Welcome to Setting Up Shop, a series in which we take you around the world to the most dynamic and emerging luxury shopping hubs, introduce you to the customers, and get an understanding of what makes the local market tick.
“Courchevel is the place to be,” says CEO of luxury hotel chain Maya Collection Richard Maria. “A few years ago, most of the hotels were local businesses, but the international brands have started to arrive. It’s like a cake — everybody wants a piece.”
It’s mid-March and the new Maya Hotel won’t open until December 2025. But I am in town for Moncler’s second Grenoble brand experience, which saw about 400 press and celebrity guests, including Anne Hathaway, Adrien Brody and Vincent Cassel, travel to Les Trois Vallées area that Courchevel is a part of — for a weekend extravaganza that showcased the brand’s skiwear collection, titled Grenoble.
“Courchevel was the perfect choice representing one of the most iconic ski resorts in the world,” Moncler CEO and chair Remo Ruffini said at the time. The luxury puffer brand has two stores in the luxury ski resort town — the first one opened in 2013 at Place du Tremplin, which is on the main shopping strip, followed by another in 2014 at Le Chalet de Pierres, which sits right on the slopes.
And it’s not just Moncler. In the last decade, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, APM Monaco and Rolex all opened boutiques on the main shopping strip of Courchevel 1850, while Chanel and Jacquemus have been hosting pop-ups since the end of the pandemic. On the hospitality front, Maya Collection and Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, as well as a series of luxury lodge establishments, are set to open by December 2026. The town’s upcoming 80th anniversary, which will see a host of festivities take place during the 2026/27 winter season, is one draw. But most importantly, in 2030, the French Alps are set to host the Winter Olympics.
This is all taking place in the wider context of a rising interest in winter sports, as we’ve felt desperate to explore the great outdoors post-pandemic. “There’s been a notable uptick in activity around alpine destinations such as Courchevel, Gstaad and St Moritz, with brands leaning into immersive seasonal activations,” says Federica Levato, senior partner at management consultancy Bain Co. “This could reflect a sustained appetite for exclusive, high-touch experiences in more intimate, curated settings.” The numbers support that argument, too: approximately 1.2 million visitor nights were spent in Courchevel during the 2024/25 season, up 16 per cent compared with the same period in 2018 (pre-pandemic).
All of which is to say, you should consider setting up shop in Courchevel. So here’s what to know before you do.
The lowdown
“Courchevel was always meant to be a ski resort,” says general manager of the Courchevel Board of Tourism Alexia Lainé. “If you go back to the town archives, you can see the map of the resort that was drawn by the pioneers as early as 1936. You can see Courchevel 1850 drawn out and plans for part of the villages to become hotels and luxury properties. And the other part is sketched out as sport and entertainment spaces. So it was already planned that Courchevel would become what it is now, which I think was pretty visionary for the time.”
That vision becomes clear as soon as you enter Les Trois Vallées (“the three valleys”) on the drive up from Geneva. Beyond the pines and snow, there are few homes to see, but shops, restaurants and hotels aplenty. Courchevel is a ‘ski-in, ski-out’ resort, meaning that the slopes are so close to the town they are part of it. Visitors can grab a coffee, a meal or go shopping in their skis, because most businesses have their doors within a few metres of the slopes. According to Maria, it’s what makes Courchevel so attractive: “Anywhere else in the world, once you exit the hotel, you have to get in your car or walk to get to the slopes. In Courchevel, you leave the hotel or the shop and you are on the slopes.”
Courchevel is made up of six villages, each connected by a ski lift system and free buses. These are Courchevel 1850, Courchevel Village, Moriond, Le Praz, La Tania and Saint-Bon. “Courchevel 1850, named because of the altitude, is the centre, where you will find most of the luxury boutiques as well as some cafés and restaurants. Lots of hotels too and alpine lodges,” explains Lainé. “La Tania is nested in the forest, and is fully pedestrianised — same with Le Praz. Courchevel Village was previously called Courchevel 1550 — it’s a five-minute ski lift ride from Courchevel 1850. There are a lot of restaurants there, and it’s mostly for families. And then Moriond is connected to Courchevel 1850 only by road. It’s south-oriented, so it’s sunny all day long and provides lovely skiing grounds. You will find a lot of hotels there and alpine lodges.”
The first hotel to ever open in the area was Hotel Lac Bleu, which opened for a summer season in 1908 and much later for a winter season in 1925. By this point, according to Lainé, people were starting to visit Courchevel for its winter sports, but since there were no lifts operating in the area, the only option was to walk or climb up the mountains and ski back down again. “Skiing has always been part of life in Courchevel; it was really just a mode of transport. Before ski lifts, you had to put your skis on to go from point A to point B during the winter. And then between the two wars in France, we saw a rise of interest in winter sports because people needed a break and were looking for ways to entertain themselves.”
