customize their

week” by only using what they like.98

The gratuity of the card as well as the bike park appears

to have been well thought through and is made possible by the focus on the product within the

budget. A problem that may occur in the future is if Tignes decides it is not viable to spend

the money themselves on making a lot of activities free and an “increase” or add of a price

might make the attraction, or product, less attractive. As is mentioned in the results, Tignes’

tourism income is still not up to the same amount as before the gratuity of the Sportignes card

was introduced, despite the major increase in number of visitors. It is clear that Tignes is

trying to carefully manage its attractions and create an attractive image for itself, even though

the means might be questioned financially.

The current “free” activities exist as the budget allows for a main focus on the product itself,

taking away from other aspects such as marketing. This is deemed viable due to the major

marketing strategies put in place during the winter concerning Tignes as a brand. Tignes has

in terms of the marketing mix positioned themselves with an attractive offer of qualitative

products, gratuity, and furthermore positioning themselves apart from other resorts and they

take advantage of their strong winter brand for marketing purposes. The positioning of Tignes

can also be considered a strong suit as resort management have constantly worked to set

Tignes apart from other resorts, from the start using 365 days of skiing, secondly by hosting

international beach soccer events in an untraditional environment, thirdly by making the

controversial move to free activities and continually by making the brand Tignes stand out.

This may be especially true in the winter but also for the summer season. Furthermore, the

summer season needs this kind of positioning as they have now moved to a more classical

range of summer activities. Gratuity is also recognized as a differential factor. It is recognized

by TD that the summer season in its current form would not be viable if it was not for the

winter. Completely separating the development of the two seasons is thus hard as the methods

used are largely interdependent. A comparison between the two seasons was nonetheless

made to determine the trends of development. The winter season is fairly stable and

somewhat stagnant and furthermore one can even see a slight decline. The logical deduction

from this is that Tignes has reached a carrying capacity and will need a big change to affect

the visitor numbers during its winter season. The summer season is on a strong increasing

trend but has so far only reached 1/6th

of the winter numbers, which shows a great potential

for the future as the infrastructure and basic amenities in terms of accommodation, parking

and so forth already exist.

In terms of clientele there is no other information other quantitative information other than

visitor number and users of the bike park to indicate how the clientele has changed. The

interview indicated that there is a bigger diversity in the summer. However more data on this

would be necessary to fully understand the change and to perform a complete analysis.

Furthermore, this information is needed to more accurately determine target markets. If the

summer season for whatever reason can no longer benefit from the marketing and

97

Flagestad et al. p.20 98

TD. Réunion Économique. p.27

32

communication of the winter season, this information is crucial for further development.

Moreover this is encouraged and new markets are sought after through ex. athlete training

camps, the investment of the Tignespace, a conference and sports complex as well as a

thought of developing the golf course or start developing products aimed at groups of disabled

people. A greater diversity is easily explained by the multitude of activities and attractions

offered whereas the winter is still very much focused on just skiing. By diversifying

attractions one has also diversified the clientele, something which can be both a negative and

a positive aspect. A more diverse clientele means less risk should one attraction disappear but

is also more complicated in terms of marketing. By marketing to a large group, people may

feel less targeted and attracted to the product. It remains clear though, through the quantitative

and qualitative data, that for now the strategy is working. Holloway supports the multiple

attraction theory where he means that a large concentration of different activities provide

added value and improve chances of success.99

A variety of activities is also mentioned as a

success factor by Flagestad et al. in their study of summer seasons in winter resorts.100

Success can also be mentioned as a relative notion, meaning doing better than your

competitor. The statistics show that Tignes is generally doing better than the mean alpine

resort. In a more specific comparison, Tignes appears to be doing better compared to Val

d’Isère, even though the both are closely linked. This is also due to active resort management.

The summer is becoming stronger but one needs to recognize that Tignes’ resources are still

massively underutilized in the summer. Looking at a comparison of visitor statistics, the

summer numbers only reach between 12 and 17 percent of the winter numbers. The winter

season seems fairly stagnant and it would appear at its carrying capacity, the summer however

is far behind and can still show a large growth in visitor numbers. However it is hard to

imagine a scenario where the summer will ever be as important as the winter season. A

question to pose is if there is enough demand for alpine summer tourism, given its

competition with other summer holiday types such as beach and sun, and whether such a

scenario is even possible. The winter season’s advantage is that it plays at its strength and

plays the important yet stereotypical role of skiing holiday in the appropriate season.

