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Escola Universitària d’Enginyeria Tècnica de Telecomunicació
La Salle
Final Thesis
Graduate in Management of Business and Technology
EXTENSION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE SKI RESORT LA VALL DE NÚRIA
Student Promoter
JORDI ALÍS SANCHEZ DAWN KAREN HISCOCK
ACTA DE L'EXAMEN
DEL TREBALL FI DE GRAU
Meeting of the evaluating panel on this day, the student:
D. JORDI ALÍS SANCHEZ
Presented their final thesis on the following subject:
EXTENSION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE SKI RESORT LA VALL DE NÚRIA
At the end of the presentation and upon answering the questions of the
members of the panel, this thesis was awarded the following grade:
Barcelona,
MEMBER OF THE PANEL MEMBER OF THE PANEL
PRESIDENT OF THE PANEL
JORDI ALÍS
SANCHEZ
EXTENSION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE SKI
RESORT LA VALL DE NÚRIA
1
Table of Contents
Lists of tables and figures ................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 3
Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... 4
Introduction and Problem Statement ................................................................................ 5
Background and Historical Information ........................................................................... 7
Location ........................................................................................................................ 8
Weather ......................................................................................................................... 9
Activities ....................................................................................................................... 9
History ........................................................................................................................ 10
Global situation ........................................................................................................... 10
Tracks ...................................................................................................................... 10
Ski lifts .................................................................................................................... 11
Services ................................................................................................................... 11
Access...................................................................................................................... 12
Extension and management ........................................................................................ 12
Analysis of the different alternatives and practices to deal with the challenge .............. 13
Current practices to deal with the challenge ............................................................... 14
Grup FGC ................................................................................................................ 14
Lower prices ............................................................................................................ 15
Open All Season ...................................................................................................... 15
Skitren ..................................................................................................................... 16
Eventual promotions and offers .............................................................................. 16
Current Economic situation of La Vall de Núria ........................................................ 17
What local people think about it ................................................................................. 19
Proposed Solution: Fontalba – Puigmal Extension ........................................................ 20
Location ...................................................................................................................... 20
Facilities needed ......................................................................................................... 22
Slopes and Ski lifts .................................................................................................. 22
Services ................................................................................................................... 24
Maintaining the site .................................................................................................... 26
2
Costings ...................................................................................................................... 27
Staffing Needs ............................................................................................................. 33
How to raise the money to cope with the investment ................................................. 35
Marketing strategy, promoting the new resort ............................................................ 36
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 38
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 39
Appendixes ..................................................................................................................... 42
Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................. 42
Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................. 45
Appendix 3 .................................................................................................................. 46
Word Count: 7.496
Lists of tables and figures
Photo. 1 [Image from Editorial Alpina]. (La Vall de Núria. 2016) .................................. 8
Photo. 2 [Image from www.nevasport.com]. (La Vall de Núria slopes. 2018) .............. 11
Photo 3 [Image from Google Maps]. (Queralbs – Fontalba road. 2018)........................ 20
Photo 4 [Image from Google Maps]. (Fontalba skiable zone. 2018) ............................. 21
Photo 5 [Image from Google Maps]. (Fontalba slopes and ski lifts. 2018) ................... 22
Photo 6 [Self-made image]. (Fontalba actual parking area. 2017) ................................. 25
Photo. 7 [Image from www.valldenuria.cat]. (Schedules and rates. 2018) .................... 42
Photo. 8 [Image from www.valldenuria.cat]. (Schedules and rates. 2018) .................... 43
Photo. 9 [Image from www.valldenuria.cat]. (Schedules and rates. 2018) .................... 44
Photo. 10 [Image from www.elnacional.cat]. (Skitren rates. 2018) ............................... 45
3
Acknowledgements
During the development of this work, many people have helped me to move forward,
without which I would not have enough data to carry out the work.
It’s important to keep in mind that this work has its origins from the need of some
people to preserve a unique territory and their passion for the mountain, preventing it
from becoming a desolate land and providing an economic future for the new
generations. I greatly appreciate the help of these people:
- Toni Casals, director of La Vall de Núria Ski Resort, for allowing me to see some
documents of the economic costs of the ski resort.
-Albert Rota, inhabitant of Queralbs, for the advice in the expansion and photos inside
the terrain.
- Imma Constants, mayor of Queralbs, for the access to the archive of the City Council
and the use of facilities.
- Artur Martí, employee at the Vallter 2000 Ski Resort, for calculating the costs of the
station's specific equipment, staff costs, and how many people should contract.
- Joan Reyné, professional skimo athlete from La Vall de Núria, for the interview, to
help understanding the actual situation and advice.
-Dawn Karen Hiscock, professor and tutor in La Salle Bonanova, for the help and
advice during all the project development.
4
Executive Summary
We have all heard that nowadays climate change is really strong and the temperature of
the earth is increasing year by year… that the snow on the poles is melting, and every
winter is warmer with less snow in the mountains, that maybe our future generations
will not be able to ski, at least on the Pyrenees… but this is not what I see.
What I see is an opportunity, a chance to maximize a resource that every day we have in
less quantity but we still have it in our society, and for this reason is becoming more
valuable. People are becoming more interested into trying something that maybe in the
future won’t exist anymore; the sport that was trendy on the 90's - it’s breaking it again.
It is this revolutionary and innovative mindset what I want to implement in La Vall de
Núria resort. We are talking about the typical small and family ski resort with limited
infrastructures, difficult access, and an uncertain future if we look in a medium-long
term perspective, but which has a lot of possibilities if we look at the terrain and area
where is located.
In this work is proposed a project of enlargement in La Vall de Núria, expanding the
resort to other skiable areas, making it bigger, efficient and accompanied with a new
easier access, generating new job offers and promoting tourism in the valley. Using a
modern artificial snow system and creating new services and accommodations, all
facilitated in an environmental friendly way, the estimated benefits are tangible
immediately. Additionally there are other economic and political interests involved,
along with current practices that the resort is currently having to deal with, which may
slow down or prevent this project and which are addressed in the report.
5
Introduction and Problem Statement
Ski resorts have become one of the most profitable ways to maintain and increase the
economic level of a region where snow conditions make possible the development of
ski facilities; in a village or town where a ski resort is affordable, the economic impact
goes beyond skiing.
Alpine skiing and Nordic skiing resorts are one of the main development engines of the
Catalan Pyrenees, skiing affects all the economic aspects of the valleys, with tourism
and construction as the main beneficiaries. Also the impact on employment is
remarkable, where a huge amount of the population occupied in the mountain regions
lives directly from tourism and residential activities, and skiing has a lot to do with it.
