A massive 140 million Swiss Franc ($160/£100m) development installing 18 new ski lifts between two famous resorts to create one of Switzerland’s biggest ski areas has been announced.

The plan to link Andermatt and Sedrun’s skiing will be carried forward by the Scandinavian ski resort developers SkiStar who currently run five of the top resorts in Norway and Sweden, including Are and Hemsedal.

The linking of Sedrun’s skiing to that of Andermatt would create a ski area of at least 250km as the two resorts currently offer 130km and 120km respectively, this would immediately make it one of the country’s three largest and possibly second only to the 4 Valleys.

The plans are backed by Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris who is already transforming Andermatt resort itself by adding six luxury hotels, apartment complexes and new homes as well as a golf course in a development due to be completed for winter 2013/2014. 

However Swissinfo.ch reports that the plans have not proved universally popular.  The boss of Andermatt’s lift company says that in order to be sustainable the development needs to be staged rather than all at once, and fears that the development could prove to be a white elephant if not grown gradually, with the public purse left to pick up the pieces.  A spokesperson for the Swiss alpine club feared environmental damage and the loss of pristine terrain currently only accessed by ski tourers and winter climbers.

Veronica adds “Once again, increasing the kilometres of piste available is seen as the only option for development which is not the case.  The development of Andermatt itself is questionable as to the real tangible benefits to the local population and this development is questionable in terms of economic benefits and of course the environmental impacts.   More to follow on this...”  

 
 
A brand new residence de tourisme from MGM of 250 ski-in, ski-out apartments and an adjacent 28 bedroom hotel, is described as a state of the art example of sustainable development.

It forms part of the €150 million transformation of the old village of Tignes les Boisses into a modern ski centre re-named Tignes 1800. When it opens for business at the end of 2014, Tignes 1800 will, in effect, be a new gateway to all the established areas of the wider Tignes ski resort.

The new eco-village was planned in response to the need for new accommodation for 1,500 skiers in one of the most popular skiing areas in Europe while responding to the challenge of building a sustainable development.

Each apartment will have exceptionally high levels of insulation with low cost under floor heating being supplied by an innovative new plant, the first of its type in the French Alps, run on wood waste pellets fuelling a 4,000 kilowatt boiler supplying heat to all the buildings in Tignes 1800.  The development will be finished externally in traditional stone and timber.

The family orientated pedestrianised village of Tignes 1800 will include a tourist information centre, ten shops and a ski school. There will be a choice of bars and restaurants with frontages both on the village square and the piste. A conference centre will be located within the new hotel and full fitness and health and beauty facilities are being developed.

Veronica notes “Purpose built developments have come a long way in France since the low cost, inefficient, unattractive projects of the 1960’s.   That MGM, one of the largest developers in the French Alps, is now addressing the concerns of Responsible Skiing and is even creating Biomass heating for its developments shows how far the message has spread.   Whilst the direct economic benefit of purpose built ski centres to local community will always raise questions, together with their ability to offer a range of activities (both sporting and cultural), it is pleasing to see that at least their visual impact and resource impact will be much less.”
 
 
Members of Bulgaria’s Green Party have called on the country’s Minister of Environment and her Deputy to resign along with the Director of the National Office for Nature Conservation, after the government gave the go ahead to ski area development in the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Pirin National Park.

Local media reports that Green Party protesters gathered in the country’s capital, Sofia, and claimed the facilities have been built by an ‘off shore company’ with unknown owners but that its public bodies were the same as Vitosha Ski, another off-shore company running Vitosha mountain.

"These are companies that have received millions from unauthorized state funding from the previous cabinet," Andrey Kovachev, Co-Chair of the Greens, told local media, added that the current government is supporting the same companies.

Mr Kovachev said the new ski facilities violate the UNESCO Convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage.

This is the latest in a long-running campaign between Bulgarian environmental activists and international ski resort developers in the country. Previous protest led to the sacking of the former Director of the Pirin National Park.

Mr Kovachev said the Greens would make weekly protests about the government’s position and if nothing changed would take the matter to the EU Parliament which he said could stop all funding of the country.

Veronica Tonge adds "the problems continue in Bulgaria, exacerbated by the lack of apparent clarity over who owns what land and who has the authority to grant development permission.  Bulgaria could take another route to develop a Responsible Skiing policy which would respect protected areas, encourage local economic development and showcase the distinctiveness that is abundant in Bulgaria.   Instead, the Governments seems to be supporting big scale, high impact developments that have dubious social and economic benefits to the local community and irreversible impacts to National Parks.
 
 
Veronica Tonge has just returned from Sofia, Bulgaria where she was a speaker at the International Conference of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum.   The conference was the culmination of a project examining current tourism development in Bulgaria and bringing the concepts of Responsible Tourism to the industry - focussing particularly on golf, sea and ski tourism.

The conference was well attended with participants from both the private and public sectors and various environmental organisations.   There was an interesting variety of speakers from around Europe.   Veronica Tonge introduced the audience to the concept of Responsible Skiing and some of the issues and solutions for pistes, artificial snow, lifts and off-piste skiing.   She then shared case studies from around the world and the importance of Responsible Skiing development for local communities and the environment.  This was echoed by Lucy McCombes of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism who presented the Business Case for Responsible Tourism.

Day two of the conference was a workshop, where developers from Bulgarian ski, sea and golf resorts presented their plans to the “international experts” who were able to cross examine them on what they were doing, in practice, in terms of Responsible Tourism.   Development company, Rilasport, shared details of their plans for the new Panachiste ski resort in the Rila mountains of Bulgaria.  Veronica Tonge questioned their commitments to Responsible Skiing development and a lively discussion ensued demonstrating the difficulties of tourism development in a post-transition economy where ownership is not always clear and municipal leadership lacking.   The debate highlighted the complexities of developing ski tourism (often with external private financing) to bring economic development to rural areas whilst protecting the environment.