Moreover, the summer is recognized as too weak to stand on its own without the benefits of

particularly the winter season’s marketing and image. Flagestad et al.’s study shows that the

summer brand is often dependent on a strong winter one and that the summer one, albeit

weaker will not negatively impact the winter one.101

Despite climate change Tignes is still in a very good position, especially considering altitude

to keep a strong winter season for a long time. Climate change is something which hasn’t

been fully discussed as it does effect winter more so than summer, but it may ultimately have

consequences for the summer if winter starts to decline significantly. Climate change can also

be judged to be a key factor for the initial development of the summer season in its current

state. Natural attractions are a big part of Tignes’ attractiveness touristically but it is also

important to note that some restrictions in terms of artificial development exist due to the

Vanoise National Park. However, the regulations also serve to help preserve the natural

heritage of the resort, especially facing possible climate change effects. However, during the

time period studied it would be impossible to draw any significant conclusions when it comes

to current climate change effects as the time span needs to be much wider than 1,5 decades.

99

Holloway. p.216 100

Flagestad et al. p.6 101

Flagestad et al. p.27

33

Seasonality is still an issue but it is decreasing due to the growth in summer guests. The

general result from the summer season development is a positive trend and that is in line with

counteracting issues of seasonality. The issue will still exist within the season as well, but on

a year round basis the development is positive for the resort as it keeps more people

employed102

and furthermore that inhabitants also can profit from the activities offered.

Although TD doesn’t specifically mention seasonality as an issue it can still be observed as a

phenomenon, and the decision to keep the summer season going the resort showed an

understanding for how the city and its inhabitant could benefit from not being entirely

dependent on the winter season and its tourism income. Being dependent on the winter brand

and moreover a focus on year round branding is mentioned by Flagestad et al. as a factor that

is common for many winter resorts trying to extend to a successful year round resort.103

The final note is that Tignes is wholly dependent on its tourism income and therefore a large

investment and long term strategies as shown are necessary for a successful future. The

strategies and developments seen in Tignes echo those of successful resorts in previous

studies, and although each case is unique, there seem to be a few general factors that can still

be seen as the key to success. These include, among others, activities and asset management,

organizational structure, brand and target markets, all of which are discussed above.

102

TD. Réunion Economique. p.28 103

Flagestad et al. p.7

34

6. Conclusions

The purpose of the study was to investigate Tignes as a resort in terms of development during

the summer season and answer the research questions:

- Which actions have been taken to develop Tignes as a summer resort, why, and what

are the consequences?

- How has the development changed the number and types of visitors?

The purpose was seen as relevant due to the many consequences that exist in tourism due to

climate changes as well as other issues such as seasonality.

The first questions are very detailed in reality but simplified one can see that Tignes has

developed a multi-year strategy that included developing attractions, a major focus on the

product itself and furthermore making it attractive using gratuity and benefiting from the

winter brand. Sometimes it is hard to separate the summer and winter season in this aspect as

the brand of Tignes now includes both summer and winter. However it is very clear that the

management of the resort is very different in the two seasons. The decision to develop the

summer resort has one main factor, the decline of the glacier due to global heating and climate

change. This prompted, although maybe slightly late, the responsive action of developing the

summer season. However it is clear that Tignes has in the short development time gone from

just being responsive to being proactive in their management.

Climate change has to be recognized as a contributing factor to change but in the short time

span that is being investigated it is hard to draw any conclusions on future effects. Summer

can however be seen as a potential offset to climate change effects in ski areas.104

One can

observe that the general development in the Alps is that climate change is changing the way

winter seasons are run, how snow is provided and that in general, a brighter, or slightly longer

future is forecasted for resorts at higher altitudes.105

Having a responsible body of organization that works efficiently according to a well-

established strategy has given clear positive results and show that one can develop and

flourish even when others with the same resources do not. The difference is clearly the

strategy as can be seen through a comparison with neighboring resort Val d’Isère, as stated in

the results, where less planning can be identified. A further investigation into this resort

would however be necessary for a deeper, more complete comparison. It needs to be

recognized, without diminishing the work of the management, that Tignes also has many

natural attractions and even a lake, which has played a major role in the development of the

summer activities and its possibilities. The use of natural resources in developing the new

main attractions is evident in the bike park and the Sportignes card which uses the mountains,

lifts and the lake. The basic structures were thus already in place before development.

