Adeline Roux, the manager of Courchevel's Tourist Information Office has taken the unusual step of speaking out about the plethora of resort rankings and awards that appear each autumn and criticising ski resorts that play the ratings and awards game.
"As a world-renowned resort, Courchevel is automatically included by ranking organisers. It is a brand that increases sales and attracts others which also lends credence to this type of initiative," said Adeline Roux, adding, "So far we have just let these rankings happen without jumping on board and it follows logically that the resort has never stood out positively."
But Adeline Roux has now decided that with an ever growing number of rankings and awards appearing, it's time for her to speak out,
"Having come to the conclusion that these rankings were very questionable and lacked objectivity to some extent, I have never wanted to involve the resort in these initiatives. This situation has now become detrimental. Never seeing Courchevel stand out positively, both the general public and the press may have believed ideas that are false or negative or do not reflect reality. It is therefore now time to speak out."
"Really you just look at who the organisers of these rankings are to realise that these private companies use the data collected for their own benefit," Adeline Roux stated, before listing some well known resort assessment and ranking sites and awards.
"I distinguish two major risks: First, on the pretext of standing out, some resorts and travel agencies have got into the game, making it easy for the firms organising these rankings to access their lists of customers and businesses. No information is provided about the way the list, that the resort has helped them obtain is used. If you consider the value of qualified lists today, and the price that firms are prepared to pay to obtain them, it is more than a golden opportunity to be able to get hold of these records! All this by simply dangling in front of them a position in a ranking."
"What surprises me is that resorts have not identified this risk factor or have not attached great importance to it. What's more, in the end, these rankings do not help tourists to find their bearings among the hundreds of resorts that exist. Choosing a ski resort is a very subjective matter which takes into account very different parameters depending on the people concerned and their tastes and expectations. There is no need for judgement in this respect."
"By backing these rankings, resorts are not adopting the right approach to obtain customers who risk being disappointed by what they discover. In my opinion, this goes against the intended effect."
Among the rankings and awards Adeline Roux is less than happy with are TripAdvisor and Best Ski Resort,
"Let me give you a few examples: TripAdvisor's ranking, which shows an average price per day, is impossible to check and is meaningless: in Courchevel we offer 48 hotels including 3 five-star luxury hotels and 18 five-star hotels, which is unrivalled and obviously raises the average price for a stay automatically. Showing the wide range of accommodation available in resorts would be much more relevant for tourists! In Courchevel, you can find anything from unstarred to luxury hotels."
"Best Ski Resort: this firm carries out on-site surveys on a non-representative panel of customers chosen randomly, without distribution of the tourists questioned consistent with the resort's actual segmentation. Moreover, in Courchevel, the pollsters behaved inappropriately and intervention was needed to put a stop to their actions."
"Finally, all rankings that require a resort to ask its customers to vote. It is obvious that a resort with a lot of standardised accommodation will receive more feedback than a resort with customers who are less enthusiastic about social networks or a resort with less accommodation."
"I am amazed to have seen how easily in the last few years Internet users reveal their private life on the web. It is almost with a kind of unawareness that they are even quick to hand out both their "intimate" and business details, without checking the use that can be made of them, in order to belong to a community or obtain a financial advantage."
"Dictators of the past tried to obtain personal information from people by force. They did not succeed. If they were still alive, they would choke if they saw how easily private companies today can arrange for people to give away a lot of information about themselves and their circle of acquaintances freely!"
"These rankings enable brands or destinations to use, without a professional code of ethics, private individuals' new behaviour on the Internet for substantial gain."
"I am fully aware that by refusing these rankings, the resort risks being sidelined and finding itself outside the system which, if it were to find credence over the long-term, could marginalise Courchevel."
"The important thing for Courchevel is to focus our energy on satisfying our customers and raise awareness of our resort. For us, being "better" is not achieved by ranking for all the reasons given."
"We have no time to devote to these surveys which bring no added value to help holidaymakers find the destination that suits them. It is useless and even negative to attract people whose expectations do not match the resort's facilities and it would even be counter-productive," concludes Adeline Roux.