In the Oriental part of the Catalan Pyrenees the Ski and Mountain resort La Vall de
Núria is located, in the municipality of Queralbs (Vall de Ribes); a valley which is
sustained economically by the resort, as well as the village of Queralbs and
surroundings and most of the people living there.
This management case is focused on the snow industry, specifically in the
administration of a ski resort, because from my point of view it’s one of the industries
most profitable for the market and can achieve huge benefits and open a lot of doors in
terms of employment in a specific region, but only if it is well managed. I’m talking
from the point of view and vision of a country without snow culture, that doesn’t give
enough importance to a very natural resource just like snow, which we are seeing, and
more this winter 2017/18 that it’s very present in the mountains and ranges of the
Pyrenees and which we can take a great advantage of it, even more, with the
technologies that nowadays facilitate artificial snow production, and La Vall de Núria is
a clear example of that.
The main problem or issue that I address and my principal idea for this project would be
how to evolve and transform the ski resort of La Vall de Núria, currently a very small
station with lot of possibilities, to become in one of the biggest and most profitable ski
resorts in the Catalan Pyrenees and improving the facilities and services.
Although the snow market nowadays is forgotten in Spain, in order to survive it’s
necessary to evolve, in the same way that the tourism is boosted in the area, creating
new jobs and occupations facilitating the inhabitants and business to continue growing
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and people staying involved, preventing it failing and taking advantage of the available
natural resources in a productive way.
Every business is developed around understanding what consumers want, and in La Vall
de Núria, the director, employees and all the infrastructures in general must deliver to
consumers what they want, thinking of every offer as a test (Davenport, et al., 2011). In
this case, as I said before, the clients of La Vall de Núria are looking to have a thrilling
day on the snow, skiing, surfing or just taking photos, and from my own perspective I
maximized this idea through the enlargement of the resort, making the desire of coming
to the valley increased and providing to clients exactly what they want, more slopes,
more services, more activities…, to sum up, more fun on the snow.
Another relevant concept is “Chaos theory”, which explains that change is inevitable
and is rarely controlled. While organizations increase energy to maintain a new level of
complexity, spending more energy, a bigger structure is needed for stability (Vij, 2016).
The system continues to evolve and change, and we have to take the correct decisions to
evolve in a proper way whilst maintaining stability in a renewed La Vall de Núria.
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Background and Historical Information
The snow industry is one of the industries which has a really stable and profitable
economics during winter months, if it’s well managed should build a stable business
around something as unpredictable as snowfall as stated by (Katz, 2012) the key is to
make your business about much more than snowfall, on the other hand the progression
of the average cost per skier in Spain has fallen by 12% since 2008 if the evolution of
prices is taken into account, while in Europe it is maintained (Fernández, 2017).
But not all ski resorts are the same or the whole sector is doing it badly here in Spain,
large ski resort operators coexist with mixed public-private or directly public
exploitations, Baqueira-Beret a ski resort placed in the occidental part of the Catalan
Pyrenees, headed by a group made of travel agencies, hotels and even some media
distributors (Radio and TV Aranesa), earned 41 million Euros in 2016 winter season
(7% more than the previous year) with a positive result of 3.7 million Euros, it’s an
atypical case that combines ski lifts management with real estate sector (Ara, 2017) and
very interesting from the economical point of view as the resources are less limited.
In the case of La Vall de Núria is managed by a public group and affiliated to the
Catalan Government which is supported by other ski resorts in the Catalan Pyrenees,
carried out by the tourism and mountain division of “Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de
Catalunya” (FGC), which has as its mission the management and promotion of the high
mountain tourist destinations that are spread throughout the country (Grup FGC, 2015).
This group involves five ski resorts, one zipper train in Montserrat (Cremallera) and two
touristic trains near Bagà and La Pobla de Segur; its policy is based on preserving,
conserving, improving and caring for heritage and the environment, as well as quality of
service, customer care, satisfying stakeholders and safety.
The focus of this research is on the background and historical information of La Vall de
Núria specifically, divided in different points:
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Location
La Vall de Núria is a ski resort located 5 km beyond from the village of Queralbs,
nowadays the last point accessible by car, in the Oriental Pyrenees, province of Girona.
In the valley you can find a sanctuary, a hermitage, a hotel and a lake, also there is a
large forest area and many outdoor routes to walk and enjoy the mountain in different
ways.
The valley receives the name of Núria because the Núria river is born and passes
through there. The valley is at a minimum altitude of 1964 meters above sea level and at
a maximum altitude of 2252 meters, although it is surrounded by mountains that reach
3000 meters, like the most representative one, that it’s Puigmal with 2911 and the
highest peak of the Oriental Pyrenees; the name of Puigmal comes from an ancient tale,
which explained that a giant turned into the top of the mountain protecting the
inhabitants of the zone, this belongs to the category of gods transmitting wisdom to
humans (Rangil, 2015).It’s accessible by foot, using walk trails and sign-posted GR’s
(Great Route for hiking) that arrive to the top of Núria, but the most common way is
using the train service that takes you almost to the top of the resort.
Photo. 1 [Image from Editorial Alpina]. (La Vall de Núria. 2016)
9
Weather
The weather it's a critical point for a ski resort, snow and cold days are strongly
necessary, but on the other hand, to have sunny and blue sky days it’s what make the
difference, people wants to ski from sun to sun, not stay the whole day in the restaurant
getting cold and waiting for good weather, as stated by (Wilkin, 2013, p. 1)“Nothing
shapes your impression of a ski area quite like the conditions you encounter on the
slopes. Rightly or wrongly, the quality of the snow can make or break your holiday,
particularly if it is your first time in a resort”.
The weather of the valley can be considered a high mountain climate due to its height,
although the weather should be a dry climate of high mountains, it is a humid climate
due to its relative proximity to the Mediterranean Sea.
Winter temperatures oscillate between -5 °C and 5 °C in the middle and summer
between 10 °C and 17 °C at the most (Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya, 2017),
although temperatures vary greatly between morning and night, as a general rule,
temperatures tend to be cool due to the altitude and geographic position.
With an average precipitation of 1100mm per m2
(Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya,
2017) it seems illogical that the summer is when it rains the most due to storms, and
autumn and spring are also quite rainy. Luckily on winter the weather is the least rainy
but the most regular.
