Presentation

On 8 March 2022, the 18th OCOVA forum will take place in Les Orres (22nd in Europe and 26th in the world) to explore together the paths of tomorrow’s efficient and sustainable mountains.

OCOVA Forum

Since 2004, the OCOVA forum has been the place where territorial development actors meet to discuss the contribution of digital technologies to the intelligent and sustainable mountain of tomorrow. 150 to 200 innovation leaders, industrial players, development aid organisations, local authorities and decision-makers meet to share their visions on the development of mountain territories. The forum is an opportunity to take stock of the evolution of uses and markets, technological breakthroughs and future solutions, as well as the obstacles to their deployment.

The forum’s programme addresses two major priorities at the heart of tomorrow’s mountain sites: 1) the management of infrastructures (energy, water, mobility, waste, etc.) from a sustainable development perspective, 2) the promotion of attractiveness in all seasons in all its components (mountain sports, indoor and outdoor activities, tourist accommodation, safety, etc.)

To date, 17 OCOVA forums have taken place in France, 4 in Italy (Ivrea, Vintimiglia, Genova) and 4 in South Korea (Gangneung). 


About Smart Altitude 2018-2021

Smart Altitude brought together 10 partners and 24 observers from six Alpine Space countries. The programme aimed to accelerate the deployment of low carbon policies in winter tourism intensive regions. With a potential to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40%, Smart Altitude is positioned as a powerful lever to engage Alpine resorts in a common process of implementing climate resilience and energy transition, applicable to different governance models and responding to the geophysical and human diversity of the Alpine arc.

To achieve this ambition, the programme included four complementary approaches: 1) defining a methodology for diagnosing the energy performance of territories; 2) testing and validating innovative and efficient technical and economic solutions in real conditions in four pilot stations; 3) making available and facilitating the implementation of practical decision-making, planning and implementation tools; 4) drawing up a roadmap and a body of recommendations for decision-makers in territorial policies in the Alpine region with a view to replicating and disseminating at the macro-regional level.

This approach has attracted a lot of interest from other resorts in the Alpine arc. This is evidenced by the participation of 110 mountain stakeholders and decision-makers in conferences and working groups organised by video-conference over the last six months, as well as the involvement of 22 other mountain resorts in the process. This participation has formed the active core of a European network of resorts and stakeholders committed to a common approach for the implementation of a resilient, efficient, responsible and exemplary model of mountain tourism in its ecological transition dynamics. A working group from Smart Altitude is now working on the constitution of a new Alpine Space project to take these ambitions to new levels. 

OCOVA 2022: capitalising on the results of Smart Altitude to take the transition efforts of mountain tourism territories to new levels

The tools, set up by Smart Altitude for the benefit of a community of mountain resorts, the communities that support them and the territorial authorities that support them, aim to develop a responsible approach to mountain tourism through the implementation of low-carbon solutions. The process should continue beyond the end of the project, of which this event marks the official closing. The objective, from the first core of more than twenty resorts in the Alpine region that have joined the project, with the support of SUERA, is to extend the approach to the resort-valley scale around energy communities and shared management solutions for the various fields of ecological transition involving public and private actors.

The ecological transition is directly linked to the necessary evolution of tourism models, a better distribution of visitors (all-season mountains), the renovation of tourist accommodation, new approaches to the customer experience for a renewed attractiveness of a sustainable all-season mountain for all, in accordance with the guidelines set out in the “Avenir Montagne” French Plan.

Advanced digital technologies are an essential lever, bringing innovation and links, for the evolution towards the intelligent mountain of tomorrow.

… in Les Orres

Les Orres is the pilot resort for the ecological and tourism transition of mountain resorts in the Southern Alps. Flexgrid Smart Station, living labs of the Interreg Alpine Space projects ALPSTAR (2012-2014) and SMART ALTITUDE (2018-2021) and leader of this latter project which brings together 10 partners from 5 countries of the Alpine space around the energy transition, pilot commune/resort for the deployment of optical fibre and 4G/5G, Les Orres is also fully committed to the promotion of outdoor activities and the development of new all-season activity models for the tourism transition. Every year, it hosts the OCOVA forum, of which its mayor, Pierre Vollaire, is the founder.


Contact: yann@ybsolution.com – Tél. +33 (0)6 87 11 91 43

 

 

Share This