In 2025, French ski resorts invested €555 million in their infrastructure. This level of investment illustrates a structural feature of the French mountain economy: resorts reinvest a particularly high proportion of their revenue in their facilities each year.
According to the annual survey conducted by Montagne Leaders in partnership with Atout France and Domaines Skiables de France, this amount is 50% above the ten-year average, confirming that investment has remained at a historically high level since the creation of this sector barometer. In terms of turnover, the financial effort amounts to 32% of pre-tax turnover, which is nine points above the average observed over the last ten years.
This increase in investment is mainly due to rising equipment costs and the growing complexity of projects. The price of a new detachable chairlift rose faster between 2019 and 2025 than the price of ski passes, illustrating the growing economic pressure on operators.
Over a decade, French ski areas have invested nearly €3.96 billion in the maintenance and development of ski areas, helping to maintain France’s position as one of the world’s leading ski destinations with 54.7 million skier days in the 2024-2025 season.
But behind these figures lies a more profound transformation and a strategy of resilience. In an environment marked by climate change, evolving tourism practices and increasing regulatory pressure, the investments made by resorts are no longer solely driven by a desire for modernisation.
They now constitute a genuine multi-risk insurance strategy, designed to secure the mountain economy model.
Three dimensions structure this approach: flow and operational safety management, climate and water resilience, and the environmental acceptability of projects.
1. Making skiing smoother: investment as insurance for “flow and safety”
France now has one of the largest networks of ski lifts in the world. According to data from Domaines Skiables de France, the country has around 3,000 ski lifts spread across nearly 250 resorts, representing more than 5,700 kilometres of marked slopes.
Every winter, this system transports several hundred million passengers. French resorts record more than 55 million skier days during favourable seasons, making France one of the world’s leading ski markets.
In this context, the capacity of infrastructure to absorb traffic flows is crucial. A fixed chairlift built in the 1980s typically transports between 1,800 and 2,400 skiers per hour, while a modern detachable chairlift can exceed 3,600 skiers per hour. New-generation gondola lifts can sometimes carry 4,000 skiers per hour, while reducing travel times thanks to speeds exceeding 6 m/s.
New ski lifts are also the sector’s largest investment item, with €281 million committed in 2025, representing around half of the total investment. Of the 48 installations listed, half are conveyor belts, reflecting the growing priority given to teaching skiing and welcoming beginners.
The 24 structural devices (chairlifts, gondola lifts, or ski lifts) represent an average investment of approximately £11 million per installation, a significant amount that reflects the increase in the number of gondola lifts and the design of stations that often incorporate multifunctional buildings.
The invisible economy of queues
In the tourism industry, waiting time is a major economic indicator. Several studies conducted in the leisure sector show that beyond 10 to 15 minutes of waiting time, the perception of the quality of the experience deteriorates significantly.
Ski resort operators have therefore gradually adopted an approach similar to that of large leisure parks or urban transport networks: optimising visitor traffic. Replacing a fixed chairlift with a detachable chairlift can reduce waiting times by 30 to 50% during peak hours. This improvement directly translates into an increase in the number of runs skiers can make in a day and enhances the perceived value of the ski pass.
Equipment maintenance and optimisation
A growing proportion of investments also concerns the maintenance and modernisation of existing facilities. In 2025, more than 220 technical interventions were carried out in nearly 100 stations, for a total amount of £71 million, in order to extend the life of the equipment and improve its safety and operational performance.
An international competition for quality of experience
The smooth operation of ski lifts is now a global competitive issue. Major destinations are competing to invest in order to offer an ever smoother experience.
In Austria, a country often considered a benchmark in terms of infrastructure, resorts have invested heavily in high-capacity gondola lifts and chairlifts. Resorts such as Ischgl and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis have lifts that can carry more than 4,000 skiers per hour, with waiting times often less than five minutes (Source: Austrian Cable Car Association – Fachverband Seilbahnen Österreich).
In the United States, large groups such as Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company have also undertaken major modernisation programmes to optimise the customer experience as part of large multi-resort passes such as the Epic Pass and the Ikon Pass. North American resorts are investing in heated bubble chairlifts and digital flow management systems, among other things. (Source: National Ski Areas Association, U.S. Ski Industry Report 2023-2024)
In this context, French resorts have a structural advantage: the exceptional size of their ski areas. Les Trois Vallées, Paradiski and Tignes-Val d’Isère offer very extensive ski areas, which naturally allow visitor numbers to be spread out.
