On Location: “Stress-free fun”: Agents hit the French Alps with Club Med to drive all-inclusive ski sales

Perched in the heart of the French Alps, Club Med Peisey-Vallandry turns up the fun long before the ski lifts stop turning.

Every day at lunchtime, as skiers and snowboarders glide back from their morning lessons, the resort’s slope-side landing area transforms into an electrifying après-ski celebration.

Live music pulses through the mountain air while BBQ grills sizzle, snack stations bustle, and an open bar keeps the festive energy flowing. Live performers – G.Os, Club Med’s term for its energetic staff – dressed in glittery blazers, turn a snowy landing area into an alpine dance floor.

Each midday gathering becomes a fresh spectacle—part mountain retreat, part high-altitude party.

For Canadian travel professional Geoffrey Seymour, an Expedia Cruises franchise owner with full-service locations in Milton and Georgetown, ON, the scene represents something he had heard about for decades — but only recently experienced firsthand.

“Club Med has been around for a long, long time. I'm old enough to remember the commercials that were on TV,” said Seymour of the 76-year-old brand. “As a young adult, I never experienced Club Med, but once I got into the travel industry, the name kept popping up.”

Seymour was one of ten Canadian travel advisors who visited Club Med Peisey-Vallandry from March 1–8 on an active FAM designed to showcase the brand’s all-inclusive mountain product.

As previously reported, PAX was invited to join the trip, which was hosted by Tyler Mattioli, Club Med’s manager of new business development for Ontario and the Maritimes, alongside Cécile Chasseline, the company’s trade marketing manager for B2B business.

READ MORE: On Location: Ski, sip, repeat — PAX unpacks all-inclusive skiing with Club Med, agents in the French Alps

The week-long experience highlighted a key segment of Club Med’s portfolio: all-inclusive ski (and snowboard) resorts, which account for roughly one-third of the company’s more than 70 properties worldwide.

Located in France’s postcard-perfect Tarentaise Valley, Club Med Peisey-Vallandry, with wood-and-stone interiors, is a village (Club Med’s term for resorts) tucked into France’s iconic mountains.

The family-friendly resort, about two-and-a-half hours from Lyon, in a prime spot for ski-in, ski-out access, features 430 spacious chalet-style rooms across two easy-to-navigate buildings, with deluxe, superior and suite categories, including connecting rooms ideal for families.

Outside, sweeping views stretch across snow-covered peaks. Inside, a warm lodge and cabin-like atmosphere blends comfort with hot cocoa.

There are two restaurants – one marketplace buffet, La Vanoise, and an à la carte option serving local comfort food called La Pierra Menta. A heated swimming pool flows from indoors to out, as mountain peaks rise in the background.

What sets the experience apart is the all-inclusive simplicity.

Lift tickets, ski, snowboard (and snowshoe) lessons, meals, drinks and entertainment are all included at Club Med.

Even guided excursions through France’s massive Paradiski domain — one of the largest ski areas in the world with more than 420 kilometres of terrain — are part of the package.

The only thing not included is equipment, which can easily be rented onsite.

Beyond Cancun & Punta Cana

For Seymour, as an agency owner, it’s a concept that clicks.

“We like to align ourselves with products that offer value – and Club Med is that,” he said. “The product has been great for us. Our clients love it. Where we live, there’s a big skiing community, so the packaging is great." 

“Canadians love all-inclusives and we’re opening their eyes to the fact that there's more out there than Cancun and Punta Cana.”

Seymour’s introduction to Club Med’s ski product only came late last year when he was invited to participate in a FAM at Club Med Tignes, another ski property in the French Alps.

That experience left a lasting impression. “It was excellent in every way,” he said. “The logistics, the resort, the French Alps… it all speaks for itself. It’s stress-free fun.”

That trip, which was just last December, quickly translated into bookings.

“By January, I had group booked for the following year to go back,” he said.

For many Canadians, ski trips often mean heading to Western Canada or to the United States. But Seymour says the French Alps offer an entirely different experience — and one that can surprise clients.

“Where I live, a lot of people want to go to Whistler or down to Lake Tahoe. But there's a cost associated with that, which turns out to be more than what Club Med offers,” he said. “From Canada, the French Alps can sound like an exotic place, but it's actually really accessible.”

