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Mountain resorts, with their direct links to their local communities and valleys, are key drivers of tourism. This activity is essential to the economic balance of the region, because of the importance of the income and the direct, indirect and induced jobs it generates. Faced with the challenges posed by global warming, the objectives of energy sobriety, good management of water resources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, risk forecasting and management, and consideration of all areas of the ecological transition are a necessity now recognised by all. This cannot be achieved without a link to theevolution of tourism models, in particular with a view to broadening the season wings and an approach to the mountains for all, all year round, taking into account the preservation of natural areas. These two major areas of transformation towards the economically efficient, ecologically responsible and socially inclusive mountains of tomorrow – the evolution of tourism models and the ecological transition – will be at the heart of the OCOVA 2026 Forum programme. |
Innovative projects for the mountain of tomorrow
This session will address advances and prospects in several areas related to decarbonisation and the evolution of tourism models:
- Progress and prospects for tourist accommodation renovation projects
- The market for energy flexibilityand its consequences for the deployment of solutions such as pumped energy storage (PHES) in resorts, with Stepsol/Energy Pool
- Advances in connected sports projects
- The Pôle Innovation Avenir Montagne project, currently being rolled out by Les Orres with its industrial partners, notably EDF and Veolia, and in conjunction with projects underway in the Serre-Ponçon Community of Communes.
Local Digital Twins: efficient digital tools for the ecological transition
This year, the forum will focus on data and its uses, from collection to utilisation and sharing. To this end, we are planning a major session dedicated to Local Digital Twins, devices that enable the simulation of the impact of different scenarios on energy consumption, carbon footprint and resource use in resorts and valleys. Local Digital Twins also enable better monitoring of the results of ecological transition programmes deployed in the territories and their dissemination to different categories of users: operators, socio-professionals, local and regional authorities, and the general public. All aspects of these systems will be addressed: ethical and social issues, practical methods of co-construction and deployment, standards and technologies, feedback, with leading players at national and European level: CEREMA, CRGN, SCIC Tetris, Atos, EGM, EDF, etc.
Drones and territorial digital modelling
n connection with the Local Digital Twins session, one session will focus on presenting the role of drones in digital modelling of territories, for their various uses adapted to the specific characteristics of mountain areas: topographical surveys by drones, digital territory models for integration with snow groomers, applications for optimising snow production, and tourism applications using digital models of buildings of heritage interest to create 3D models. There will be presentations on projects in ski resorts, with contributions from Les Orres, Serre-Chevalier, Elda Technologies, DroneBoost, ONERA, Air Libre Prod/le and Naturographe..
The detailed Forum programme is being prepared and will be available online shortly.