Winter Tourism: European Countries Fail to Agree on Reopening of Skiing Resorts Amid COVID-19
With the snow season ahead, and in the middle of the second wave of the deadly pandemic that has hit the whole world this year, the European countries famous for their skiing spots have found themselves in a dilemma.
Keeping the resorts closed means losing the financial profit of the whole winter touristic season, and put at risks thousands of businesses and jobs, for the sake of avoiding the risks of an increased number of COVID-19 cases.
On the other hand, opening the resorts amid an already high number of COVID-19 cases that are being marked in each EU member at present, means risking for the situation to deteriorate even to a point where total lockdowns would become a must once again.
Any attempt to coordinate the response between the Member States has failed so far, with Austria and Switzerland intending to not let the season slip off their hands, while France, Germany and Italy plan to keeps the skiing resorts shut.
Germany, Italy & France Plan to Keep the Resorts Shut
Germany, not only plans to keep its own ski slopes closed, but it also intends to convince the other EU member to do the same, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested last week.
“The ski season is approaching… We will try to reach an agreement in Europe on whether we could close all ski resorts,” she said to the German Parliament.
Markus Söder, Bavaria’s State Premier supported Merkel in her bid, insisting that Europe is not at a point where it can allow “classic ski holidays.”
“I would prefer to have a common agreement on a European level: no ski lifts open, no holidays anywhere,” he said.
The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has also called on the EU governments to keep the ski slopes shut, afraid that if other countries do not shut theirs, Italians might head in other EU countries for their skiing holidays.
“If Italy decided to shut down all its ski lifts without any support from France, Austria and the other countries, then Italian tourists would risk going abroad and taking the contagion back home,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also supports the idea of putting the winter holiday season at a halt and has already decided for France’s ski slopes to stay closed until early next year.
Yet, Prime Minister Jean Castex has noted that people would not be prohibited to visit the resorts at the French mountains, they would just be unable to ski.
Austria & Switzerland to Permit Ski Slopes to Open
Austria on the meantime will most surely permit ski slopes to reopen after its Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria called the efforts to coordinate the closing of ski resorts “exaggerated.”
Kurz’s attempts to keep the resorts are quite understandable given the fact that winter tourism added €14.9 billion to Austria’s budget last year. Austrian Finance Minister Gernot Blümel has even pointed out that a shutdown would cost Austrian resorts up to €2 billion, as evaluated by experts.
It is estimated that there are about seven million skiers from Germany that each year travel to Austria for skiing holidays. Yet, the numbers may drop this year as all travellers reaching Germany from Austria are obliged to self-quarantine for ten days, something not all skiing-lovers could afford to go through.
Switzerland also plans to keep the ski resorts open by obliging people to keep wearing their masks and to keep the required distance from each other. The latter has recently lifted quarantine requirements for people arriving from most of the continent and is expecting an influx of European tourists over Christmas.
“In Switzerland, we can go skiing, with protection plans in place,” Health Minister Alain Berset said last week.
While some other EU countries as Bulgaria were hoping for a recommendation of the Commission on the issue, Brussels has noted that “this is not a European competence,” leaving the choice to national governments.