Activities
The valley is a very attractive place for all mountain sports seekers and hikers, due to
the beauty of the landscapes. Also, in summer there are a great amount of sports
practiced, such as running, hiking or mountain biking, among others. As the winter
season begins, the primordial activities are basically the alpine skiing, snowboarding
and ski mountaineering, although other sports are also practiced. This time of the year is
when the station of Núria receives more visitors and public. The ski-pass for a day,
costs 19, 95 Euros and with the "Train + Ski pass" pack, 30, 00 Euros; that are the most
requested (Refer to Appendix 1).
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History
The geographical situation has determined the history of Núria. The pastures of the
valley were object of transaction between counties and monasteries; a fact that probably
explains the origin of the sanctuary. Subsequently, the “Tractat dels Pirineus”
transformed Núria into a border location and placed it in the military's point of view. At
the beginning of the 20th century Núria knows the start of mountain and snow sports in
Catalunya. The image of the Virgin of Núria suffered the exile, from 1936 to 1942, due
to the Civil War and, later, it was sequestered for a time (1967 to 1972) by Catalan
patriots (Castillo, 2010).
During the first decades of the 20th century, in Europe new mountaineering challenges
and new climbing techniques were imposed. At that time, crossings with skis were also
made for the first time, ranging from Ulldeter to Núria (1920) and from Núria to La
Molina (1921) (La Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2002).
The opening of the sanctuary during the winter months, starting in 1916, undoubtedly
facilitated the development of skiing in Núria. Practitioners of this sport climbed on foot
from Queralbs and, once in Núria, they had to overcome with their own means the
mountains and valleys where they wanted to ski. With the opening of the train, in 1931,
Núria was consolidated as a center for mountain and winter sports. The ski lift of the
sanctuary and the chairlift of the Pic de l'Àguila started operating in 1947. The Bosc ski
lift was built in 1961 (Castillo, 2010).
Global situation
We can structure the current situation of Vall de Núria from four points of view, the
ones that should be improved in order to talk about an extension. These four points are:
the tracks, the lifts, the services (Accommodation, restoration, other services…) and the
access it has (the train).
Tracks
At Vall de Núria there are currently 11 slopes and a ski area of 7.6 km’s (La Vall de
Núria, 2018). They are distributed in three greens for debutants, three blue for initiation,
three red for good skiers and two black for experts. Today, all the tracks are covered by
the high pressure artificial snow system, except for a pair that only opens when enough
natural snow falls.
11
Photo. 2 [Image fromwww.nevasport.com]. (La Vall de Núriaslopes. 2018)
Ski lifts
Vall de Núria has a total of 5 ski lifts: three ski lifts, a rubber band for inexperienced
skiers and a ski cabin (La Vall de Núria, 2018). The cabin is open all year, apart from
being used as a ski lift during the ski season; it is also the way of transport to access the
hostel.
Services
Vall de Núria has several services, and can be classified by: Accommodation,
restoration and other more specific services.
-Accommodation: The hotel (three stars), apartments (part west and new part of
St. Josep with duplex apartments), the "Pic de l’àliga" hostel and in the summer
the camping area.
Regarding the restoration: The restaurant of the hotel, the self-service, three bars
(the hotel, the Finestrelles bar and the hostel) and a picnic area.
Finally, Núria Valley has: A rental of material, ski school, a medical dispensary
and a playground (where all kinds of activities are carried out: shooting with
arch, slide "Tubby" ...).
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Access
To reach Núria, the only way of transport used is the train. This comes every fifty
minutes (on high season) and goes from Ribes de freser Link to Núria (Outside de
village), through Ribes Village and finally, Queralbs Village (In low season there is less
frequency of trains). The other option is to walk. Logically, at the time of skiing, very
few people or virtually no one is walking.
Extension and management
One of the most important points to take in consideration is the capacity of Vall de
Núria, this is delimited by the number of visitors that can come to it, which nowadays is
really reduced, and that turns it into a small family station, although being familiar and
local focused it’s not a negative point as stated by (Freeskier, 2017, p. 1) “Skiing is not
about big corporations or big groups of ski resorts, it’s individual, it’s aspirational and
it’s personal. It’s all about the ski areas, not the amalgamation”.
The majority of visitors go up to the valley with the “Cremallera” train that is almost the
only access to it. In addition, it’s necessary to keep in mind that not all the train users
are skiers, there are lot of people that come up to the valley just to visit the sanctuary
and this limits more the total capacity, where the maximum capacity is 2,800 people per
day.
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Analysis of the different alternatives and practices to
deal with the challenge
One of the troubles with La Vall the Núria, but in general with all the ski resorts, is the
environmental impact on the terrain that is exposed, and it’s for this reason that an
extension of a ski area is always looked very strictly from the ecologist point of view.
The general public often negatively considers the construction of a ski resort despite it
being in full harmony with nature and invisible in the winter season. The large human
agglomerations that are concentrated seasonally generate serious problems of the
irrigation of the water in the zone due to artificial deposits for artificial snow and
several contaminations of the soil (Fernández Muerza, 2009). On the other hand, we
have seen in the past other ski resorts carrying out infrastructures that take place in the
mountain maintaining the balance between the fragility of the habitat and the need for
development that its inhabitants build, like the Group Aramón in the Formigal extension
in 2004 (Govierno de Aragón, 2003).
Currently, the people in charge of La Vall de Núria have always watched over the
maintenance of the natural heritage that surrounds them, implementing and applying a
high level environmental management system (ISO 14001), also the ski resort has
obtained the Q of Quality, awarded by Instituto para la Calidad Turística Española
(ICTE) on the last years (Riverola i Morera, 2018). This quality seal becomes more
important if we look other examples in the Catalan Pyrenees like the sad history of
Vallfosca Interllacs Ski Resort.
The ski resort of La Vall Fosca was contemplated at the beginning of the 80’s; a project
was presented to make it happen twenty years ago, in 1998. Ten years after the official
presentation, the Spanish financial crisis prevented its completion. In 2008, the
construction company, Matinsa-Fadesa, presented a bankruptcy and everything was
sadly stopped with more than 12 million euros already invested. If the project had gone
on schedule, in this season 2017-18 the Vall Fosca station would have been ten years
old (Sanz Tusell, 2018). But the worst thing of this entire long story is that the ski
station, which was half-built, ended up removing some bollards, cables and other
installations but the vast majority of material is still in the mountain, retaining a ghost
ski resort. There are many reactions by environmental groups, mainly because 450
14
hectares of those projected as a ski resort now with obsolete material occupy a part of
the area of the Plan de Espacios de Interés Natural (PEIN), but no one will invest money
to pick up the garbage without profit (Ricou, 2010).
