Will there be enough accommodation to host the Alpine Skiing World Championships in 2023? Courchevel and Méribel expect up to 20,000 spectators per day, from February 6 to 19. The two stations have 56,000 accommodations, a sufficient capacity, according to the organizers. But all is not yet settled. Explanations.
Renters reluctant to lower prices?
It will already be necessary to accommodate 4,000 people, the athletes and the members of their teams, on site or nearby. This leaves 85% of accommodation available for all others, ie spectators and holidaymakers. Quite manageable on paper. It is still necessary that the lessors agree to rent at advantageous prices. Because the organizers seek to negotiate preferential rates, and it is not so simple.
After a lack of season, some rental companies would still be reluctant to rent their properties cheaply next year, knowing that the month of February is one of the most profitable at this time for tourism professionals. That provokes “a few brakes”recognize Pierre-Yves Pachod, mayor of Courchevel.
Some rental companies are waiting to see what the current season will bring: if it is good, they will agree to lower their prices; if there is still a shortfall, they will prefer to rent more expensively to tourists, rather than to the organizers of Courchevel-Méribel 2023.
Changed holiday zone
To avoid a possible saturation of the rental stock, the February holidays for Parisians have already been postponed: only zone A (Grenoble – Lyon) will be on vacation for the first week of the world championships. “It is obvious that if they are locals, they will be less likely to be housing seekers”abstract Bruno Pideil, mayor of Brides-les-Bains.
An exceptional change which also makes it possible to provide additional accommodation, such as boarding schools, but also school buses to organize shuttles for holidaymakers who come for the day from Albertville, Moutiers, or Bourg-Saint-Maurice to attend the trials. “We have the ambition to raise 5,000 to 7,000 people a day”Explain Perrine Pelen, Director General of the Organizing Committee.