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Summary of our market study
from 2020 onwards, the global ropeway and ski lift market contracted, with a reduction in the total installed base from 19,394 units to 17,522 lifts. This decline is attributed in part to the closure of low-altitude resorts affected by global warming and reduced snowfall.
In France, the number of ski lifts and cable cars has fallen from around 3,350 to just over 3,150 in 2020. With over 2,000 installations, ski lifts account for the largest share of the market. Cable cars account for around 35% of the total, with some 1,100 installations.
On average, France loses between 35 and 40 ski lifts or cable cars a year. Winter tourism in France, a major driver of the ropeway and cableway market, has encountered considerable difficulties.
The Alps region is the world leader, with the highest density of ropeways and cable cars, accounting for 38% of the total. France ranks first nationally, with 3,154 installations. The Northern Alps welcome the majority of the 480 million annual passengers.
The French market saw a 16% drop in ski resort attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in lower revenues for ski area operators, down from €1.5 billion for the 2018/2019 season to €1.3 billion for the 2019/2020 season.
Investment in new facilities has also fallen, from 132.3 million euros to 82.8 million euros in 2020.
France is facing a downward trend in new installations, and manufacturers are under pressure to innovate, particularly in urban ropeways and conveyor belts.
Main manufacturers
- Doppelmayr is a leading Austrian manufacturer.
- Leitner and Poma, part of the HTI BV group. Italy's Leitner impresses with its state-of-the-art infrastructure and attractive design. France's Poma brings its renowned precision engineering and user-centric approach, which places safety and comfort at the forefront of its installations.
- MND, another notable French entity on the market.
- GMM, also from France.
- Swiss company Bartholet allied with MND.
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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Definition and scope of the study
A ski lift is a mechanically guided motorized means of transport, usually used outdoors and specifically designed to overcome either a slope or a generally natural obstacle.a ropeway is a motorized, mechanically guided means of transport, usually used outdoors and specifically designed to overcome either the slope of a terrain or a generally natural obstacle. Cable cars are all types of telecars, i.e., all categories of ropeways that havethey are all types of ropeways with aerial vehicles, such as chairlifts or gondolas.
The operation of cable cars and lifts mainly concerns ski resorts and some high mountain towns to access the most remote points. These are aerial cableways that are needed in mountainous areas.
Winter sports represent a considerable market in France, one of the top winter tourist destinations in the world. Each year, more than 50 million skier-days are registered in France . However, the lack of snow has caused ski resorts' revenues to drop in recent years. France is the country with the largest number of ski lifts and cable cars. In fact,France has 17% of the world's ski lifts and cable cars.
The business is conducted over a very short operating period (95% of sales are generated in five months), which shows the significant seasonal nature of the market. It should be noted that the sector is highly concentrated and is made up of a handful of players of sufficiently large size to be able to compensate for this seasonality.
In parallel to the ski resort segment, the urban cable transportation segment continues to grow. Indeed, this mode of transport is perceived as an interesting alternative to traditional mobility solutions, allowing to decongest cities and to propose a more ecological offer. The scope chosen will focus on the first sub-segment, which represents the largest share of the market.
As the passenger transport business is subject to the rules of public service delegation, operators operate as concessions. While full ownership of facilities is the norm in most countries, French operators are mixed economy companies. In addition to this special legal status, there is the recent challenge of sustainable development to achieve greener transportation systems.
1.2 The global ropeway and ski lift market
The global ropeway and ski lift market is largely dependent on ski resort attendance. The global ropeway and ski lift fleet has been gradually declining in recent years, mainly due to the closure of low-lying resorts, which are severely affected by global warming and decreasing snowfall. While the global ropeway and ...
1.3 The French market for cable cars and ski lifts
France is the country with the largest number of lifts and cable cars in the world. Today, France has *,*** cable cars and lifts in its territory. As can be seen in the following graph, by comparison, the United States has *,*** cable cars and lifts, Austria *,*** and Switzerland *,*** (***).
Size of the global ...
1.4 The negative impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the sector
The pandemic context has had a very negative impact on the cable car and ski lift sector. Indeed, the ****/**** season has been truncated since March **** due to government decisions and the choice to close ski resorts. Moreover, in France, the government's decision to close the ski lifts has been extended for ...
2 Analysis of the demand
2.1 Evolution of the winter tourism market in France
The winter tourism market has had a difficult ****/**** season. Indeed, the epidemic context and the closure of ski areas have led to a **% drop in attendance at ski resorts as we have seen previously. Moreover, this situation is expected to worsen for the ****/**** season, due to the renewal of these ...
