“At a Crossroads: Navigating the Impact of Tourism Growth in Lourmarin”

“What have I done? What must I do again? What transport seizes me? What sorrow devours me?” At a crossroads after several decades of powerful tourist growth, the choices facing the municipality of Lourmarin evoke Hermione’s dilemma. Should we still give in to the bewitching sirens of high-end tourism in the Luberon which is pushing the village into a spiral of “always more”? Or is it time to suspend grand designs, car parks and new luxury establishments, muffled, sparkling and voracious, to rediscover the simple and discreet pleasures of a village life that is dissolving in the great tourist tide?

For several months, a new association has intended to take up this debate, which has never really been raised by successive leaders, to bring it to the public square. “Vivre à Lourmarin”, that’s its name, was formed in reaction, and not in opposition, to new large-scale development projects on the scale of the village: the extension of the hotel Le Galinier , which plans to double its capacity with around forty additional rooms, the creation of a new luxury establishment in the heart of the city (La Fontaine…) and, on the edge of it, three new car parks (for a total of 750 places) which would replace meadows and agricultural land (some of them irrigated) in order to absorb the ever-increasing flow of visitors.

200 people for the first public meeting

An initiative welcomed with interest by the inhabitants, judging by the 200 people who came to attend the first public meeting of “Vivre à Lourmarin” which, with its 150 members, already brings together more than 15% of the population. “The municipality seems to move forward in an autonomous and disconnected way with a vision centered on economic and tourist development without being interested in the living environment of the inhabitants.“, estimates Stéphane Buffet, one of the three founders of the association.

Cécile Avril goes further: “The more tourism develops, the more the choices made are to the detriment of the people who live there year-round. We don’t have a crèche, the post office has just closed, but we are going to have new luxury hotels. We want to question this model that is presented to us as immutable, to collect the words of the inhabitants and to bring another vision, respectful of the environment but dynamic at the same time.“

More second homes and fewer inhabitants

Today, the figures are eloquent. After three decades of unbridled development of tourism, the town dear to Albert Camus which prances in the rankings of the “most beautiful villages in France” has lost inhabitants at the rate of -1.4% per year when the department continued to gain. .

Rising to 1,120 souls at the turn of the 2000s, the population fell back to around a thousand and, while 40% of housing in Lourmarin are second homes (Insee, 2019), living there has become difficult to afford for young households who prefer to settle in the less popular surrounding municipalities. “We are gaining tourists and losing inhabitants and there is a growing difference between our standard of living and theirs. It will be necessary to show us the interest for the inhabitants of Lourmarin of these projects. We are going to be told that this creates jobs, but we do not believe it. Luxury hotels recruit trained bilingual people, these are not necessarily skills that can be found locally. And the difficulties in finding accommodation in the municipality mean that they most often settle elsewhere“, criticize the leaders of “Vivre à Lourmarin”.

Traffic, nuisances, water consumption

In addition to their contribution to a phenomenon of distortion of the village spirit, the establishment of new luxury establishments coupled with those of vast car parks to absorb the flow of vehicles that they induce produces a certain number of nuisances: traffic, noise pollution , light, overconsumption of water in the dry season… “A luxury hotel guest can consume up to 1,500 liters per day if we consider indirect uses such as watering gardens, spas, swimming pools, laundry. Like explaining to people afterwards that during droughts, do they have to stop watering their lawn?they continue.

Reassured by the unfavorable opinion on which concluded the public inquiry for the revision of the PLU aiming to authorize these various projects, Cécile Avril, Stéphane Buffet and Janet Mead do not wish to lock themselves into a sterile opposition. They want above all to outline, with the inhabitants, another desirable future for Lourmarin around projects likely to attract young workers. “Saturation will sooner or later put an end to this “all-tourism” development model, let’s avoid falling into it definitively”plead the three leaders of “Vivre à Lourmarin” who promise new meetings with the inhabitants in the coming months.

Pins

The department of Vaucluse has more than 107,000 commercial tourist beds, 38% of which are furnished, 30% in campsites and only 16% in traditional hotels.

In 2022, 4 million tourists came to discover the department (including 40% foreigners) for a total of 23 million overnight stays.

The tourist basin of the Luberon is the largest of the four in the Vaucluse: it alone represents 1/3 of the total number of visitors (7.8 million overnight stays) ahead of Ventoux (27%) and Grand Avignon (25%). ).

Top 10 municipalities

(by their tourist density: number of beds in relation to the population)

1 – Castellet-en-Luberon (282%)

2 – Gordes (193 %)

3 – Beaumettes (182%)

4 – Murs (180 %)

5 – Crested (164 %)

6 – Beaumont-du-Ventoux (153%)

7 – Bonnieux (152 %)

8 – Joucas (146 %)

9 – Bedoin (140 %)

10 – Crillon-le-Brave (132%)