Ski lifts as a driver of tourism value
Beyond technical performance, ski lifts now play a central role in the overall perception of a destination. They have become part of the tourist experience itself, just like the landscape or the quality of the snow.
Panoramic cable cars, bubble chairlifts and lifts connecting villages directly to the peaks are helping to transform the mountains into an integrated tourist system, combining transport, scenery and leisure activities.
From this perspective, investing in ski lifts is not just a matter of replacing technical equipment. It is about securing the resort’s capacity, streamlining the flow of skiers and preserving the economic value of the ski area.
Diversification and new tourist infrastructure
Beyond ski lifts, investments are now increasingly focused on reception facilities and the diversification of activities.
Multi-service buildings – mountain restaurants, reception areas, lockers and toilets – will thus represent €62 million in investment in 2025, an increase of 80% compared to the five-year average and 125% compared to the ten-year average.
This equipment helps to structure the customer journey and contributes to developing ancillary revenue, while improving the overall visitor experience.
Diversification is also reflected in strong growth in leisure facilities, with investment increasing by around 40% compared to the average for the last four years, with the development of activities such as zip lines, four-season toboggans and other attractions designed to broaden the range of non-skiing tourist activities on offer.
2. Climate and water insurance: building snow resilience in ski areas
The second pillar of investments made by ski areas concerns climate resilience, i.e. the ability of resorts to maintain skiing activity in a context of changing snow cover. Scientific observations now converge to show that global warming does not mean the immediate disappearance of snow in the mountains, but rather a gradual change in its temporal and altitudinal distribution. Periods of natural snowfall are becoming more variable, the start of the season more uncertain and episodes of mild weather more frequent.
In this context, operators must ensure that the ski area opens safely, particularly during strategic periods in the tourist calendar. The Christmas and February holidays represent a significant portion of the resorts’ economy. A late opening of the ski area can therefore have significant economic consequences for the entire local tourism industry.
Snowmaking as climate infrastructure
Faced with this increasing variability, snowmaking has gradually become a key tool for climate risk management. It is not intended to replace natural snow, but to secure the ski area’s key routes: returns to the resort, links between sectors, beginner slopes and strategic routes.
According to data published by Domaines Skiables de France, approximately 40% of French slopes are now equipped with snowmaking, a relatively moderate level compared to other Alpine regions. However, some resorts have rates of over 60% coverage, particularly in areas where the starting altitudes are lower or where tourist traffic is particularly high. (Source: Domaines Skiables de France, Observatoire de la neige de culture, 2024).
A shift towards data-driven snowmaking production
However, operators’ strategies are undergoing profound changes. Today, stations favour a more targeted and rational approach based on data analysis.
New generations of snowmaking systems rely on increasingly sophisticated technologies. Networks now incorporate weather and snow sensors capable of measuring temperature, humidity and optimal production conditions in real time. Management software then automates the activation of snow guns to produce snow only when thermal conditions are most favourable.
This approach optimises the quality of the snow produced while reducing water and energy consumption. Manufacturers and operators now refer to “smart snowmaking”, based on precision and scientific control rather than increasing volumes.
Water: a resource at the heart of the debate
The issue of water now occupies a central place in the public debate surrounding snowmaking. Operators have gradually developed hill reservoirs, which allow them to store the necessary water during periods when the resource is available, usually in autumn or when the snow melts.
These infrastructures aim to avoid winter withdrawals from watercourses and to better integrate snow production into local hydrological cycles. Reservoirs are often designed to fulfil several functions: snow production, water regulation, and sometimes even as a reserve for firefighting or summer activities.
According to estimates by Domaines Skiables de France, snowmaking requires approximately 25 million cubic metres of water per season nationwide. This quantity represents a very small proportion of the annual water resources in mountain areas, often less than 0.1% of available volumes, but it is receiving increasing attention in water management policies.
(Source: DSF; Ministry of Ecological Transition – studies on water in mountain areas).
Different strategies depending on the region of the world
Internationally, snowmaking strategies vary greatly depending on geographical contexts.
