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Pending dispute
Chancellor Kurz takes action: Austria sends Swiss ski tourists to quarantine
The ski slopes of Austria’s winter sports resorts should remain open, but hotels must close. The new rules for immigrants also affect Swiss tourists.
There should be no such meetings in Ischgl this season. Therefore: ski, yes; Catering and lodging, no.
In the ski dispute between Austria and especially Germany and Italy, Vienna creates a fait accompli. It is a commitment that could not be more Austrian. In short: ski, yes; Catering and lodging, no.
Ski areas may open, restaurants, but especially hotels and pensions, remain closed during Christmas. Skiing becomes fun for day visitors. And to underline this: far-reaching quarantine regulations will apply to those who enter Austria from next week. Without exception, all who enter from a state where the incidence is greater than 100 must be isolated. You can only do a “free trial” of this situation after five days. This not only applies to EU countries, but also to Switzerland.
Unfair campaign against winter sports and ski holidays
The Vienna government thus complies with the minimum requirements of cable car operators. More recently, in an almost threatening tone, they called for the ski operation to be opened. Cable car lobbyist and National Council member Franz Hörl (ÖVP) identified an “unfair campaign against winter sports and ski holidays.” Winter tourism and cable cars should not be “unjustifiably victims of a mood-creating crown policy.”
Ski tourism constitutes a large part of the added value
In the end, the matter had become a matter of principle: even if there were major losses and only local guests came, they wanted to open up, so Hörl. His argument: It is about saving the regions economically. Because ski tourism actually represents a large part of the local added value in the affected areas. And last but not least, much of the investments in these regions are based on loans that need to be paid off.
Skiing is becoming a ‘party-free zone’, as Hörl puts it when asked. But there are doubts about that. Because there is already talk of providing mountain skiers with a minimum amount of food. And “minimum size” is a flexible term. Hüttenzauber has been canceled, but this does not rule out punch bliss at the newsstand. “And who should verify that and punish the violations? “The town cop?”
The number of new infections remains high
On Wednesday, the Vienna government announced how things should go beyond ski holidays next Monday. The hard lockdown has lowered the numbers, but the incidence remains 335 and the number of new infections each day remains worryingly high.
The easing that will be applied from next Monday is also quite modest. Only schools are returning to face-to-face classes and retail is reopening, but subject to conditions such as access restrictions. All body-friendly services, from hair salons to massage parlors, are prohibited until further notice. In fact, this corresponds to a return to the blocking light that was in place before the hard blocking that had now been in place for two and a half weeks, and which, purely in terms of numbers, had hardly been reflected or nothing.
