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Ski season: the resorts are preparing to reopen with the sanitary pass

2021-09-20T19:54:16.742Z


While demand is strong to put on skis, the protocol will be known by mid-October at the latest. A deadline for the stations to organize themselves. Austria has already unveiled its strategy.


“We will be opening the ski lifts this winter, we are just waiting for the health instructions. »

At the end of a first technical meeting between the Secretary of State for Tourism and the professionals and elected officials of mountain, this Monday at the end of the afternoon, Alexandre Maulin, the president of the Ski areas of France (DSF), summarizes at

Le Figaro,

the main issue of a winter that nobody imagines without ski lifts, after the disaster of last season. Mountain professionals and customers are impatiently awaiting the details of the sanitary protocol that will govern the resorts, in order to organize a ski season that starts between November and December depending on the massifs.

All these details will be known at the latest

"in mid-October"

after other technical and interministerial meetings, promises Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, the Secretary of State for Tourism, who himself mentioned the health pass this weekend. end.

"It's a deadline," he

supports, responding to the plea for

"visibility"

from professionals to prepare for a season that may be historic for attendance.

In a traditional year, the 320 or so French ski resorts welcome nearly 10 million tourists over the season, a third of whom are foreigners, primarily the British.

Read alsoTourism: the government wants to facilitate a ski season that promises to be "very good"

For professionals and clients alike, it is urgent.

"The level of reservations is comparable to that of early September 2019 currently

," says Laurent Garcia, director of the Peyragudes resort, in the Pyrenees at this stage.

The fact that we will be able to open is a strong first message.

But some customers are waiting to know the conditions.

They tell me that they prefer to wait before making up their minds. ”

Tignes, the first resort to open its ski area on October 16

French ski resorts are in the starting blocks. While waiting for the precise health protocols, the opening dates of certain areas are already known. As usual, it is Tignes and its Grande-Motte glacier that will inaugurate the so-called “autumn ski” season on October 16, before 2-Alpes, on October 23 for a session that will stretch until November 7. The full opening is then scheduled for the 27th of the month, like Val d'Isère. Still in the northern Alps, Val-Thorens and Chamonix must start their first lifts on November 20. Grand Tourmalet and Cauterets will inaugurate the season in the Pyrenees, the weekend of November 27/28, like Puy-Saint-Vincent in the southern Alps.

Wearing a mask indoors or in the cable cars, presentation of the health pass, compulsory or random checks ... There are many subjects to settle during the next conclaves between government and professionals.

Who of the accommodation providers or operators of ski lifts should, for example, take on the burden of control?

In all cases, professionals would prefer

"that it be done upstream, when booking the apartment or ski pass,"

says Laurent Garcia.

“October 15 is really the deadline,”

insists Alexandre Maulin.

Read alsoSkiing: the top 10 resorts to book with the family

Professionals also have in mind the fierce competition that is looming with our neighbors, just as eager to put on their spatulas and attract tourists.

Starting with Austria, France's traditional competitor for the winter and which opened its lifts last year in sometimes grotesque conditions.

"There will be no après-ski like before the pandemic"

The country with 400 stations has just unveiled the outline of its health protocol on September 20. On the menu: health pass (vaccine, negative test or immunity after recovery) when booking packages, and compulsory mask in the closed spaces of cable cars for example, announced the Minister of Tourism, Elisabeth Koestinger, quoted by Reuters.

"This winter season will definitely be Austria's,"

she proclaimed. Without switching the doubts and questions about the many details remain unresolved: frequency of controls in hotels and

resort

for unvaccinated status nightclubs in festive Tyrolean resorts like Ischgl ...

"There will be more après-ski as before the pandemic "

, reacted cautiously the governor of the region, Guenther Platter.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-09-20

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