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– We were not sure whether we should laugh or cry when we made the decision, says Gunvor Ljosland.
– We choose to laugh.
She is the general manager of the Ljosland ski center in Åseral in Agder. The company had requested NOK 180,500 from the NOK 250 million government crisis package for the maintenance of the ski lifts.
Ljosland was promised NOK 1,011, or just over 0.5% of the requested amount.
Led behind the light
Tyin Filefjell is the gateway to Jotunheimen from the south, halfway between eastern and western Norway.
Managing Director Morten Odden requested NOK 326,000 from the maintenance plan.
– Almost two weeks ago, the answer came from Innovation Norway. We only received around 25,000, without any justification. I immediately said no to money. There are very strict requirements with auditor approval and so forth. It will cost us more than the support we could get, he says.
– A compensation was visualized to the industry that would cover our legal maintenance costs. When we receive less than ten percent compensation after treatment, we have gone astray. The criteria must be adjusted. So many exceptions and conditions have been made that they are obviously practiced with the consequence that you receive almost no compensation. It is really provocative. There must be something terribly wrong here, he thinks.
General manager Morten Odden at Tyin-Filefjell development says it is really sparked after receiving eight percent of what it requested from the government’s crisis package for the ski lift industry. (Photo: Private)
Innovation Norway received 82 applications and has awarded grants of just over 10 million crowns for the maintenance of ski lifts and just over 6 million for amusement parks and amusement parks. The total sum is therefore NOK 16 million out of the NOK 250 million limit.
Secretary of State Lucie Katrine Sunde-Eidem (V) from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry writes in an email to DN that the NOK 250 million limit was based on input from the industry and now it turns out that the need is much less.
– Therefore, a total payment of NOK 16 – 20 million is expected from Innovation Norway. (…) Frame utilization has been reduced because legal maintenance costs have proven to be much lower than previously thought, and because many applicants lost a much smaller portion of their seasonal turnover than previously thought, he writes and you think the schema has worked properly.
Now the rest of the money goes back to the treasury.
– Conditions that are bad
Camilla Sylling Clausen, Secretary General of the National Ski Resort Association, was very pleased this summer when she was able to present the ski resort support scheme.
The secretary general of the National Association of Ski Resorts, Camilla Sylling Clausen, reacts strongly to the fact that the criteria for receiving money from the crisis package have become much stricter than the industry assumed (Photo: Ida von Hanno Bast )
– We are very grateful. But now we see that there is something very wrong with the conditions of the schematic. It is not true that the need is much less than what we reported; it’s the criteria that make the payments so low. We have always believed that it should be possible to seek compensation for the total costs of necessary maintenance of the facilities and not only by law. If the industry had been compensated for this, the picture would have been completely different, he says.
– When only 82 of the 200+ ski resorts have been nominated, it says a lot about how narrow the eye of the needle is. When we now see that only a marginal part of the 250 million kronor framework is being used, we must be able to say that the plan has failed, he says.
Odd Stensrud is the managing director of Alpinco, the company that owns the ski resorts in Kvitfjell and Hafjell, among other places. He was also happy with the crisis package this summer. It is not anymore.
– The criteria are so narrow and bureaucratic that they strongly limit who can apply for the scheme. The scheme can only be characterized as a belly punch and a pure disco boom. The government has promised the funds, but in reality it is completely impossible to get them out. The government was clear that our industry was very vulnerable and therefore needed funds for specific purposes. If the government’s strategy has been to create a complicated scheme to be able to withdraw the money later, then it is all just a gallery game, Stensrud believes.
Odd Stensrud, CEO of Alpinco, believes that the whole crisis package for the Alpine industry is a real breeze. (Photo: Thomas Kleiven)
No thanks
No ski resort has received anything similar to what was requested. Skistar, which owns the facilities in Hemsedal and Trysil, is at the top with an allocation of 22 percent of the requested amount. Hafjell and Kvitfjell have been promised 16 percent, the Nesbyen Ski Center 10 percent and Kongsberg 8 percent.
And that’s Gunvor Ljosland at Ljosland Ski Center, who can get a little over 0.5 percent.
– We will not accept the grant. It will cost us much more than SEK 1011 to get the accountant to document all the required figures. But it is a great pity that this plan has become like this. The alpine industry is very important for tourism in Norway. Like the rest of the industry, we had a heavy loss of revenue due to the crown. We are talking about an entire industry that is bleeding. And he believes that the need for maintenance support before next season is certainly huge.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