In the Austrian and Italian Alps, snowmaking often covers 70 to 90 per cent of the slopes. This high level of equipment can be explained by the presence of numerous resorts located at relatively modest altitudes and by a tourism strategy that is very much geared towards guaranteeing that the ski area is open from the start of winter (Source: Fachverband Seilbahnen Österreich – annual report 2023).
In North America, resorts have historically developed high-performance snowmaking infrastructure to ensure that the season can open at the end of November, which coincides with Thanksgiving and the start of the winter holidays. Destinations such as Killington and Snowshoe are known for their ability to quickly produce large quantities of snow at the start of winter. However, North American resorts are now moving towards more efficient and precise systems, comparable to European models, in order to reduce energy costs and respond to environmental challenges (Source: National Ski Areas Association, Sustainability Report 2023).
3. “Acceptability” insurance: securing the mountain project in a demanding regulatory and societal environment
The third level of “assurance” that currently structures investments in ski areas concerns a factor that is often less visible than the modernisation of ski lifts or snow management: the social, environmental and territorial acceptability of mountain projects. In a context where environmental issues are increasingly prominent in public debate, tourism infrastructure projects are now subject to unprecedented regulatory and societal requirements.
This change does not only concern large infrastructure projects. It applies to all major projects in ski areas: the construction or replacement of ski lifts, the creation of hillside reservoirs, the development of new slopes or the restructuring of entire sectors of the ski area. These projects must now comply with a highly structured legal framework, which aims to reconcile tourism development, environmental protection and sustainable management of mountain areas.
According to Damien Zisswiller, Deputy Mountain Representative within the ATOUT FRANCE Mountain Delegation: “The level of investment observed in 2025 remains high, but it also reflects the intensification of economic, regulatory and climatic constraints. Every euro of turnover must be optimised in relation to investment. True performance now lies in the ability of operators to sustain this effort over time, reconciling modernisation, diversification and financial balance.”
The ERC sequence: a structuring principle for mountain development
In this context, infrastructure projects are now based on a regulatory principle that has become central: the ERC sequence, which stands for Avoid, Reduce, Compensate. Introduced into French law in the 2000s and reinforced by European directives on biodiversity, this approach aims to limit the impact of projects on ecosystems.
The first step is to avoid environmental impacts by adapting the project from the design stage onwards. In the case of a ski area, this may involve, for example, relocating the route of a ski lift in order to preserve a wetland, natural habitat or ecological corridor.
When certain impacts cannot be completely avoided, the second step is to reduce the effects of the project, for example by limiting the footprint of infrastructure, adapting the timing of works or incorporating measures to protect flora and fauna.
Finally, when residual impacts remain, project developers must implement measures designed to compensate for environmental damage. Such compensation may take the form of ecological restoration, restoration of natural habitats or long-term scientific monitoring programmes.
This approach is based on detailed naturalistic studies. Ski lift projects now include comprehensive inventories covering plant species, alpine fauna, wetlands and habitats of Community interest identified by the European Natura 2000 directives.
Acceptability as a new form of strategic assurance
In this context, integrating environmental and societal issues from the design phase of a project becomes a genuine investment security strategy. Operators are no longer seeking merely to build high-performance infrastructure; they must also design projects that can be sustainably integrated into their natural and social environment.
This development is profoundly changing the way stations approach their investments. The environmental dimension is no longer seen solely as a regulatory constraint, but as a key factor in the viability of projects.
By integrating social and environmental acceptability from the outset, ski areas are providing themselves with a form of insurance against regulatory and societal uncertainty, which is essential for securing the investments that have shaped the mountain economy for several decades.
An investment that benefits local communities
The economic impact of ski areas extends far beyond the resorts themselves. Every winter, more than 120,000 jobs in the French mountains depend directly on the opening of ski areas, in addition to numerous indirect jobs in the mountain tourism and industrial ecosystem.
In total, French ski resorts generate around €12 billion in tourist spending each winter, plus nearly €2 billion during the summer season, illustrating the economic importance of the mountains for these regions.
The geographical distribution of investments also reflects the importance of the major Alpine massifs. In 2025, €230 million was invested in Savoie, €84 million in Haute-Savoie, €80 million in Isère and €71.8 million in the Southern Alps, while the Pyrenees accounted for nearly €35 million in investments. The Vosges, Jura and Massif Central recorded more modest amounts.
