Haute Garonne : Union means strength

To face these new challenges, a new group will be created soon with a common administrative management of the ski resorts of Haute Garonne of Luchon Superbagnères, Bourg-d’Oueil and Le Mourtis. This union will lead to a single joint association, whose creation was recently approved unanimously in February, at the Board of the community of municipalities of the Haute-Garonne region.

“I simply believe that what is happening is vital for our region,” says Alain Castel, President of the Community of Pyrenees of Haute-Garonne (CCPHG). We will have logistic and financial support, which is not done in all the departments where ski resorts are located. For me, it’s a lifeline that we’re going to have in the CCPHG accounts. “

The 2017-2018 season has reached new peaks, but this is not always the case. The two previous winters were marked by a significant deficit of snow, considerably weakening the small or the low altitude ski resorts. Absence or lack of sufficient equipment to create artificial snow weighs heavily on the balance sheet of a ski resort and places these ski resorts in a situation of great fragility.

“It was becoming an urgent issue for the territory,” says Georges Meric, President of the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne. For the last two years, we have been working to launch a real project to safeguard the four ski resorts, with a planned investment of more than € 20 million. We are going to create a joint association, which will comprise 20% of the Community of the Pyrenees of Haute-Garonne and 80% of the Haute-Garonne council. Then a public, industrial and commercial establishment, an EPIC, will be created to manage the three ski resorts of Haute-Garonne. “

Since the ski resorts of the department have been closed, they have set to work in the regrouping of entities with a broad smile, given the good figures recorded this season. The ski resort of Luchon Superbagnères ends this winter with record figures. 217,000 ski days, an 26% increase in comparison with last season and a turnover of more than 5 million. This ski resort had never exceeded 5 million and this 2017/18 season has finally been achieved.

Among the projects of the future, 15 million will be used to replace the Luchon Superbagnères gondola lift, doubling its capacity (with 8-seat cabins instead of 4) to reduce waiting time. Improving the main access to the ski area has always been a black point of the complex that wanted to upgrade.

The three ski resorts opt for a different and complementary positioning to meet the needs of all skiers: Luchon Superbagnères, one of the most demanding ski resort in the French Pyrenees, Le Mourtis the so-called “families” ski resort and Bourg-d’Oueil, the ski resort that stands out for its natural environment “.

This is a project that will allow the ski resorts to “survive”, assuring them “sustainability”, and promote the development of “pooling among operators” (words taken from the 2015 report of Court of Auditors).