• fr
  • en

The Alpine Pearls: a car-free mobility experience for your holidays

   The Alpine Pearls initiative aims to set up innovative tourism offers that respect the environment. The network currently has 25 villages (known as “Pearls”) scattered across Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Switzerland, six Alpine countries. The principle is to offer a total car-free mobility experience at the holiday resort, with shuttle services, hiking and ski buses, taxis, electric cars, bicycles and electric bicycles.

The origin of the project

Founded in 2006, “Alpine Pearls” is the result of the Alps Mobility I and II, both European INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Programme projects, that aims at running and developing a network of sustainable tourist resorts in the Alpine region. The resorts/villages that participate in the project are part of a sustainable development approach encouraging sustainable modes of transport, protection of the environment and tourism quality.

How does it work?

All villages member of the “Alpine Pearls” network fulfill demanding quality criteria and combine their tourist offer with the pleasure of respecting the environment. Each Pearl implements environmentally friendly leisure offers, such as shuttle buses, hiking buses, ski buses, taxis, electric cars, bicycles and electric bicycles.  Visitors can purchase a guest or mobility card that entitles them to use public transport for free and to help the functioning of the eco-mobility service available on site.
As a result, the city centers have little or no traffic and mobility is guaranteed by transfer services. Everything is made for visitors not to use their car.

A new form of travel contributing to the respect of the environment.

Results for the Pearls villages member of the project:

Although it is not easy to draw statistics to determine if the tourists are attracted by the initiative or not, Pearls village see an increase in the number of new and additional tourists.

  • Many Pearls villages see an increase in the number of tourists arriving due to their membership at the Alpine Pearls project;
  • There is a growing number of guests using public transport and using soft mobility;
  • All Pearls villages improve their offer for sustainable mobility constantly.

Results for the Alpine Pearls project:

In ten years, the number of Pearls destinations has increased from 17 destinations in 2006 to 25 destinations in 2017. Moreover, the project has developed itself and has several positive impacts:

  • The Alpine Pearls project received several prices and awards worldwide and is taken as an example, the coordinators have presented, so far, the project at more than 200 conference on sustainability worldwide;
  • The Alpine Pearls organise Alpine Crossings which are long haul press trips climate neutral through the Alps. Up to 2017, the project had organised 3 Alpine Crossings gathering more than 100 journalists;
  • The Alpine Pearls’ website offer 450 holiday packages online available in 4 languages;
  • The project developed a project “Alpine Pearls hosts“, a network of soft-mobility-hotels which gathers 80 hotels at the moment.

For more information, please visit the Alpine Pearls website (the website is available in English, French, German, Italian and Slovenian)

Share
3 October 2017

Euromontana sur Facebook

5 days ago

Euromontana
Today, members of the Rural Pact Coordination Group (RPCG) meet online to discuss: • The forthcoming RPCG Declaration on the future of EU rural policy, which addresses the open questions in the @European Commission’s ‘key achievements and ways forward’ report;• RPCG members’ position papers on the future of Europe’s rural areas;• RPCG members’ role in the Rural Pact Conference of April 2025;• Members’ actions to date & the Rural Pact Support Office 2025 work programme.More information at: bit.ly/4fwtjnS#RuralPact #RuralVisionEU ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

6 days ago

Euromontana
📢 #CallForProposals: you can now submit proposals for the #InternationalMountainConference!The international conference dedicated to #MountainResearch is taking place from 14-18 September 2025 in #Innsbruck. It is being organised by the Research Area “Mountain Regions” at the Universität Innsbruck ⛰️🇦🇹📝 The #IMC is currently looking for proposals focusing on scientific research in #MountainRegions around the world. There are six formats to choose from, including plenary sessions and workshops - find out more and submit your proposal by 28 November: loom.ly/ntncy_M ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

2 weeks ago

Euromontana
We're at the #Gismart project Kick Off meeting in Paris today to share guidelines on communication, dissemination and exploitation of results 💡For the next two days, we will discuss the following steps to assess the sustainability of geographical indications all over Europe, including in the mountains ⛰️🌱🚜👩‍🌾 How to transition to more sustainable diet systems ? 🌱 How to implement the Farm to Fork Strategy?🥩🧀 how to develop a methodology to assess economic, social, environnemental dimensions of GIs sustainability?Pleased to be working on this key topic with INRAE and to continue collaboration with AREPO! More info on GI-SMART 🔗 www.euromontana.org/gi-smart/ ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

3 weeks ago

Euromontana
🌄 A week ago, we were opening the #MountainConvention2024 in the stunning Catalan Pyrenees! 🏔️✨ 250 mountain stakeholders came together in Puigcerdà to shape the #MountainEconomies of tomorrow! 💬 In the face of socio-economic, environmental, and demographic transitions, our economies must become 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 than ever! 💪🌱From fair remuneration of farmers & ecosystem services, to funding for the transition of mountain resorts, circular economy development for wool and wood products, support for entrepreneurship and interesting public procurement or taxes systems ... all a huge thank you to everyone for your energy and ideas! 🙌 These will be captured in the 𝐏𝐮𝐢𝐠𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐚̀ 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, which will be presented on 11 December on International Mountain Day 📜🏔️🔜 Presentations and materials will soon be available! A special thank you to our co-organisers Territori. Generalitat de Catalunya. and CREAF, as well as our supporters Ajuntament de Puigcerdà , #NEMOR Network for European Mountain Research, European Rural Pact 🙏 ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

Euromontana sur Twitter