Also, going through other ecological problems at the time, historically in La Vall de
Núria, there have been different studies of the area to expand it and being able to ski
during the 70’s and 80’s, but none of these studies are a complete project. They talk
about the conditions that this enlargement should have, describing anew access to the
resort and possible lifts to access different new areas (La Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana,
2002), but the lack of resources and simplicity of these projects meant that in those days
they were never carried out.
Current practices to deal with the challenge
As mentioned earlier, La Vall de Núria is managed by a public group affiliated to the
Catalan Government, carried out by the “Grup FGC”, and is this public entity who
manages the actual practices.
Grup FGC
Nowadays, the five ski resorts which make up the Grup FGC (La Vall de Núria, La
Molina, Vallter 2000, Espot and Port Ainé) are a key piece in the territory where they
are, they generate work places (directly and indirectly), and have a great impact on the
economy of the territory, we are talking about an economic impact that reaches 222
million Euros (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2017), since they are an engine of the economy
in a good part of the Pyrenees.
Grup FGC offers the possibility to purchase a seasonal ski pass for the five ski resorts
associated, allowing users to have great advantages such as, for example, the free ticket
for the Montserrat Train and the Vall de Núria Zipper train. In addition, they can ski at
the six stations of Tot Nòrdic (Nordic Skiing) free of charge, and each ski pass has its
specific facilities in the area, the price for the seasonal ski pass is 570 Euros and this
season 2018they have sold 16% more seasonal ski passes than last year (Generalitat de
Catalunya, 2017). Also seasonal ski passes in each specific resort are available, for
example one seasonal ski pass only for La Vall de Núria (Refer to Appendix 1).
They have closed the 2017-2018 seasons with a total of 714.535 users. This is an
increase of 17% compared to season 2016 -2017 when the resorts of the group received
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610.206 visitors. Undoubtedly, the policy of increasing and adapting services, applied to
the different profiles of visitors has consolidated this as the best season in their history
(Nieve Aventura, 2018). The offer clearly oriented to the client has allowed it to remain
as a benchmark in the snow market, the diversification of services and the adaptation of
prices to social demand have been decisive, due to investment in machinery, the
adequacy of the snow and the constant and heavy snowfall have also been key in the
positive results of this season.
The ski resorts of La Molina, Vall de Núria, Vallter, Espot and Port Ainé generate a net
economic impact of 121.25 million Euros and a total impact on the activity production
of 222.90 million Euros, the five FGC resorts generated a total of 2.194 jobs in the
Ripollès, Cerdanya and El Pallars Sobirà regions, and 31.74 million Euros of fiscal
impact (Serveis de Comunicació Global Aquitania, 2018).
Lower prices
This is one of the most attractive things for customers as skiing is an expensive sport, so
making it cheaper will attract more people. In the 2016-2017 season the ski resorts of
the Grup FGC had restructured the prices of ski passes to give their skiers and
customers a much more suitable offer to their needs and thus be able to compete
especially in the Cerdanya, with the resorts of the French Pyrenees like Font-Romeu
that have in Puigcerdà a great influence to collect new customers (Turiski, 2016).
For example, La Molina and La Vall de Núria reorganized the entire ski passes rates
structure and created a Junior pass from 17 to 25 years for 36 Euros, while the child
pass, until 17 years costs 30 Euros, the ski pass for adults was reduced by three Euros
and costs 38 Euros, which means a 8% of reduction in all ski passes.
Open All Season
La Vall de Núria is the unique resort of the Grup FGC which is open all months of the
year; it’s not a way to of selling the place, if not the experience.
During summer season, visitors can canoe and boat on the lake, mini-golf, archery,
visits to the sanctuary, hiking, mountain trips, mountain biking, running, horseback
riding and go to the playground area with the kids.
16
Skitren
The “Skitren” combination allows visitors to take the train at any station on the R3 line
of the “Rodalies de Barcelona” and arrive at La Molina or Vall de Núria directly;
customers just have to buy the ticket at any vending machine of the nearby stations (El
Nacional, 2018).
After the trip to the village of Ribes de Freser by train, a transfer is made to the Zipper
Train of LaVall de Núria at the “Ribes Enllaç” station automatically, and go up to the
resort in about 20 minutes. The whole journey from Barcelona it usually lasts 2 hours
and 30 min and the offer for the “Skitren” combination including the forfait is 36.6
Euros (Refer to Appendix 2).
Eventual promotions and offers
During all the winter La Vall the Núria organize different promotions to incentivize and
attract new customers. For example, this season they created the “Anticípate al inverno”
promotion, where the visitors had two options to enjoy a complete experience in the
valley: The “Vuestro Gusto” formula, which includes the zipper trip, the
accommodation at the hotel and breakfast, or the Ski formula, which also includes the
ski pass. All of this with a 20% discount if booked in advance (Generalitat de
Catalunya, 2017). Also, during Christmas holidays, La Vall de Núria organized the
Winter Party “La Vall dels Menuts”, a special event dedicated to children in the most
family area of the entire resort, where the kids could enjoy archery, construction of
igloos, dolls and snow painting, Zumba classes and make-up workshops (Riverola i
Morera, 2018). Thanks to all these events and promotions, the last Christmas holidays
evaluation was very positive, with 24.423 visitors in the ski resort (Grup FGC, 2018).
17
Current Economic situation of La Vall de Núria
As we have seen, different practices are carried out to make La Vall de Núria a
proficient and economically sustainable ski resort. In the following lines we will see
some data and analysis to compare with other ski resorts and see its actual global
benefits, in monetary and social terms.
As we can see in the transparency report stated by the Grup FCG on the last season
(Grup FGC, 2017), there is a net profit of 5.71 million EUR that compared with the
other resorts of the Grup FGC is the biggest one in 2017 season.
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This winter 2018, La Vall de Núria closes the season with 122.177 visitors in total. Of
these, 38.389 correspond to sold ski passes, a number very similar to the last year result
with 40.453 visitors, maintaining the trend of the last winter. For the “Parque Lúdico”
and the rest of activities that involve another cost apart of the ski pass, La Vall de Núria
has received the visit of 67.926 people (Nieve Aventura, 2018), very positive results,
adding that La Vall de Núria does never close, by this way, it will continue offering all
its activities with the focus in the spring and summer seasons.
