There is no good news, at least for the moment, regarding the ski season 2020-2021.

Will the ski slopes reopen, then? To date it seems a distant hypothesis, regardless of thetrend of the pandemic. A real damage considering how, in Italy, the sector earns about 9 billion euros a year (of which 1,2 from ski resorts). If you return to skiing this winter, you will do so with some limitations. It will not be a "green light", it will rather be one prudent recovery to try to save hotels and facilities without the health disaster of summer reopening. But, if at first the Government had hypothesized some rules, now the reopening seems excluded.

ski season 2020-2021, reduced capacity on the lifts (Pixabay)

The Government's decision on the ski season

Prime Minister Conte was (almost) categorical. Speaking at "Otto e mezzo", Lilli Gruber's program broadcast on La7, reduced the hopes of the Regions concerned (Valle d'Aosta, Trentino Alto-Adige, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Abruzzo) regarding the ski season.

“For ski lifts, the protocol problem is one thing but everything that revolves around holidays on the snow is uncontrollable. And, with Merkel and Macron, we are working on a common European protocol. It is not possible to allow holidays in the snow, we can't afford it, ”he said.

“The Regions have delivered guidelines that will be discussed when the conditions are right to open. Today the conditions are not there, there has not been this discussion. That sector is waiting, but like all other sectors it must have the patience to put the health emergency above everything. We will evaluate in the next Dpcm if there are conditions to do what and when ”were the words of Francesco Boccia, Minister for Regional Affairs.

The words of the managers

Plant managers want certainties. Valeria ghezzi, since 2014 at the head of Anef (National Association of cableway operators) and known by all as "the lady of the snow", has expressed herself in recent days.

"For every euro we invoice, the rest of the supply chain invoices another eight. This is why we started producing snow (on Alpe Tognola, in San Martino di Castrozza ed.) In order to prepare the ski resorts, even though we don't know if the anti-contagion rules will allow us to open. We will spend 70 million euros this year to snow the lifts, but we could not hold back because hotels, restaurants and shops that live off white tourism depend on us ”he declared, as head of Funivie Seggiovie San Martino Spa.

ski season, Valeria Ghezzi (Facebook @ANEF)

The ski sector, which in Italy has about 120 thousand employees, makes 90% of its receipts during the winter (one third between Sant'Ambrogio and Epiphany). Closing all plants would therefore be tragic for all those who find employment there.

“A solution is being sought in order to limit the influx, the accesses, the queues. Queues that, if we rely on the spacing, will be longer and longer. And psychologically we know that very long queues make an impression, they are also exploited by the media. The influx of people is scary. So there is this idea of ​​reducing the capacity of the plants, but in doing so we increase the queues. While, if we increase the range, we shorten the lines but there is the psychological discourse of fear to stay inside a cabin where there is no distance ”: these are the words of Ghezzi.

At present, it seems that the government intends to keep the plants closed. Especially during the Christmas period. In the rest of Europe, the situation is not much better. There French it will decide on the ski season in the next ten days, when it will have evaluated a specific health protocol and will have put on the table the economic resources for companies and workers. There Switzerlandon the other hand, it did not implement any lockdowns. And, despite its epidemiological curve is not the best, it has decided to keep the lifts open by inviting foreigners to ski in the country. L'Austria hopes to reopen them by Christmas, la Germany even on 1 December. What Italy would like, however, is that a common solution be found on the European front.

Ski season at risk: the white weeks will not be done last edit: 2020-11-25T11:30:27+01:00 da Laura Alberti

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