The opportunity costs of worthless land: The nexus between national parks and glacier ski resorts in the Alps

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of national parks and glacier ski resort in high mountain landscapes of the Alps formerly regarded as wild, and therefore worthless, lands. Surprisingly, both land uses are often located in direct neighbourhood, indicating that they share the same spatial requirements. While national parks aim at the preservation of unspoiled landscapes free from human influences, glacier ski resorts represent a high-tech type of tourism to extend the skiing season (summer skiing). As these land-use options appear mutually exclusive, sometimes sharp conflicts resulted from their spatial collision and raised questions about their pros and cons. Against this background this paper investigates why, where and when such land-use conflicts occurred in the Alps, how they were handled and how the situation looks today. Using the two case studies of the Hohe Tauern (Austria) and the Vanoise (France), both of which experienced highly controversial and emotional debates at a time, we trace the different solutions pursued, including the total ban on infrastructure development in favour of conservation as well as the partial violation of national parks by glacier ski resorts. However, such conflicts did not arise in every glacier ski resort and have receded since the 1980s anyway as a result of a fall in demand for summer skiing and the closure of several resorts.