If we look the direct impact on the territory, in “El Ripollès” region in the case of La
Vall de Núria we can see the date of a total net income of 68.7 MEUR, with the added
value remaining at 37 MEUR, generating 689 jobs around the territory, this means the
“Valor Afegit Brut” (VAB) of 5.1% (Serveis de Comunicació Global Aquitania, 2018),
which measure the weight that has the economic impact of the resorts on the “El
Ripollès” region economy.
To sum up, it can be seen that La Vall de Núria is the most profitable resort inside the
public Grup FGC, numbers are positive with an increasing perspective, this is one of the
reasons why a possible extension may be beneficial, increasing the possibilities that the
resort could offer as it could be even better with an elaborated enlargement if it’s
managed in the same way.
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What local people think about it
In general terms, the opinions of people from the zone are the most realistic and
descriptive methods that we have to analyze the current status of a concrete area,
especially if we are talking about a small valley inside a mountain environment.
In the interview conducted with Joan Reyné, a local skier from Vall de Nuria, I was able
to extract different points of view. First of all, is that a lot of people come to the valley
just to play with the snow (Snow sleds, walking…) and don’t buy the ski pass, so it
would be interesting to encourage people to come to practice alpine skiing, or on the
other hand, give more facilities to these people to make them more satisfied and don’t
lose this public.
According to him, people are really satisfied with the entrance of Grup FGC in the
management of La Vall de Núria, as recently it gave life again to the valley in winter
and is investing a lot of money. Year after year, more capital is invested and facilities
are improved, but from his point of view an improvement in the facilities with an
extension to higher levels of the mountain would be beneficial.
Finally, improving access to the station will be a really beneficial point also for people
on the valley especially for the workers in the resort who every morning have to take the
zipper train to go up in the ski resort, according to Joan, “It’s a waste of time, and you
are always tied to schedules”. As a conclusion, even for the people on the valley a
general agreement is shown to go forward with the enlargement, as it’s beneficial for
both sides, locals and tourists.
20
Proposed Solution: Fontalba – Puigmal Extension
Location
An extension of LaVall de Núria resort in an environmental manner will help to expand
the possibilities that the old resort is offering, making it bigger, efficient, and more
attractive to customers.
The extension would begin in Fontalba, located just above Queralbs and it’s accessible
by a road from the village. At this location the new facilities and tracks will connect
with the slopes of La Vall de Núria, making it a larger resort and accessible by car
avoiding the zipper train.
The Queralbs – Fontalba road is 11 kilometers and has an elevation of 840 meters, with
a maximum inclination of 7.5%. In the next picture you can see its layout.
Photo 3 [Image from Google Maps]. (Queralbs – Fontalba road. 2018)
Fontalba Valley is 4.5 kilometers in length with different widths in its route that can
range from 225 meters up to 660 meters, with an elevation of 812 meters, and is located
to the north-west of the mountain station of La Vall de Núria. In the following image
you can see the potential new skiable zone colored in blue.
21
Photo 4 [Image from Google Maps]. (Fontalba skiable zone. 2018)
To create this part of the extension with new slopes and skiable zones, it will be
necessary to restructure some zones of the ground, sowing grass, draining the slopes and
removing rocks.
22
Facilities needed
Slopes and Ski lifts
The new skiable area will have a total of 12 new slopes of different levels with a total
elevation difference of 2,414 meters, in more than 10 new skiable kilometers, which
means extending the old resort by more than 50% of the skiable area, going from 11 to
23 slopes and from 8 to 18 km’s.
Photo 5 [Image from Google Maps]. (Fontalba slopes and ski lifts. 2018)
The following table is a list of the basic information about the twelve slopes and their
main characteristics: number, length, elevation difference, inclination and difficulty
(which are related to the color of the track).
23
Nº
LENGTH
(Meters)
ELEV. LOSS
(Meters) INCLINATION DIFFICULTY
1. 140 9 6% Very Easy
2. 390 31 8% Very Easy
3. 370 37 10% Very Easy
4. 1,000 130 13% Easy
5.
6.
979
760
196
228
20%
30%
Easy
Medium
7. 1,150 230 20% Easy
8.
9.
820
460
246
156
30%
34%
Medium
Medium
10.
11.
2,230
870
491
287
22%
33%
Easy
Medium
12. 932 373 40% Difficult
TOTAL 10,101 2,414
To access all the tracks in this new area it will be necessary to install different kind of
lifts. After analyzing different options, it is suggested to install: a conveyer belt for
children (1), a small ski lift for two people (2) and two chair lifts (3, 4) viewed and
numbered as black straight lines in the picture. So, again the number of ski lifts will be
almost doubled if we look at the old resort, passing from 5 to 9 ski lifts.
The conveyer belt for children (1), the small ski lift for two people (2) and one of the
two chair lifts (3) will cover the debutant area on the entrance of the ski area and where
lot of people gather.
24
The larger chair lift (4) is the key of this project, which will connect the area of Fontalba
to almost Puigmal peak and from this point make a connection with La Vall de Núria
resort. In the following lines we will see a description of the ski lifts proposed:
Conveyer belt for children (1): Mostly, debutants and beginners will use it. It
will have 116 meters of length and an elevation difference of 9 meters.
Small ski lift for two people (2): This lift will have 350 meters of length and an
elevation difference of 37 meters. It will be the longest lift in the area of
debutants.
Chair lift (3): Chair lift for 6 people, with a length of 840 meters and an
elevation difference of 228 meters, also in the debutants area but with more
slopes available.
Chair lift (4): Chair lift with a total of 3.38 kilometers in length, and an elevation
difference of 812 meters, making possible the connection with the older part of
the resort in La Vall de Núria.
Services
To provide the optimal service for the proposed clients the services must be in line with
the size of the expansion and the potential customers. In Fontalba area there is no
construction and it will be necessary to build different buildings to accommodate the
basic services that are needed at any ski resort, in this picture we can see the actual
Fontalba area with the parking and the place where future services may be placed:
25
Photo 6 [Self-made image]. (Fontalba actual parking area. 2017)
Ski passes principal building (1): Here the information office (tickets, insurance,
general information…) will be placed, next to it will be the ski school, rental
store and sanitation services.
Helicopter area (2): Building a Helicopter landing area for emergencies or
firefighters.
Medical center (3): This necessary service will be located very close to the
slopes.
