Governance of mountain resorts in France: the nature of the public-private partnership

By demanding to be the organising authorities for tourism development in the 1985 French Mountain Law, members of parliament and elected representatives from municipalities which have developed mountain resorts took on heavy responsibilities without being fully aware of all the political, economic and social dimensions Of Such responsibilities. Indeed, the question of coordination among the various players involved, which was First raised when the law was promulgated, is still a burning issue. Using the notion of governance, this article attempts to identify the main problems related to public-private partnership in mountain resorts. Emphasis is placed on the types of relations between players. The aim is to demonstrate the complexity of these formal and informal relations: problems of political legitimacy for local authorities, lack of expertise, limited room to manoeuvre for tourist offices, asymmetrical relations between public and private sector players, emergence of demands from local citizens to participate in local debates. These problems raise the question of the existence of a place to negotiate resort management, a place of governance enabling a collective actor to develop who would participate in the debate on resort management.