Through this development we can see a rise in visitors, in the number of attractions, a change

in image and a change in clientele. As the development is still in a quite early stage it is hard

to draw any conclusions about long term effects of the summer season growth. The number

are however very clear, the last couple of years has been a period of intense growth and

Tignes has successfully gained visitors whilst competing resorts have declined. The clientele

is not described in enough detail to draw any important conclusions but it appears that there is

a greater diversity, compared to the winter season, which is due to a greater diversity in

attractions.

104

Needham et al. p.234 105

Soboll & Dingeldey. p.102., Hill et al. p.74

35

7. Reflections

I believe that Tignes to a certain extent is working in the correct way to develop a more

traditional summer season. It is supported by the fact that previous studies presenting

successful destination development show the same signs and have gone through the same

steps and have a similar organization. Tignes, as a resort, and their destination management

also do seem aware of issues within destination development and are making a continual

effort in trying to develop the summer and have moved from being reactionary to being

proactive which is a key part.

The future will tell whether Tignes’ development of the summer season is a success as there is

still a large potential for further development and growth. It is up to resort management to

stay dynamic and remain proactive to further improve the summer season, which is now

starting to become well established. Another key element lies making it profitable on its own

and less dependent on the winter season.

However as discussed I do believe that uniqueness and finding new niche markets is a main

factor in achieving success. I do not necessarily agree that providing free activities is the best

way to differentiate themselves on the market, even though it has worked so far. The gratuity

is currently made possible because of winter marketing and a product focused budget. The

summer season for now is thus not sustainable on its own, meaning that it is a weak product

in itself. The question is if other benefits that are acquired within the resort make up for the

price currently being paid through potential loss of income? This would also be a point for a

future study.

Climate change is always an interesting perspective and it is important to not just state the

obvious; that winters are getting warmer. In Tignes’ case they might actually see an initial

increase in winter tourism income because of their ideal high altitude location. The summer

season has already seen a change in activity due to climate change effects on the glacier and

for now the summer season seems to be stabilized and no immediate future climate threats

can be identified.

Further studies are needed to really investigate how visitors have changed over the summer as

the current data is very limited. This kind of information is necessary to identify strong and

weak target markets.

All in all, as in any case study, strong and weak points can be found. This study would benefit

from further interviews with other people in resort as well as a more profound statistical

analysis that is more detailed, especially in terms of visitor demographics. Due to time

constraints this will have to be a point for a second case study of the resort, however, I do still

believe some value can be found in the results acquired despite their limitations.

36

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Unpublished material - Documents provided by Tignes Développement

Tignes Développement. (2013) Réunion Économique Publique 23 Juillet 2013.

Tignes Développement (2013) Bilan été 2013.

39

9. Appendix

9.1 Questionnaire for interview in original language, translated version in italics.

Quel actions/décisions est-ce que vous (Tignes/TD) avez pris au niveau de développement de

la saison d’été ? et pourquoi ? What actions/decisions have you (Tignes) taken to develop the

summer season? and why?

Est-ce que les conditions du glacier vous ont influencé au niveau des attractions pendant

l’été ? Has the conditions/status of the glacier influenced the summer attractions?

Qu’est-ce que vous voyez comme conséquences, dans la station et au niveau de

touristes/visiteurs ? What do you see as the consequences, in resort and in terms of

visitors/guests?

Est-ce que vous voyez un changement de clientèle pendant l’été ? Have you seen a change in

type of clients in the summer?

Est-ce que vous pensez que le développent de Tignes comme une station d’été a été un

succès et pourquoi? Do you think that developing Tignes as a summer destination has been a

success and why?

Qu’est-ce que c’est la prochaine étape dans le développement de l’été? What is the next step

in developing the summer season?