Garage, warehouse, track control tower (4): this building has two floors, the
lower part will contain the garage for the snow machine, snow motorbikes and
also be used as a material deposit (mattresses, networks, beacons, cameras...),
and on the top floor the track control tower will be located, also with the area
reserved for station staff. There will also be a switchboard from where the
artificial innovation system will be controlled.
26
Bar - Restaurant - Self-service (5): Building with a bar, restaurant and a self-
service area to accommodate all the clients. This building may have two floors,
on the lower floor there will be the self-service and the restaurant and on the
upper floor the bar, with a terrace for the days of good weather to enjoy the
views.
Water treatment plant (6): Looking from the ecologist point of view this
treatment plant will also be used for treat the water from toilets, bars, restaurants
and self-service. Once the waters have been cleaned, they will be returned to
Fontalba torrent.
Also, an extension of the actual parking will be necessary to facilitate the entrance of
cars and bigger vehicles like buses in the area.
The buildings will be environmentally friendly and integrated with the terrain, trying to
minimize the visual impact in the zone to reduce ecological concerns. These services
will be supplied with renewable energy sources.
Maintaining the site
Noting the actual weather tendencies and following the steps of nearby ski resorts like
“Masella” it will be necessary to create on the slopes an artificial snow system, very
useful for cold seasons without much precipitation, as is the typical climate on La Vall
de Núria valley, and which will help to guarantee a good thickness of snow throughout
the season.
This artificial snow system will take the water from a lake that will be built close to
Fontalba area at a height of 2300 meters. The distribution of the snow cannons will be
every 80 meters of slope, so it will be settled as it’s shown in the following table.
27
Nº LENGTH (Meters) NUMBER OF SNOW CANNONS
1. 140 2
2. 390 5
3. 370 5
4. 1 12
5. 979 12
6. 760 10
7. 1,15 14
8. 820 10
9. 460 6
10. 2,23 28
11. 870 11
12. 932 12
TOTAL 10,101 127
Also, by increasing the ski slopes in the station there are a series of indispensable
machinery and equipment that will be necessary:
3 to 4 Snow plow machines to step on the snow and prepare all the slopes from
one day to another.
2 to 3 Snowmobile to give workers flexibility and a way to move all around the
resort.
Minor materials like rets, mattresses (To protect the pylons of the lifts) and
beacons to delimit the slopes in foggy days.
Costings
This section describes the investments planned to carry out the project and the forecast
of equipment needed, taking into account the actual machinery and service costs. It’s a
subjective prediction of real costs based on objective information given by the resort
trading account and advice from La Vall de Núria direction.
Slopes: Terrain must be leveled out and cleaned; this preparation of the base of
the slopes will cost around € 500,000. In the areas where the chairlifts will
emerge it will be necessary to cover and make a channel below ground for all
28
the cables, also including some water canalization, this will cost around
€ 300,000. Total investment in slopes infrastructure: € 800,000.
Ski lifts: It will be necessary to enable the areas where the arrival and exit will
be built, in addition, electricity systems and connectivity must be made to make
them work. Table with the costs:
CHAIR LIFT (4) COST (€)
Arrival Station 796.287
Intermediate Station 95.342
Exit Station 498.824
Vehicles 620.250
Line towers 942.108
Cable tractor 127.323
Control panels 169.153
Assembly 658.893
Total 3.908.180
29
CHAIR LIFT (3)
Arrival Station 947.583
Exit Station 593.601
Vehicles 175.443
Line towers 276.215
Cable tractor 37.022
Control panels 201.293
Assembly 383.978
Total 2.615.135
SKI LIFT (2)
Arrival Station 150.000
Exit Station 100.000
Hangouts for two people 7.800
Line towers 85.714
Cable tractor 18.511
Control panels 67.098
Assembly 191.989
Total 621.112
30
CONVEYER BELT FOR CHILDREN (1)
Arrival Station 50.000
Covering 45.750
Control panels 25.147
Assembly 120.761
Total 241.658
Electricity and Land Leveling 800.000
TOTAL 8.186.085
Services: In the table below we will detail the different buildings and services
estimated cost.
BAR COST (€)
Foundation and lower structure 21.475
Surface structure 188.275
Covering 21.665
Inside assembly 20.365
Sanitations 7.795
Electricity infrastructure 184.965
Total 444.540
31
GARAGE AND MATERIAL DEPOSIT
Foundation and lower structure 16.518
Surface structure 144.825
Covering 18.054
Sanitation 1.270
Electricity infrastructure 30.521
Total 211.188
HELIPORT
Landing area 14180
Total 14.180
RESTAURANT AND SELF-SERVICE
Foundation and lower structure 42.950
Surface structure 376.550
Covering 43.330
Inside assembly 40.730
Sanitation 20.590
Electricity infrastructure 369.930
Total 894.080
32
MEDICAL CENTER
Foundation and lower structure 49.554
Surface structure 434.478
Covering 54.162
Sanitation 6.530
Electricity infrastructure 184.875
Total 729.599
SKI PASSES PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Foundation and lower structure 123.889
Surface structure 825.795
Covering 135.405
Sanitation 7.891
Electricity infrastructure 185.965
Total 1.278.945
WATER TREATMENT PLANT
Foundation and lower structure 123.000
Insulating material and containers 500.000
Treatment area (Pools) 340.000
Total 963.000
TOTAL 4.535.532
33
Slopes maintenance: This section details the investment needed in the
habilitation of the lake for the artificial snow, as well as the artificial snow
system of the new slopes, and also the cost of the acquisition of four new snow
plow machines and three snowmobiles.
o Artificial snow system: Each cannon costs € 20,000. It will be necessary
to place 127 cannons along the slopes, with a cost of € 2,540,000 in total.
o The lake that will be built to supply water to the artificial snow network
will be priced at € 1,070,503 (€ 637,386 for land movement + € 433,117
for waterproofing).
o Machinery: In total, the four snow plows will cost € 1,310,000. The three
snowmobiles will be priced for € 34,500.
o Slopes safety: These are the facilities that are located on the slopes such
as nets, mattresses, other types of protection elements and signals.
Security cost will be of € 1,296,708.
Total investment in slopes maintenance: € 6,251,711.
Staffing Needs
First of all, increasing the ski slopes of the station will require more “pisters” workers.
The pister is the person who takes care of the tracks and their safety. Four pisters will be
hired who will only work for half a year.
It will be necessary to hire people for all kind of ski lifts, will need seven workers for
both chair lifts, who will work during the ski season. The conveyer belt will need two
workers, who will work during the ski season. For ski lift, it will be necessary to hire
two workers as they will only work during the winter season.
