Skiing at Christmas, while the Alpine Regions press on the government in Austria, the front is split for the opening: “The numbers do not allow it”

“For the moment neither in Austria nor in Germany i numbers allow one reopening“. To speak is Ernst Schoepf, the powerful president of the Consortium of Tyrolean municipalities and mayor of Soelden, one of the most important ski centers in the area. Not even theAustria, the homeland of alpine skiing, is convinced that opening the lifts already for Christmas is there right choice. For days the government of Vienna opposed the idea of ​​a European closure, but now the front of those asking forimmediate green light to the holidays in the snow it split. Chancellor on Wednesday Sebastian Kurz will present the measures that will regulate winter tourism, but on the data of opening still there are no certainties. Yet Austria, together with Switzerland, was precisely one of the models indicated by the Alpine regions, who have been pressing the government for days and are now asking of open the plants already at Christmas for guests of hotels and of second box. Even in Italy, however, not everyone is on the same line. “It is now clear that for the start of the ski season currently all the conditions are missing. We must all work together to create the conditions to be able to leave after New Year. For this reason we ask the refreshments for all sectors affected by the stop, “he told theAnsa the president of the Province of Bolzano, Arno Kompatscher.

I know in Switzerland the plants are open, neighboring Austria is focusing on mass screening – scheduled for December 4 – to hope to restart its own economy and thus open the ski season. But someone remembers what happens in March in the popular ski resort of Ischgl, theater of the first great European outbreak of Covid. Among these is precisely Ernst Schoepf, president of the Consortium of Tyrolean Municipalities, of which Ischgl is a member. Schoepf is representative of a territory that has an economy double-stranded with skiing and its related activities. In addition, he is a member of the Austrian People’s Party (Övp), the same as Chancellor Kurz. In an interview with Tyrolean daily newspaper, warns of one hasty decision. The goal, he reiterates, is to avoid one third wave: “Winter is long. We are just at the beginning. Even if we only left in January, we still have a long way to go. For the moment, neither in Austria nor in Germany the numbers allow for a reopening ”, explains the mayor of Soelden. Which also recalls another aspect: “The 70% gods our customers comes from countries that currently travel is not recommended towards Austria. Not all hoteliers want to open “. Not even the resumption of skiing on a large scale for residents only convinces Schoepf: “Not every implant has to be working“, He comments.

The movements of tourists are in fact one of the main problems related to skiing and winter holidays. “The risk is not skiing itself but airports, buses, resorts, i shelters where people gather in large numbers “, the WHO head of emergencies also stressed, Mike Ryan, in the usual coronavirus briefing. “We will not have to reduce the problem to skiing: governments must consider that every activity that implies large masses of people that move must be handled with care and with a reduction approach risk, ”explained Ryan. Yet the Alpine regions they presented a mediation proposal to the government which provides for the possibility of skiing during the Christmas holidays only for those who stay overnight at least one night in different destinations or for those who own or rent one second house in ski areas “.

The proposal is signed by the councilors for tourism of Veneto, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Bolzano and Trento. In addition, it was also shared by theAbruzzo. In fact, Kompatscher seems to have it already disavowed, while the governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, he explained: “This document is welcome because there is interest, but it is not the proposal of the Region for ski lifts, for which I have advanced an opinion and now I am waiting for them to tell us what they want to do with gatherings“. The document plans to “grant it skipass to those who have stayed overnight in an accommodation facility and to those who own or rent a second home ”, because“ it allows to check to the best the influx to the ski resort “.

“The solution we propose to government Conte – continue the councilors – allows you to start the winter season gradually, in this way you can apply the safety protocols that we approved last Monday and put them to the test “. Allow the regional mobility during the holidays it is, argue the alpine areas, a necessary requirement for the sector: “If the Technical Scientific Committee and the government intend forbid it to avoid parties and moments of aggregation, allow at least the mobility between Regions for those who have booked in one accommodation at least one night “. Saturday the president of the Superior Health Council, Franco Locatelli, in a press conference on the analysis of the data of the Regional Monitoring of the Control Room, explained: “No one underestimates the impact of a closure of the skiing activities, but the current numbers they do not make a hypothesis of reopening compatible because it would mean exposing the whole country to one resumption of the epidemic curve“.

–