Monitoring and regulation of the attendance of hikers and paragliders

The sites of Planfai and the Col de la Forclaz, renowned for hiking and paragliding, are very popular all year round. To ensure the safety, management of flows and the preservation of these natural areas, the City of Talloires-Montmin has deployed two Kiomda counting boxes.

A tool to secure and manage tourist flows

The information collected is used by several actors:

The tourism service, to assess the attractiveness of the site and tourist attendance.
The town hall, to organize regulation and plan the necessary investments.
The prefecture, to adapt its safety recommendations according to the number of takeoffs.
Internal teams, to have accurate figures on visitor flows.

“Before, we had a barcode-based system, but it required paragliders to have their cards on them, which didn't work. With Kiomda, we have a clearer vision of flows and can estimate the proportion of hikers and paragliders.”

Secure, maintain and optimize access to sites

The data collected makes it possible to act on three major issues:

security — With a high number of takeoffs, accidents may increase. The town hall relies on these figures to follow the recommendations of the prefecture and anticipate the risks associated with overcrowding.
Preservation of the environment — The site is classified Natura 2000, which involves strict measures to limit the impact of human activities. Many paragliding companies operate there, and the city hall must set quotas to avoid excessive pressure on the ecosystem.
Access control — The site is not directly accessible by car. Shuttles from Doussard ensure the transport of visitors, and seasonal regulators are hired to control flows.

“All of this is both voluntary and mandatory for safety. We need to preserve the site while allowing it to be operated.”

Satisfaction and areas for improvement

With a note of 8/10, the town hall says it is satisfied with the system, even if some optimizations are being considered.

“We can always improve, but overall, we are satisfied.”

The main feedback concerns access to data.

“Before, we could follow the numbers in real time via an app, it was more convenient. Today, you have to go through the site, and with the poor network coverage up there, the loading time is longer. As a result, I consult the data less frequently.”

Seasonal management and prospects

The boxes are Uninstalled every winter and reinstalled from the April 1st. The infrastructure in place (pegs, fixings) allows quick return to service.

With regard to safety, anti-theft measures have been taken with the use of specific screws and a discreet installation, avoiding any deterioration or disappearance of the equipment.

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Points clés

Table des matières

Client

Contexte

The Col de la Forclaz is one of the first European paragliding takeoff sites and is among the busiest in the world. Thanks to its accessibility all year round and its exceptional panorama, it attracts paragliders from all over the world. In high season, up to 2,500 takeoffs can be recorded in a single day, depending on weather conditions. The municipality, faced with the challenges of security, management of tourist flows and environmental preservation, wanted to rely on a reliable and automatic counting system after the failure of a previous device based on bar code card control.

Prestation

Kiomda has supplied and maintains two pedestrian counting boxes installed on the Planfai and Col de la Forclaz sites. These devices, protected against vandalism, allow bi-directional monitoring of passages. The data, transmitted to the Kiomda Reports interface every 30 minutes, makes it possible to assess attendance and to estimate the proportion of hikers and paragliders according to the differences between the entries and exits of the sites.