For the bar and restaurant will have to contract fifteen people. Seven with an annual
contract and eight with a seasonal contract, since in winter it is assumed that it will be
the time where there will be more work. With regard to artificial snow, three more
workers will be needed, only during the winter period.
For the snow plow management, five machinists will be required to drive them
overnight and alternate days of rest. It will be a seasonal work, since their work will be
to prepare the slopes during the winter. Fifteen people will be hired for the ski rent area,
34
offices and the store, eleven of which in temporary contract and four with annual
contract.
Finally, two people will be hired for the maintenance of the whole area of Fontalba -
Puigmal. These people will be mechanics, electricians, etc. And they will be responsible
for the maintenance of the lifts, artificial snow system and the buildings. By hiring this
entire new staff, the workforce in La Vall de Núria will be increased by more of 1/3 of
the actual, and the resort will hold up to 53 new workers during winter. The following
table summarizes the estimated staff costs:
STAFF COST (€)
Pisters (4 Seasonal Contracts) 65.304
Chair lift Workers (5 Annual Contracts) 154.260
Chair lift Workers (3 Seasonal Contracts) 46.278
Conveyer belt Workers ( 2 Seasonal Contracts) 30.852
Ski lift Workers (2 Seasonal Contracts) 30.852
Restoration Workers (7 Annual Contracts) 182.700
Restoration Workers (8 Seasonal Contracts) 104.400
Office Workers (2 Seasonal Contracts) 26.100
Office Workers (2 Annual Contracts) 52.200
Store Workers (2 Seasonal Contracts) 26.100
Store Workers (2 Annual Contracts) 52.200
Ski rent Workers (4 Seasonal Contracts) 52.200
Artificial snow Workers (3 Seasonal Contracts) 57.240
Snow plow Machinists (5 Seasonal Contracts) 95.400
General Maintenance Workers (2 Annual Contracts) 62.904
TOTAL 753.060
35
How to raise the money to cope with the investment
In the table below, we can see the total investment reflected. This table shows the whole
project costs, all the improvements that should be done, and the recruitment of
personnel.
FONTALBA – PUIGMAL EXTENSION PROJECT COST (Million €)
Slopes 0,8
Ski Lifts 8,18
Services 4,54
Slopes Maintenance 4,96
Staff Expenses 0,753
Total 19,233
We are talking about a sum bigger than € 19.000.000 for a ski resort which is managed
by the public entity Grup FGC. Taking into account that Grup FGC could not assume
all the expenses will be important to find a private investor to finance the project,
although last year, they did an investment of more than 10 million on the resorts of the
group (Diario Público, 2017).
The best solution for La Vall de Núria would be a public ownership by the Grup FGC
but with private management. The Investment in the infrastructure would have to be
made by the public group, and maintenance, activities, staff hiring... in charge of the
private company. In this way, as the private company gains, an annual economic return
would have to be agreed with the public Group FGC.
We have seen many other ski resorts adopting this strategy in the Catalan Pyrenees like
Boí-Taüll Ski Resort with a private property company, or if we look in the neighboring
country of Andorra becoming full private investments from companies in foreign
countries (Lugares de Nieve, 2013). La Vall de Núria is not going to become a full
private investment, at least for the moment, because Grup FGC is really interested with
it since it is the station with the best economic performance of the group. So searching
an interested private group to manage a part of investment will be the most
recommended strategy, may be local or foreign, but with sufficient resources to afford
the investment.
36
Marketing strategy, promoting the new resort
A good way for a ski resort of promote itself and its new infrastructures is participating
in different fairs with stands that will be staffed by specialized workers of the resort and
that will serve as a showcase to publicize among people the new slopes and facilities, as
well as releases for the next season and venues, in addition to ski pass offers.
For example in Spain, Nevaria is a fair dedicated to snow and mountain sports that this
year celebrated its twelfth edition. This specialized forum involves companies,
institutions and entities directly related to the snow world. It is a contest of recognized
prestige in the national scope, and it is considered the first fair of its kind in the North of
Spain. With more than 40 exhibitors participating in Nevaria, ski resorts nationally and
internationally are always present, and about 12,000 visitors will visit the fair during the
two days of the event. Two years ago we could see the case of Alto Campoo Ski Resort
promoting their new facilities and services in Nevaria, which facilitated its impact to
new customers during the season and ended in an excellent season for the sales of ski
passes (Europa Press, 2015). It could be really interesting for La Vall de Núria
promotion to participate in this fair and by this way publicize its new structure.
Another classical strategy is being present with advertisements on TV and radio, a much
used and efficient method for the ski resort of Grandvalira, as well as different publicity
in large commercial areas, like supermarkets, cinemas and airports. This is the case of
Tryvann Winter Park, that use advertising bands at bus stops to convince the snow fans
of Oslo that although is raining in the city, on the ski slopes located just over 15 minutes
from the capital, that precipitation turned into snow. This original way of publicity, has
ended up convincing more clients this season, and it seems that it has worked for them
(Moreno, 2009). And finally but not least interesting doing some “Guerrilla” marketing
like La Molina Ski Resort is doing. BMW Cars Company hung a Mini on a lift,
changing a chair for the vehicle, so that people when are skiing or waiting in the queue
look at the car, and in addition they offer discount packs in the ski resort to people who
buy one of their vehicles, a good and interesting way to get the resort known to
customers.
In my opinion, a good and really creative example of marketing for La Vall de Núria is
to use the zipper train as a point of attraction; it’s a unique thing and people wants to get
in, and by the way taking advantage of a weakness to make it a strong point selling it as
37
an experience, Grup FGC can put advertises promoting the new La Vall de Núria
extension on all different trains they manage, “Rodalies de Barcelona”, subways, in
other public zippers like the one in Montserrat…, and also to give some free coupons or
discounts for the zipper train of Queralbs with the purchase of a certain number of
subway tickets to encourage people to go to the valley.
Finally, we know that the Sanctuary of Núria is an important cultural and religious
place, so why not take more advantage of it? To distribute flyers in different chapels,
cathedrals and information offices, so that people interested in visiting these buildings,
show interest for the sanctuary and come to Núria to see it.
