Ski resorts abroad: skiing is not only allowed in Switzerland

Today, the Federal Council decides on crown restrictions on winter sports destinations. What is valid abroad? An overview.

Simon Widmer

Posted today at 6:00 am

“Everything is skiing”, that no longer applied in the days of Corona. After Ischgl in Austria became a Virus spinner Winter sports resorts fight for their reputations, in Switzerland and abroad. Queuing at the ski lifts, the pressure on the gondolas and the fun on the après-ski: from an epidemiological point of view, everything is very problematic. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and German Chancellor Angela Merkel want to close Europe’s ski resorts. Elsewhere, people are looking for ways to make winter sports Corona compatible, including in Switzerland. Don’t be pressured from the outside, said Health Minister Alain Berset. Switzerland is not alone in its journey. This is shown in an overview of eight countries inside and outside of Europe.

Austria: locals only

“Ski fun, yes, but without après-ski”, as Chancellor Sebastian Kurz describes in the Austrian style. The ski slopes open on December 24, but hotels and restaurants will remain until January 7. For Austrians, it is quite possible to take a day trip to Lech or Kitzbühel in the week of the old year, but without the associated fun in bars and restaurants.

Austria is currently out of the question for tourists to Switzerland. In addition to the lack of overnight accommodation, this is also guaranteed by new, stricter quarantine rules: Austria imposes a ten-day quarantine obligation on all people entering from Corona’s risk areas, including Switzerland, from 19 December to January 10.

The Austrian style is a classic compromise. On the one hand, politicians have to show that they learned something after the Superspreader event in Ischgl. On the other hand, as in Switzerland, the ski areas have pushed hard and pushed for an opening for economic reasons.

Germany: Merkel wants a ban across Europe

Skiing in the Black Forest or Garmisch-Partenkirchen is probably not possible for a long time. Last Wednesday, Germany extended the partial lockdown until January 10, 2021. Hotels and restaurants will remain closed until then. The winter sports areas will also be closed for the time being. Most of the ski areas are in Bavaria, where particularly strict crown rules apply. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is a hardliner in the crown and a spokesman in the skiing dispute. Recently, it de facto made day trips to Austria and Switzerland for Bavarian winter sports fans impossible: even those who return to Bavaria the same day must be quarantined for 10 days.

Looking ahead to the winter holidays, German Chancellor Angela Merkel even spoke in favor of closing all ski areas in Europe: “We will try to vote in Europe on whether we can close all ski areas,” Merkel said in the Bundestag. German. However, Switzerland and Austria have already opposed the requested ski lock.

France: open ski areas, closed ski lifts

French President Emmanuel Macron would also prefer a pan-European ski lockdown. An opening is conceivable in January at the earliest, according to Macron. France, which was badly affected by the first and second corona waves, absolutely wants to avoid massive pollution like in Ischgl.

Last week, its head of government, Jean Castex, made it clear what rules will apply until then: French ski areas may open during the Christmas holidays, but the ski lifts will remain closed. As everywhere in France, restaurants and bars in the ski areas will also be closed until at least January 20. So everyone can “benefit from the fresh air in our beautiful mountains,” Castex said.

The French shouldn’t be able to benefit from the fresh air in Switzerland. Emmanuel Macron does not want to allow French winter sports enthusiasts to travel to Switzerland to ski. It has already announced “restrictive and dissuasive measures” to prevent the French from crossing the border into other countries such as Spain and, above all, Switzerland.

Italy: “We can’t afford that”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is a strong advocate of blocking ski slopes in Europe. In Italy, ski holidays during the festive season will not be possible. “We can’t afford that,” Conte said in a television interview in late November. He previously warned that the holiday season should not become the prelude to a third crown wave.

Of course, there is also a contradiction. The president of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, advocates according to the German «Tagesschau»For a solution that would correspond almost exactly to the Austrian approach: ski lifts open, bars and restaurants closed. The famous Sestriere ski area is located in Piedmont.

The easy Swiss course, of course, has been registered in Italy. The president of the Italian Health Council, Franco Locatelli, called Switzerland’s decision to open ski areas “disappointing”. As Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga announced on Twitter, there was also a debate with Giuseppe Conte.

Slovenia: waiting for the EU

Slovenia is also a ski nation. The most famous here are the Kranjska Gora and Maribor areas, which host World Cup races. The Balkan state has not yet decided if it wants to open the ski resorts during the holiday season. According to the “Total Slovenia News” website, they will first wait to see if the European Union will publish a recommendation on this. “We are completely defenseless and we have to wait for the government’s decision,” Manuela Bozic Badalic, director of the Slovenian ski lift operator, tells “Total Slovenia News”. However, national crown restrictions would first have to be relaxed to have fun skiing. There is currently a ban on public transport in the country that would also apply to gondolas in ski areas.

Spain: no national ski blockade

Spain is also participating in the European ski dispute. French Prime Minister Jean Castex informed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that he should close his country’s ski resorts. Some of them are: Sierra Nevada in Andalusia, Spanish Pyrenees, Cantabrian Mountains in Asturias and Galicia in the north of the country. Sánchez told Castex that it was up to the regions to decide on winter sports. There is no national ski lock.

The tourist association of the Spanish ski domains has already announced that they want to make winter sports possible. With caps at restaurants, a partial smoking ban, and sanitizer dispensers, skiing and snowboarding must be Corona compliant. The Baqueira Beret ski area in the Spanish Pyrenees has already announced that it will open on December 11. However, for the first time, ski areas should only attract local tourists who live nearby. National travel is restricted in various regions of Spain.

USA: Ski areas are now open

Winter sports are almost certainly not an issue for which President Donald Trump is a priority. Crown restrictions in ski areas are not a national problem. Ski areas regulate with the respective federal states how Corona compliant skiing should be implemented. Large areas like Mammoth Lakes in California or Aspen and Beaver Creek in Colorado are already open. the Crown rules they are definitely comparable to those being considered in Switzerland: social distancing, mask requirement on gondolas and in queues, hand washing and disinfection facilities, reduced capacity in stores.

Japan: small-scale winter sports

More than 500 ski resorts, host country for two Winter Olympics (Sapporo 1972, Nagano 1998): Japan is a winter sports paradise, which this year is exercising modesty. There is still a strict entry ban for foreign tourists. With most of the guests in some of the large areas coming from abroad, several resorts have greatly reduced their operations and postponed the start of the season. Some areas were already opened in November; The internationally popular Grand Harifu, which is located on the northern island of Hokkaido, is scheduled to start this weekend.

Crown restrictions are prominently listed on most resort websites. A look at the safety rules of large areas (for example here Y here) sample: The ski resorts in Japan behave in an absolutely exemplary way: temperature measurements in hotels, Plexiglas glass in restaurants, online ticket sales to avoid queues, upper limits for gondolas.

Posted today at 6:00 am