Top 50 French ski resorts on Facebook at the start of 2014

Happy new year and thanks for reading this blog over the past year! I’m looking forward to highlighting and analysing loads more innovative and engaging social media marketing practices in French (ski) mountain tourism in 2014, so please keep ’em coming.

The Portes du Soleil hit the 100,000 Facebook fans milestone just in time for 2014 and several other ski areas made strong gains at the start of the ski season and the end of 2013.

Top mention goes to the Grand Massif for its Flaine opening weekend lift pass competition, pledging to set the price of a day ticket at €15 if likes hit 5,000, €10 if they hit 7,500 and €1 if they hit 10,000 by the deadline. If you’re going to do a competition asking entrants to like your page, this has got to be the way to do it: it was quirky, engaging and the ‘likes’ actually meant something rather than just being the price of entry to the competition.

Ski enthusiasts being an enterprising lot, the 10,000 level was reached in good time…

…so lots of happy fans skied for a euro, many of them new to the ski area, as Flaine ski area director Frédéric Marion pointed out in a video interview on French TV.

Among the top 50 French resorts (rather than domains) on Facebook, these grew their fans the fastest in December:

1. La Norma (+55%)
2. Les Gets (+45%)
3. Les Menuires / Saint Martin de Belleville (+37%)
4. Val d’Isère (+25%)
5. Courchevel  (+18%)

La Norma, Les Gets and Val d’Isère all ran competitions, Les Menuires just ran a simple, but striking, countdown to opening day, with calls to action:

Courchevel held a women’s World Cup slalom but, despite the buzz over that, the post that attracted the most likes was simply of SNOW:

Average fan growth of all the top 50 French ski resorts on Facebook stayed high at 8.7% in December, down just slightly from November (9.3%).

Here are all the scores, as recorded on the 1st of January, 2014:

Top 5 French ski domains on Facebook

1. Portes du Soleil – 104,209 fans
2. Nouvelles Pyrénées – 39,314
3. Haute Maurienne Vanoise – 36,081
4. Les 3 Vallées – 20,632
5. Grand Massif – 11,080

Top 50 French ski resorts on Facebook

1. Val Thorens – 123,666 fans
2. Megève – 113,407
3. Tignes – 49,032
4. Courchevel – 43,122
5. Les Arcs – 39,161
6. La Clusaz – 34,090
7. Les Menuires – 33,718
8. Val d’Isère – 30,461
9. Alpe d’Huez – 28,921
10. La Plagne – 28,921
11. Chamonix – 28,432
12. Serre Chevalier – 28,270
13. Les 2 Alpes – 28,215
14. Saint Lary – 25,621
15. Avoriaz – 24,910
16. Cauterets – 24,436
17. Le Grand Bornand – 18,680
18. Vars – 17,314
19. Méribel – 16,570
20. Ax 3 Domaines – 14,442
21. Les Gets – 13,816
22. Châtel – 11,949
23. La Norma – 11,922
24. Les Contamines – 11,318
25. Lac Blanc – 11,162
26. Le Dévoluy – 11,149
27. Peyragudes – 10,662
28. Les Sept Laux – 10,580
29. Morzine – 10,302
30. Montgenèvre – 9,940
31. Orcières1850 – 9,743
32. Les Orres – 9,579
33. Piau-Engaly – 7,392
34. Sainte Foy – 7,380
35. Grand Tourmalet – 7,231
36. Les Saisies – 7,028
37. Le Lioran – 6,943
38. Les Angles – 6,904
39. Aussois – 5,559
40. Gourette – 5,447
41. Praloup – 5,277
42. Valloire – 5,216
43. Le Corbier – 5,005
44. Luz Ardiden – 4,370
45. Samoëns – 4,317
46. Valmorel – 4,282
47. Villard de Lans – 4,282
48. Arêches Beaufort – 4,264
49. Luchon – 4,246
50. La Rosière – 4,084

Please note: these are official pages only and only those resorts are included that have at least some alpine ski uplift capacity, ie a ski lift. Sorry if I’ve missed anyone and please let me know so this list can be improved for next month. Linked resorts/domains like the 3 Valleys are ranked separately and the count was done on the 1st of January.