When the Italian government decided to protest in Bardonecchia in February, Enrico Rossi Keep Covid closed A few hours before the ski resort reopens.
Rossi described the failure of the ski season as a tragedy for the small town of Susa Valley in Piedmont and others, especially after the 2020 ski season was also shortened.
But as the resort prepares to reopen in early December, he is cautiously optimistic. Bardonecchia Tourism Consortium Vice President Rossi said: “In the season last year, we were going to start three times-we prepared the slopes and hired employees-and all this was cancelled.” “This is very disappointing. But this year. The outlook looks good. Bookings keep coming in, mainly from Italy, The epidemic situation is different; let us hope that nothing has changed. “
Some Italian ski resorts are already open, but require the presentation of a Covid-19 health pass when using ski lifts, cabin capacity has been reduced, and ticket offices have adopted social distancing measures. As part of the agreement agreed by the Italian ski industry, masks must be worn on ski lifts and “public areas.”
“Customers are not complaining-the desire to ski is far greater than the annoyance of having to follow the rules,” said Herbert Tovagliari, president and CEO of Cervinia Spa, a tourism company in the Aosta Valley.
Tovalari said that since the reopening of Cervinia, a popular resort near the Swiss border on October 16, the number of weekend visitors has been high, and the demand for hotels in the coming months will also be strong. “We saw decisively high numbers at the beginning of the season, which gave us hope,” he added.
The ski season is a huge financial resource for many villages in Italy and the northern and central mountains. Rely on it to surviveAccording to estimates by Coldiretti, the farmers’ association, the economic cost of the closure last year for the industry and affiliated companies was 10 billion euros (8.6 billion pounds).
“In the standard year, we will earn 28 million euros. In 2020, we will earn 2.5 million euros, and this comes only from summer tourism,” Tovalli said.
Sprinkle salt on the wounds. Last year there was a lot of snow in Italian ski resorts. “The snow is beautiful. We had a beautiful winter, but few people can enjoy it,” Rossi said.
Cervinia, at an altitude of 2,050 meters, currently uses a mixture of natural snow and artificial snow, while the resort in Bardonecchia is stocking artificial snow for emergencies.
The ski resort in Piedmont’s Lanzo Valley, located between 1,300 and 1,900 meters above sea level, has not yet snowed. Livio Barello, president of the Union of Tour Operators in the region, hopes that this will change as resorts across the valley prepare to open in early December, especially during the Christmas period when bookings soar.
“We need several years to make up for the economic losses of the past few seasons, but the signs are very positive,” Barreiro said.
Barello works in Rifugio Lunella, a mountain hut in Viù, a town with approximately 1,000 residents. Companies benefit from the Piedmont region-wide holiday coupon program, which provides tourists with three nights accommodation at the price of one person. The program attracts a large number of tourists in the summer and supports some bookings this winter. “Everything revolves around tourism, which is the soul of the economy,” Barreiro said.
When the ski season was cancelled last year, the mayor of Sestriere, Gianni Poncet, worried that a village with just over 900 residents in the Susa Valley would turn into a ghost town. The resort has 217 miles (350 kilometers) of slopes, and the population during skiing will increase to 20,000 people per day before the pandemic.
Today, Poncet feels more optimistic. “The atmosphere is much better this year, thank God,” he said. “We are working hard to ensure that everything goes smoothly and have a plan for a safe reopening. Covid rules still exist, but they must be followed so that the season can start normally.”
