The usefulness of the notion of governance for analysing local tourism management methods: the example of the resort of Les Arcs

Abstract

The ski resorts are confronted with many uncertainties as well structural as of the economic situation; the nature of their management constituting a significant theme of reflexion in the majority of the resorts. Indeed, the law "Montagne" conferred on the communes the responsibility for the piloting of the stations; a management that the communes assume or delegate to private operators (with delegations of public services). These choices lead to forms of varied relationships between private and public actors and often oppose two models of management, the corporate model and the community model. This paper wants to show that the concrete situations are rather in-between, where the goal is rather to describe the actors' system, their actions' modalities like their modes of coordination. In this field, the informal content matters just as much as the formal contents of the relations between actors, leading to qualify the formal and informal arrangements between public and private interests, from which are taken and applied the decisions. This overlap formal-informal strongly guided our analysis of the resort of the Arcs in Savoie, where we will underline in one hand, the lack of common reference framework between the commune and the private operator in charge of the skiable field and in the other hand, the will of certain associations to push to join again a dialogue, precondition to choices and decisions collectives.