And the momentum hasn’t slowed. Seymour says he has already booked a second group for a ski vacation in 2027, crediting it all to the FAMs he’s participated in.

“When you actually experience a place, that's when you come home and get excited about it. And that excitement is contagious,” he said.

Club Med’s all-inclusive format simplifies what can otherwise be a complex ski vacation – and Peisey-Vallandry sets the right tone.

“For people that are familiar with Club Med, they will get what they expect. People who are less familiar can really get involved in what Club Med offers, as far as pre and post skiing, the in-resort experience, the dining, the G.O.s, the people that work here.”

“It’s a fun place, for everybody.”

Trade ocean for mountain

Club Med’s Tyler Mattioli has a straightforward way of introducing the brand’s ski offering to the travel trade.

“It’s like an all-inclusive in the Caribbean, but get rid of the ocean and add a mountain,” he said.

The key to selling ski vacations is simply letting customers know it’s an option, he explained.

“Once you understand your clients’ preferences—whether they want family-friendly, or something adult-oriented, and what kind of elevation they want—it comes naturally,” he said.

And it’s a segment that’s carving up the slope.

Ever since the 2021 opening of Club Med Québec Charlevoix, Canada's first Club Med, located about an hour from Quebec City, more Canadians have discovered what it's like to ski, the all-inclusive way, and are expanding their horizons. 

“Every year we do the ski and snowboard show in Toronto, and at first all we heard about was Charlevoix,” Mattioli said. “Now we’re seeing those same faces going to other Club Med ski properties, like Japan, where we have four resorts.”

“They started at Charlevoix a few years ago, and now they’re skiing all over the world with us. It's a massive halo effect.”

A first-timers perspective

Unlike Seymour, Katelyn Gilbert, a travel coordinator at Britt & Co. Travel from Collingwood, ON, is at the very beginning of her travel career.

She joined the industry just seven months ago, and Club Med Peisey-Vallandry not only represented her first time visiting a Club Med, but also her first-ever FAM.

“The all-inclusive luxury in their resorts caught my eye,” Gilbert said, explaining why she applied for a spot on the trip.

Gilbert also just happens to be a pro skier, first hitting the slopes when she was just two years old. And she lives in a ski-obsessed town.

“There’s such a great community at Club Med,” she said, sharing her first impressions. “It's such a good culture.”

That culture is visible everywhere at the resort.

On one of many theme nights, guests will wear “45” shirts — branded merchandise first introduced in 1995 to celebrate Club Med’s 45th anniversary and still very popular today.

At lunch, and during the evening, the resort’s signature “Crazy Signs” group dances sessions bring guests and staff together in lively celebrations that feel equal parts party and tradition.

Gilbert has visited traditional all-inclusive resorts before, but said her stay at Club Med felt different (in a good way).

“It’s a different world,” she said. “The staff are so welcoming, the vibe is always high. Your days are filled with so much to do…you’re never bored.”

Speaking as a skier, Gilbert said the scale of the French Alps was the biggest revelation.

“I started skiing at two years old. I live in Collingwood, I’m able to ski at Blue Mountain on the weekends,” she said. “But coming to the Alps, for the first time, was completely different. It’s mind blowing, honestly. The views are wild. The hills are never ending.”

The ski-in, ski-out convenience of Club Med adds another layer of appeal.

“The fact you come back after a day skiing and you're at this beautiful resort…It's very satisfying,” she said.

For advisors like Gilbert who live among ski people, the sales potential feels obvious.

“Where I live, everyone's a skier,” she said. “I know so many friends who go on these trips to get away from the Ontario snow…And they want to do an all-inclusive trip." 

“I can definitely see people in my community going on a trip like this.”

Make some noise

FAM trips – and the community engagement that follows – are among the best ways to boost Club Med sales, said Cécile Chasseline, sharing a B2B perspective during a training session that was held for the group.  

Club Med is also open to partnering with travel advisors and agencies that collaborate with influencers by, for example, covering airfare in exchange for promoting the agency’s services and resort experience.

Marlin Travel, part of Transat Distribution Canada (TDC), is just one of the latest agencies to work with a content creator in such a way.

“The best way to sell Club Med is to post about it on social media and make a lot of noise in your community,” Chasseline said.

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