Alpe d’Huez, one of the two biggest mountain resorts in the Dauphiné, has recently made its entrance onto the business tourism market with the development of a purpose-built conference centre. A total of seven million euros was invested in the project, consisting of a 370 m² room that can be divided into three plus four smaller rooms that can be arranged as break-out rooms or used for medium-sized seminars as they’re able to handle between 50 and 100 people (whilst the main room has capacity for 400).

The conference centre complements the existing 800-place Palais des Sports, previously used by conference organisers. This multi-purpose building was not ideal as it didn’t offer adequate break-out rooms, event if its two cinemas could be used for that purpose. It was a bit of a handicap, whilst now we’re perfectly equipped to attract business tourism events , confirms Cathy Michel, manager of the resort’s bookings service who is also in charge of business tourism. The new centre also has a ground floor space that is ideal for vehicle displays, making it doubly attractive as a venue .

The bookings service, a subsidiary of SATA (Société d’AménagementTouristique de l’Alpe d’Huez) which is primarily responsible for selling lift passes, handled 6% of its total turnover within the business tourism sector, but had not really developed a dedicated marketing campaign. Having understood the genuine potential of this sector, Alpe d’Huez intends to fully exploit the business with the aim of attracting about 30 events every year.

In order to achieve this aim, the resort is dependent on its hotels which offer 86 4* rooms (Ours Blanc and Chamois d’Or) and 217 3* rooms (Christiana, Le Dôme, Le Printemps de Juliette, Les Alpages, Les Grandes Rousses and Le Pic Blanc). The two latter properties, part of the HMC group, offer 154 rooms as well as several meeting rooms (in particular at the Pic Blanc) whilst the Club Méditerranée, boasting 364 chambres, is keen to develop the business tourism market.

In the past, Alpe d’Huez would place just one advertisement in the Réunir guide, but has now decided to take the next step in marketing terms as explained by Cathy Michel : We’re new on the market and so to get ourselves known, we’re planning to take part in the Réunir tradeshow and the Séminaires et Business show next January. We also took part in the recent business tourism workshop organised by Rhône-Alpes Tourisme, held in Paris on the 24^th April of this year. And we’re also going to be at the Bureau des Congrès de Grenoble’s workshop on 13 November, as we work closely with them .

Cathy Michel admits that her target clientele are local companies although she’s hoping that the large number of low-cost airlines at the airport of Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs will attract some international business .

Agnès Castillan, a colleague working for the bookings service, has also noted the trend for more and more last minute bookings, which often gives us a problems in terms of finding accommodation in the busy season .

On average, seminars tend to last between two and three days, although some (such as last January’s event for the Citra group) can last a whole week. CNOSF (Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français) has also booked a meeting in Alpe d’ Huez between 10 and 16 December, and FFESSM (Fédération Française d’Etudes et de Sports Sous-Marins) is planning to hold its annual general meeting in the resort for about 300 participants between 4 and 6 April 2008.

Once they’ve decided on Alpe d’Huez as their preferred destination, organisers can bring in their own caterer or, if they prefer, choose one of those recommended by the team in the resort (eg, La Fine Fourchette based in Grenoble). And for incentives, they can use Sport Aventure. Rates range from 131.56 euros (inc VAT) to1136.20 euros (inc VAT) for a half day’s room hire and from 227.24 euros (inc VAT) to 2027.22 euros (inc VAT) for a whole day, depending on the size of room. Last but not least, the resort will also have a new 3* hotel from the end of 2008 and is also planning a large hotel-residence plus casino…