While the end-of-year holidays are well underway, tourism professionals in the Alps are taking stock of attendance figures in the Covid-19 era.
They are not surprisingly down sharply because of the closure of the ski lifts.
But not all stations are in the same boat.
Those that resist the best are undoubtedly the mid-mountain village resorts, as on the Vercors plateau.
Fabrice Mielzarek, director of the Villard-de-Lans and Corrençon-en-Vercors (Isère) Tourist Office, is satisfied with the fill rates.
"They are 35% the week of Christmas and 55% for that of the New Year, or a quarter less than usual", he explains.
Ski touring, snowshoeing ...
"We limit breakage because our customers are mainly French, and thanks to our Nordic activities, which are enjoying real enthusiasm," explains Fabrice Mielzarek.
Cross-country skiing of course, but also snowshoes, ski touring.
"
The rental companies of this kind of equipment testify to this rush like Adrien Perret, based in Aillons, in the Bauges massif (Savoie): “Where I supplied two ski touring packs during the day, rent twenty when the sun is out!
"
The bell sound is not the same in international stations, at higher altitudes.
"Without alpine skiing, these large resorts no longer attract and are dying," laments Jean-Luc Boch, president of the National Association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts (ANMSM).
Himself city councilor of La Plagne (Savoie), he describes a catastrophic situation in the Tarentaise valley.
“Reservations are capped at 10-20% for these holidays.
Without foreign tourists because of the Covid, we can give up this winter.
"