Climate change: How Alpine ski resorts are adapting to the end of the ‘white gold’ era

In the heart of the Triglav National Park, Klemen Langus, director of the Bohinj Tourist Office, is seeing the number of visitors to the local ski resort falling year on year: “Ski tourism accounted for 35% of all our visitors 10 or 15 years ago. Now it’s 18-20%,” he laments.

The aim of the European BeyondSnow project (an Interreg project working with several regions at once) is to help Alpine regions overcome their dependence on snow.

For three years, EURAC and a dozen other partners have been tasked with developing a strategy to help resorts survive the social, economic and environmental consequences of climate change: “Our aim is to provide them with the data and tools to develop their own strategies,” explains Philipp Corradini.

Lake Bohinj in Slovenia attracts 250,000 tourists a year, most of them in the summer. Overlooking this enchanting setting, 22 slopes welcome skiers at altitudes of between 1,500 and 1,800m.  But for how much longer?

We need to find ways of developing hiking and cycling trails without damaging the pastures,” comments Klemen Langus. There are three main pillars we need to keep in mind when we talk about developing the area: agriculture, tourism and environmental protection.”

Bohinj is one of the ten pilot sites for the BeyondSnow project. Ten communities from six Alpine countries (France, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany and Austria) are preparing for the future by sharing their experiences. In France, the Metabief resort in the Jura is taking part in the project.

The resorts conducted interviews with stakeholders and organised workshops, and we carried out a tourism survey for them,” explains Philipp Corradini. On the basis of all this information, they are currently drawing up transition