38
Conclusion
Looking from a global point of view it is not the time for ski resort as climate change is
pressing and the snow on the mountains is reducing, over the past 50 years there are
better years than others but the snow thickness is decreasing. But people want to ski,
and where there is a necessity, there is a business. Maybe there is less natural snow than
a few decades ago, but today we have the ways and means to create artificial snow and
maintain it and in the same way exploit natural resources and make it much more
environmentally friendly structures integrated with the environment. This is the
proposal for La Vall de Núria, expanding the resort in a perfectly exploitable are taking
into account the environmental approaches, creating new job opportunities for people in
the valley and avoiding a stagnation of the current infrastructure.
But there is a huge limitation for this project, and ironically, this limitation is the same
source that keeps the resort afloat, and it’s called Grup FGC.
For Grup FGC, to make an extension in La Vall de Núria in a zone that will be
accessible by car is not profitable, similar proposals have already been dismissed and all
because of the new access by car. It is true that they make a great profit selling train
tickets, and even more by linking the Zipper train with the line of “Rodalies” that
arrives directly to Barcelona.
For the moment, the situation is not bad in La Vall de Núria, but already younger people
are leaving the valley because of the limited job offers in the zone, this added to the
rejection of investments for new infrastructures and expansions, which could end in a
serious stagnation and inactivity, and finally to the closure of the resort in a long term
view. In my opinion, new opportunities should be considered and studied to avoid a
collapse and keep financial and social benefits that have an impact on the local
population and society in general. This is a mindset change that needs to be made before
we have to solve bigger problems and issues, and as it has been explained in this
proposal, with this new project a high possibility of success could be created.
39
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Appendixes
Appendix 1
Photo. 7 [Image from www.valldenuria.cat]. (Schedules and rates. 2018)
43
Photo. 8[Image from www.valldenuria.cat]. (Schedules and rates. 2018)
44
Photo. 9[Image from www.valldenuria.cat]. (Schedules and rates. 2018)
45
Appendix 2
Photo. 10[Image from www.elnacional.cat]. (Skitrenrates. 2018)
46
Appendix 3
Interview to Joan Reyné, Professional Skimo Athlete of the Atomic-Karpos Skimo
Team
1. First of all, could you tell us who Joan Reyné is? What relationship do you keep
with the world of snow?
Joan Reyné is a native and lover of La Vall de Núria. He is a person who likes to ski
and have adventures all around the world but especially on my valley. Since I was 3
years old, my parents brought me to La Vall de Núria to learn to ski and now, it is my
lifestyle.
2. What is the current situation that you see in La Vall de Núria?
La Vall de Núria, after a few years with very little influx of people, seems to start to
accomplish a good tourist level but, unfortunately, a lot of these people that come to the
valley just play with the snow (Snow sleds…) and don’t buy the pass, so I think they
should make improvements to encourage people to come to practice alpine skiing. Right
now, you will see more mountain skiers and climbers than skiers on the track. This,
among other things, may be due to the fact that the facilities are very old and cannot
compete with other stations.
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3. Do you think the entry of the station into the Grup FGC has been beneficial?
Because?
Yes, it has been very good. FGC has taken a company that did not give benefits in the
lasts years and gave life again to the Valley in winter and is investing a lot of money to
reflow. Year after year, more capital is placed and facilities are improved.
4. What is the main attraction for people to come to La Vall de Núria? Are all
skiers?
La Vall de Núria is an easy-reachable station for people from Barcelona; they have it at
two hours, those of Girona at an hour and a half. From Núria, being one of the most
eastern ski resorts in the Pyrenees, many days when you ski, you are able to see the sea.
As I said before, unfortunately not all are skiers.
5. An extension / remodeling of the station or services would be beneficial?
Yes, of course. LaVall de Núria has very old equipment. And an improvement in the
facilities would be very beneficial, not to mention a possible extension to higher levels
of the mountain or even improve the access to the station.
6. Do you think that the zipper train is a brake for the people who come to ski?
Personally yes, because between one thing and the other you lose a lot of time, you are
tied to schedules and sometimes that is a can of anchovies (With very little space), but I
understand that it is a tourist attraction because many people are excited to go to Núria
with the zipper as an experience.
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Original Version “Entrevista a Joan Reyné, Esquiador de muntanya professional,
Atleta de l’equip Atomic-Karpos Skimo Team”
1. Primer de tot, ens podries explicar qui és en Joan Reyné? Quina relació guardes
amb el món de la neu?
En Joan Reyné és nadiu i amant de la Vall de Núria. És una persona que li agrada
esquiar i tenir aventures arreu del món, però sobretot a la meva vall. Des dels tres anys
d'edat, els meus pares em van portar a la Vall de Núria per aprendre a esquiar i ara, és el
meu estil de vida.
2. Quina es la situació actual que veus a La Vall de Núria?
La Vall de Núria després d’uns anys amb molt poca afluència de gent sembla que
comença a reputar a nivell turístic però, malauradament, molta d’aquesta gent només bé
a tocar neu i no a comprar el forfait, així que crec que s’haurien de fer millores per
incentivar a la gent que vingui a fer esquí alpí. Ara mateix, es veuen més esquiadors de
muntanya i alpinistes que esquiadors sobre la pista. Això, entre d’altres coses pot ser
degut a que les instal·lacions són molt velles i no es pot competir amb altres estacions.
3. Creus que l’entrada de l’estació dins el Grup FGC ha estat beneficiosa? Per
què?
Sí, ha estat molt bona. FGC ha agafat una empresa que feia aigües per tot arreu però que
donava vida a la Vall a l’hivern i hi està invertint molts diners perquè refloti. Any rere
any s’hi posa més capital i es milloren les instal·lacions.
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4. Quin es el principal atractiu per el que la gent puja a La Vall de Núria? Son tot
esquiadors?
La Vall de Núria és una estació de fàcil excés per la gent de Barcelona, ho tenen a dues
hores, els de Girona a una hora i mitja. Des de Núria, al ser l’estació més oriental del
Pirineu, molts dies quan esquies es pot arribar a veure el mar. Com ja he dit abans
malauradament no tot son esquiadors.
5. Una ampliació/remodelació de l’estació o serveis seria beneficiosa?
Sí, claríssimament. La Vall de Núria està molt envellit. I una millora en les
instal·lacions hi seria molt beneficiosa, per no parlar d’una possible ampliació a cotes
més altes o inclús millorar l’accés a l’estació.
6. Creus que el cremallera es un fre alhora de pujar-hi a esquiar?
Personalment sí perquè entre una cosa i l’altra perds molt de temps, vas lligat a uns
horaris i a vegades allò és una llauna d’anxoves però, entenc que és un atraient turístic
ja que molta gent li fa il·lusió anar a Núria amb el Cremallera com a experiència.