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(CNN) – France’s recent decision to close the ski lifts due to Covid fears will have been a disappointment to many winter sports enthusiasts. For Catherine Jullien-Breches, it was devastating enough to make her cry.
“I had tears in my eyes, I felt so helpless,” Jullien-Breches, mayor of the exclusive Alpine resort town of Megeve, told CNN.
The closures, announced last month by President Emmanuel Macron, dashed all hopes that France’s ski resorts will open for the normally busy Christmas period, a move that will bring in billions in lost revenue from the tourism industry.
With other Alpine nations, Italy, Germany and Austria, following suit, Europe’s top mountain destinations will go silent. Its snowy slopes are largely undisturbed by the usual click of skis and snowboards.
And yet, just 60 miles from Megeve, in the same mountains, the slopes remain open for business. In the Swiss mountain town of Verbier, chairlifts will continue to take people to the vast 4 Valleys ski area.
Bars and restaurants will continue to have customers to drink their mulled wine and eat their fondue.
Few in Europe’s ski industry will forget the experiences of last winter, when the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl was, for a time, regarded as the continent’s Covid ground zero.
Desperate for help
But, the question of those affected by the closures is, if it is safe for Switzerland to open its tracks, why is it not safe for other countries?
In Megeve, the ski lift closures will mean a loss of eight million euros (almost 10 million dollars). And, says Jullien-Breches, for every euro lost on the slopes, another seven will be lost in the town’s hotels, restaurants and bars.
Many local businesses, he fears, simply will not survive.
“I wish I could do something, but we will not be able to support those companies that really need our help.”
On November 30, a rare protest took place in the normally affluent center of Megeve. But, like their mayor, the locals know that there is little they can do.
Michel Cugier, who runs the ski lifts in Megeve, had been preparing to open with social distancing measures to ensure a safe season. Instead, it is preparing to lay off most of its 250 seasonal employees.
“It’s really unfair,” Cugier said. “He had worked on the Covid protocol measures and was really looking forward to us opening.”
Ten million visitors flock to France each year to ski, generating € 10 billion and employing 120,000 people, according to the industry body Domaines Skiables.
Learned lessons
Other French resorts have also seen protests against the decision. In nearby Bourg-Saint-Maurice, protesters wore symbols of broken hearts to express their frustration at the blanket ban and called on the government to save their jobs.
His anger was further compounded by the opening of resorts across the border in Switzerland.
The decisions to close tracks in Germany, France, Italy and Austria were not easy. Austria originally announced its intention to go ahead with the season, but eventually gave in to pressure from its EU partners, albeit with the exception of opening ski lifts to local residents on Christmas Eve.
The aim of the decision, as Europe continues to fight its second Covid-19 wave, is to avoid the kind of grouping that Ischgl in Austria became synonymous with during the first.
But the cost threatens to be substantial. Every year, skiing in Europe generates 34 billion euros in revenue, half of the world’s total, according to Laurent Vanat, a consultant to the ski industry.
In Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, Laurent Vaucher, the director of the Verbier ski lifts, said that much had been learned since health officials identified Ischgl as a key part of the first European wave of Covid.
“We had no new measures,” he told CNN.
“We didn’t have masks, we didn’t have social distancing, so now the game is different and we’re pretty confident that we can do the work to keep the ski resorts safe.”
‘Saving winter’
At Verbier, skiers must now wear masks on the lifts. There are regulated queues with social distancing and fewer people are allowed access to the cable cars.
Measurements here are not only taken on the slopes, but also in the village, where masks will be a must during the holiday period. Local leaders say they are working hard to make sure nothing is left to chance.
“For us, it’s not just about saving the Christmas holidays, it’s about saving winter,” said Simon Wiget, Verbier’s Director of Tourism.
“And it is to save our reputation because we know that everyone is watching us and if we make a mistake and because of that mistake there is a group, we will be seen as a bad organization.”
Coronavirus infections in Switzerland are on the rise, and as of Saturday the country plans to ban almost all public events and impose further restrictions on private gatherings.
“The situation in the crown is deteriorating markedly,” the Swiss government spokesman tweeted on Tuesday.
“The intensive care units are very busy and the health workers are exhausted,” André Simonazzi said.
With hospital beds in Switzerland practically full of Covid patients, the pressure on the country’s resorts is now to offer the most cluster-free holiday season possible.
Even more so under the watchful eye of its neighbors, who have had to introduce travel restrictions to prevent their own citizens from crossing the border to enjoy the Swiss slopes.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Covid has closed the ski season in the Alps, with one exception”
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