Mise en scène du paysage montagnard et valorisation sélective des patrimoines dans une vallée pyrénéenne en reconversion économique

Abstract

The closure in 2003 of the electro-metallurgical plant of Auzat in Vicdessos (Pyrenean region of Ariège, France) marked the end of a century of industrial history. The political initiative of conducting a reconversion based on tourism and the deployment of a diversified range of recreational activities in the middle of the countryside (part I) was promoted by a consistent message on a regional scale focusing on the concept of a “nature sports resort” (part II). A complex task of remodelling the identity of the region was initiated at the same time to enhance its image as a tourist destination and to encourage the support of the local population for a project which broke with the industrial prosperity of the past. This dual approach which is a part of the strategy for the promotion of tourism shared by Vicdessos and the neighbouring region of Tarascon is based on presenting the mountain landscape as a resource and selectively promoting certain aspects of the local heritage. This heritage part of the strategy is intended for the residents, the owners of secondary residences, and for tourists in the strict sense of the term: proof of this is in how the promotion of the industrial heritage has been accompanied the disappearance of its physical evidence in the landscape (destruction of the factory), the shift to the reconstruction of a memory being considered as a means of more effectively breaking with this industrial past.

Keywords

• regional identity
• economic reconversion
• regional resource
• mountain landscapes
• promotion of the heritage