The idea to turn Courchevel into a resort was conceived during WWII, when in 1942, the French Commission of Tourism started looking at possible grounds for a ski resort. Their criteria included terrain between 1,400 and 1,800 metres high, and the feasibility of installing a reliable lift system. At this time, the regions of Courchevel, Saint-Bon and Moriond were seeking funding for development and regeneration, too.
Legend has it that the resort was designed by architect and town planner Laurent Chappis and engineer Maurice Michaud, both from the nearby town of Savoie, while they were prisoners of war in a Nazi camp in Austria. Before the war, Chappis, who was a keen skier, had made numerous surveys of the Les Trois Vallées area on skis in order to map out the best routes. The aim was to create a resort that was as close to nature as possible; no concrete or overwhelmingly high buildings and no levelling of forests.
“Courchevel is unique because you still have this spirit of the village,” says Maria. “Aspen is huge, and the tickets to ski are €350 because of the insurance. Switzerland is nice, but doesn’t offer the ski-in, ski-out option. Courchevel combines this village atmosphere with elevated service — it’s a little bit like Mykonos. And you will find the same type of customer here, too.”
The customer
The clientele in Courchevel is predominantly affluent, belonging to the high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) categories. According to Courchevel’s Board of Tourism, a significant proportion of visitors have an annual income above €200,000, and many own or rent luxury chalets valued in the multi-million-euro range.
Dining and gastronomy represent the largest share of expenses, accounting for approximately 58 per cent of total spend — retail stores account for approximately 10 per cent of total expenses, food retailers for about 13 per cent and sports equipment rental approximately 18 per cent. The last bit of the pie is spread across other leisure experiences, such as ski activities and wellness.
While the tourists in Courchevel have always had deep pockets, they are growing increasingly international. Right now, visitors come mainly from within France, the UK, Brazil, Russia, India, the US and, increasingly, the Middle East (most notably the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia).
“The Middle East has started to ski and that is contributing significantly to the growth of Courchevel, because they [residents] don’t have that option locally,” explains Maria. “You can tell that [visitors from] Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are here from the license plates on the cars in town, because it’s the kind of customer who brings their car with them by plane. A few years ago, a Saudi family booked a hotel at the end of the season, which is in April, and stayed until the end of May, when most businesses are closed, just to see the snow melting.”
Moon Jiwon is a makeup artist from South Korea; she is visiting Courchevel because of the Moncler Grenoble show. She has already bought a jacket, but she’s not done — she is looking for snow shoes. “I love the variety of shops Courchevel has to offer,” she says.
Lawrence, a company director at an IT consultancy firm and Andy, a software engineer, are from England. This is their fifth time snowboarding in Courchevel. While in Courchevel, they are planning to visit all the snowboard stores, and perhaps some souvenir shops, too. “When at home, I mostly shop for sports equipment. And trainers and T-shirts I guess once a month,” says Andy.
Tina, Valerie and Adrienne are from Frankfurt and have come to visit to celebrate a friend’s 40th. While the rest of their party is skiing, they are shopping — mostly for jewellery. “I only shop when I travel,” says Valerie, who owns a real estate company, “because that’s only when I have the time. I do a lot of online shopping when I am at home. Mostly at Mytheresa or Net-a-Porter.”
Jay is a model from Milan, and Anna is a French fashion designer. Jay is taking part in the Moncler show later this evening, and Anna, who lives nearby, came to see him. They are shopping for Moon Boots in order “to complete the look”. “I think we will go to Fendi later to see some jackets and stuff,” says Jay. Anna, who grew up in the area, says the shopping offer has changed dramatically in recent years: “At the beginning, it was more like something for locals. But now, it’s become very touristic and international. There are people from Russia, Germany, China, Dubai... It’s changed a lot.”
Dutch supermodel Doutzen Kroes is walking the Moncler show. “I appreciate clothes, but as a typical Dutch, I don’t really shop,” she says. Her manager, Mo, chimes in: “I like shopping a bit more than Doutzen. I get her excited to actually swipe the credit card.”
“I actually get tempted in the duty-free airport area when I travel. I want all of these things all of a sudden, like the lip balm, or the lipstick, or the perfume,” Doutzen laughs.
City quirks
For Lainé, having a more international clientele brings a type of equilibrium to the area that has traditionally been run by local businesses. “We have people coming from all over the world now, including Europe and France, at different times of the year,” she says. “There is good local tourism in the summer — the place is beautiful and offers a respite from the heat. So Courchevel is quite important on the map now, and that brings a good balance in terms of business. The international visitors bring with them the big luxury brands, and that pushes us to constantly improve the experience and the level of service. But we also have a lot of businesses that are in between the middle and luxury range.”