2.2 Investments and renewal rates for ski lifts and cable cars
The amount of investments is down compared to last year. The closure of ski areas in mid-March **** due to the COVID-** pandemic and the lack of snow on certain mountain ranges have led to a decrease in sales for ski area operators, as we have seen previously. In addition, the lack ...
2.3 Cable cars and lifts in France
The French ropeway fleet is composed of *,*** installations, divided into several categories. The graph below shows the composition of this park. As we can see, ski lifts make up the largest part of this park, with *,*** installations throughout the country. The cable cars constitute **% of this park, with *,*** installations.
French ropeway ...
2.4 The operation of ski lifts and cable cars in France
The operation of ski lifts and cable cars - the traffic - knows strong disparities at the scale of the Hexagon. Indeed, if in **** the total traffic amounted to *** million passengers, the vast majority of this traffic was located within the ski areas of the Northern Alps. This strong disparity reflects ...
2.5 Sales of ski lifts and cable cars in France
It is interesting to distinguish the two sub-segments relating to the turnover of ski lifts and cable cars in France:
Code **.**C: Cable cars and ropeways, including the operation of cable cars, funicular railways, ropeways, etc., but excluding the operation of funicular railways, cable cars, etc, as part of urban and ...
3 Market structure
3.1 Segmentation and dynamics of actors
The ropeway and ski lift market is a highly concentrated market, with very few major players on a national scale. There are several reasons for this:
Nature of the industry: the design and construction of ropeways and ski lifts is considered to be a heavy industry, requiring significant investments Demand: the ...
3.2 The wave of concentration affecting ropeway and cable car manufacturers
Cable car and ropeway manufacturers also design and maintain their installations. The global market has very few large-scale players due to the specific features of the market listed above. In addition, given the decline in global demand (***) and the changes affecting the market - extension of these modes of transport to ...
3.3 Distribution of ski lift and cable car operators in France
The operators of ski lifts and cable cars in France correspond to several categories of actors. Indeed, it is possible to list the public and semi-public operators, the ski schools as well as the private operators. In France, there are currently *** operators, distributed as follows:
Distribution of operators, by type France, ...
4 Analysis of the offer
4.1 Typology of ski lifts and cable cars
Ski lifts and cable cars are mainly installed in mountain areas to serve ski areas or sites at high altitude. Ski lifts are designed on the basis of one of the two following techniques:
The vehicle can move on one or more fixed cables: it is then moved by a hauling ...
4.2 The evolution of the supply of ski lifts and cable cars
The supply of ski lifts and cable cars depends to a large extent on the heavy investments made by the various operators. As a result, in a context of declining investment, the number of new projects in France is tending to decline. This is all the more important concerning new ropeways: ...
4.3 Innovation at the heart of the ski lift offer
Given the structural changes mentioned above - low snow levels in low altitude resorts, growth of the urban ropeway segment - and the economic effects of the COVID-** pandemic, it seems increasingly necessary for manufacturers to innovate and renew their offerings.
- The breakthrough of conveyor belts
In contrast to other ...
5 Regulation
5.1 Current regulations
The tourism code and its articles D***-* to R***-** set the rules applicable to ski lifts as well as mountain resort carpets.
This part of the tourism code was amended by decree n°****-** of **/**/**** entering into force on **/**/****.Transitional provisions allow for the possibility of postponing the implementation ...
5.2 Government assistance: the Mountain Plan
For ski lift operators
Both public and private ski lift operators will benefit from a support fund that will allow them to compensate for **% of fixed costs related to ski lift operations.these costs are set at **% of the turnover, including the security of the ski area. The reference turnover will ...
6 Positioning of the actors
6.1 Positioning of ropeway and cable car manufacturers
- Bartholet
- Poma
- MND LST Groupe
- Compagnie des Alpes
- Compagnie du Mont Blanc
- GMM Gimar Montaz Mautino
- Leitner Ropeways (HTI Group)
- Doppelmayr Garaventa
- Tatralift
- CCM Finotello
- Méribel Alpina
- La Compagnie des Pyrénées
List of charts presented in this market study
- Geographical distribution of ropeways and cable cars in the world
- Geographical distribution of major ski areas
- Development of the number of global ski lifts
- Size of the world's ropeway and cable car fleet
- Evolution of the French ski lifts and cable cars
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Latest news
Skiing: Tignes takes a radical step away from Compagnie des Alpes - 13/08/2024
- The ski resort will then be managed by the newly-created local public company (SPL) (with the neighboring commune of and Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise).
- the group, a subsidiary of the Caisse des dépôts et consignation, has "taken note" of this decision
- With sales of 66 million euros, Tignes is currently the fourth largest of the ten ski areas managed by the CDA.
