Municipalité de Saint-Maurice (Municipality of Saint-Maurice)
St-Maurice is one of the pilot cases
Dicastčre Economie & Tourisme (Department Economy & Tourism)
Responsible for all what concerns Economy & Tourism in the municipality
WP6 economic development.
A real coordination for each WP 5-8 is needed. Exchanges via e-mail and phone + specific discussion during the PSG meetings should permit this coordination.
Already mentioned in the SSC guidelines (draft).
St-Maurice www.st-maurice.ch is a municipality; it is the smaller administrative level existing in Switzerland. A Swiss municipality has various competencies, for instance regarding economic development, tourism, culture, water management, etc. This task are generally managed in coordination with the 2 other levels of the Swiss federalism (cantonal and national levels).
The whole territory of Saint-Maurice can be considered as mountainous; the town is located in the Swiss Rhône plain (400 m. of altitude).
Saint-Maurice is located in the canton of Valais (South of Switzerland); surface 718 ha; 3800 inhabitants.
Number of inhabitants in the canton of Valais: 280'000 (approximately the half one century ago); surface: about 5000 ha www.vs.ch.
Name of the case project: Future & Tourism Saint-Maurice
Administrative area involved: Department Economy & Tourism of the municipality of St-Maurice
St-Maurice = 3800 inhabitants (almost no demographic changes for the last 30 years).
Not relevant for St-Maurice which is a municipality
Traditional employers such as the army or the Swiss railway company have suppressed a lot of jobs this last decade and the municipality want to attract small and middle enterprises and to develop tourist activities.
St-Maurice is also playing the role of "centre" for the surrounding villages
The whole canton of Valais (region) is in the mountains; the Valais identity is relatively homogenous and the mountainous culture is an important part of this identity and is positively connoted.
There are different national legislations concerning directly or indirectly the mountains areas in Switzerland (regional policy, tourism policy, transports policy, agriculture policy, etc.). One of these legislations is specifically dedicated to the mountains areas (Loi sur l'aide aux investissements dans les régions de montagne).
These legislations should help the mountain regions to be competitive in comparison to the urban centres. At the moment there is a political discussion regarding the need to adapt theses legislations (in a context of financial problems for the Swiss government)