That balance is best seen in Courchevel 1850, the highest village of Courchevel, where you will find a high concentration of hotels and luxury stores as well as shopping centres. The shopping hub of Courchevel 1850 runs along four streets — Rue de I’Église, Rue du Rocher, Rue de la Croisette and Rue des Clarines — which make up an even longer winding one, called Avenue Montagne. It is dotted with luxury boutiques and eateries, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Balenciaga, Dolce Gabbana and Hermès, as well as multi-brand high-end retailer Bernard Orcel. There are two shopping malls: Espace Diamant, which boasts 25 boutiques, devoted mostly to haute horlogerie and high jewellery, and Le Forum.
Le Forum resembles any other city mall you’ve ever visited. It includes luxury multi-brand boutiques Anarchic and Padischa, but also gift shops, ski shops and a children’s entertainment centre. Barbara Vincent, who has been living in Courchevel for over 30 years, opened Anarchic 17 years ago. She sees the value in the area’s growing status, but is also wrestling with it. “Courchevel, being a luxury resort, is great on one hand because it’s good for business,” she says. “On the other hand, it’s losing some of its character due to the megabrands that you can find anywhere else on the planet. It makes things challenging for us because they take up most of the market space and have incredible marketing and social power behind them. But I also think it’s boring for the customer. When I travel, I don’t look for the brands I can find anywhere else. I look to discover new brands.”
Bianca Ravaute established Padischa 28 years ago, after moving to Courchevel with her husband Jean Francois, who is a ski instructor. Ravaute has noticed that the Courchevel shopper is also becoming younger. “We had to adapt our buying strategy to fit their tastes, which are fun and relaxed — a lot of sneakers and jeans,” she says. “We were one of the first boutiques to bring luxury brands to Courchevel. Before they opened their own shops, we carried Dior, Fendi, Pucci, Balmain. When they established their own boutiques, we had to pivot the strategy. We don’t carry those brands anymore, but we do carry some newer luxury brands like Golden Goose and MC2 Saint Barth, which are our bestsellers, but also smaller brands like Bluebird, run by a French designer who does everything completely by hand.”
Maria from Maya Collection, however, thinks there is still quite a bit of space in the market for everyone. “People from Courchevel, they want to protect their market,” he explains. “Close to our new hotel, there is a famous brasserie. Everybody is trying to buy it — lots of famous people have made offers. But it’s belonged to a local man for 40 years now, who refuses to sell. At the same time, if you want to book a hotel room between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, there is a waiting list. And the same goes for pretty much the whole season. The prices have become crazy. So there is still room for more businesses to open.”
The other quirk standing in the way of a Courchevel business owner is the short season, which typically lasts from the beginning of December until mid-April. Vincent says: “If I had any advice for people wanting to set up their own boutique in Courchevel, I would say to work on their courage reserves. It’s very difficult if you aren’t a local or a big luxury brand that can move the stock between boutiques, because the rent is really high, but more importantly, you also need to have the right product at the right time. The season is so short, and we buy our stock in January in order to start selling in December [as opposed to mid-July/September].”
“Twenty years ago, we would close in May, but these days, by 10 April, we are usually done. We come back in the middle of July for the sales. There’s some tourism then, but it’s mostly families who go hiking, so they don’t have disposable amounts of cash,” adds Ravaute.
The only way to nail the short season is to focus on your customer service, says Maria. “You need to hire local people who understand how to behave with all sorts of customers — local and international — and meet their expectations,” he says. “A restaurant in Courchevel, for instance, needs to have two services: one from 12pm to 2pm, which is for families; and one from 2pm to 4pm, for the people who woke up late. The second load partied all night, and so when they arrive at 2pm, they want to eat and then party some more. And they have expectations in terms of the wine and champagne list, the entertainment and all sorts of other requests.”
Place your bets
Courchevel authorities are doing everything in their power to wrestle with nature and tackle the short season. While global warming has been making the seasons naturally shorter, snow in Courchevel is guaranteed because of the 2,494 cannons producing artificial snow to cover 50 per cent of the ski area. The ski-in, ski-out option offers maximum convenience, and the increasing tourism seems to have lit a fire in the hearts of business owners, old and new, to keep up with the times as well as one another. Finally, the upcoming 2030 Winter Olympics act as an additional catalyst, accelerating projects in infrastructure and visitor experience, like that of the redesign of the Chenus gondola station right in the heart of the 1850 snow front. If the Paris Olympics are anything to go by, the opportunity for brands to get involved is huge and so will be the footfall.
You might want to look for a plot of land in Courchevel soonish — especially if you own a hotel.
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