- the company itself generates over a billion euros in annual business, almost half of which is generated by its lift management companies alone
- The company recalls that it took over operation of the Tarentaise ski area in 1989-1990, and currently holds around 78% of Société des téléphériques de la Grande-Motte (STGM, its subsidiary operating the Tignes resort).
- On May 31, 2026, STGM's 300 or so employees will be taken over by the SPL.
- Tignes must pay nearly 110 million euros to the CDA at the time of transfer
- The Orcières-Merlette resort (Hautes-Alpes) will leave its public-private partnership in 2022 in favor of a semi-public company, with annual sales of around ten million euros.
- Domaine des Saisies (Savoie), which operates as an SPL and generates annual sales of 25 million euros.
Compagnie des Alpes: Board member named Laurent Wauquiez - 08/02/2024
- CDA is the world's largest ski lift operator, with a dozen ski resorts in France.
- It also manages several leisure parks, including Parc Astérix and Futuroscope.
- CDA generates sales of 1.125 billion euros and employs 5,000 people.
- Since 2007, it has owned the Société des téléphériques de Val d'Isère (STVI), acquired from the Société financière de Val d'Isère (Sofival).
Compagnie des Alpes: Parc Astérix's crazy projects - 12/12/2023
- Spring inauguration of the Toutatis Festival, 36 million euros of investment
- Asterix broke its all-time attendance record with 2.8 million visitors, consolidating its position as France's second-largest park, behind the giant Disneyland Paris (15 million by 2022) and ahead of Puy du Fou (2.6 million by 2023).
- On average, 20% of sales (170 million euros in 2022) will be reinvested each year.
- Target: three million annual visitors
- The site's hotel capacity has increased from 100 to 450 rooms in five years.
- A fourth hotel is planned for the end of 2026
- Parc Astérix is the flagship of its owner, Compagnie des Alpes, which also owns Futuroscope, Walibi and the Musée Grévin.
- Sales of Compagnie des Alpes' leisure park business (526 million euros in fiscal 2022-2023) have surpassed those of the group's historic ski resorts (489 million euros).
Leisure parks, Compagnie des Alpes' magic potion - 06/12/2023
- For the first time, the Group broke through the symbolic one-billion-euro sales barrier (1.13 billion, up 10.6%). Operating income was also up, by 3.6% to 139.6 million, as was net income (90.4 million, up 5.2%).
- The Group's leisure parks (Parc Astérix, Futuroscope, Walibi Rhône-Alpes) were in excellent health. With sales of 526 million euros, they outstripped for the second year running its ski area and outdoor activities division (489 million).
- More visitors to the parks (+5.2%)
- Parc Astérix broke its attendance record with 2.8 million admissions. They also spent more (+7% per visitor).
- In skiing, the energy bill more than doubled - from 35.1 million to 72.1 million - and affected all 10 ski areas (including Tignes, La Plagne and Les Arcs).
- In a ski market down 5% according to Domaines skiables de France, CDA sites reported a 1.8% increase in the number of skier-days.
Compagnie des Alpes and Eurostar expand their offer to Europe - 10/11/2023
- Two years ago, Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) set up Travelski Express, rail links serving a dozen ski areas.
- 4% of travelers to Alpine resorts take the train.
- Eurostar, which used to provide the Travelski Express service, has reduced its services this year to five weeks in winter, and no longer serves Paris, but Lille.
- From 2024 to 2026, Compagnie des Alpes plans to operate twice-weekly services between London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and the French Alps, from mid-December to mid-April.
- Travelski Express carried 12,000 passengers to the Alps last year.
- Every year, almost half a million Belgian skiers, over half a million Dutch skiers and over 1 million English skiers travel to the French Alps to ski.
Ski resorts: the high stakes of groomer conversion - 08/11/2023
- 250 French ski areas
- Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) 1.1 billion in sales, 43% of which are generated by its ten ski areas (it also owns leisure parks) has set itself a "Net Zero Carbon" target for 2030
- Compagnie des Alpes groomer fleet: 140 groomers, made up almost equally of Kässbohrer and Prinoth machines.
- The two main suppliers are Germany's Kässbohrer and Italy's Prinoth. The former has over 60% of the market, with sales of more than 400 million euros, 90% of which in grooming.
- In France, 136 snow groomers were purchased last year by all ski areas, at a cost of 50 million euros
- 1.worldwide, between 200 and 1,400 units are sold each year,
- Prinoth France generates sales of around 30 million euros, 80% of which come from the sale and maintenance of snow groomers.
- Price of a snow groomer: 400,000 euros per electric machine
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