CORTINA, Italy (AP) – The granite peaks that majestically surround the city of Cortina d’Ampezzo sparkle with one of the most fertile snowfalls in years, a cruel joke of nature, while the COVID-19 pandemic silences the winter resorts of Italy .
Cortina will be flashing on TV sports channels for two weeks this month as the previous and future Olympic host city holds the 2021 World Cup for skiing, sending downhill skiers flying down slopes. But the event will occupy only a fraction of the available hotel rooms, and it is unlikely that many cases will bring to the luxury boutiques of the city. No spectators are allowed.
In fact, the spasm of activity seems like a mere flicker in a ski season that never seems to start, as the Italian government delays the relocation of lifts for recreational skiers. The world championships offer good optics with a view to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, but scarce economic relief for local businesses and workers living off the winter sports economy, which has been closed for almost a year.
“Absolutely, we made snow in November because we did not know there would be so much and the slopes had to be prepared,” said Marco Zardini, CEO of Cortina Skiworld, which normally operates 35 ski lifts in four areas, but There are now only four lifts that can be used by local clubs and prospective world-class athletes who need to stay in shape for future seasons.
Italy’s 2019-2020 ski season closed unexpectedly in early March, when the country became the first Western country to be hit by the pandemic. A new season has yet to be launched, unlike in neighboring Switzerland, which opened lifts with restrictions in December, or in Austria, where residents can still ski. France’s ski lifts remain open until at least February.
In Italy, the pandemic-related closure is a hit for an industry that earns 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.5 billion) annually and employs 5,000 permanent and 10,000 seasonal workers, according to the Ski Association -lift operators, ANEF.
The association said the early end of last year’s season led to a 20% drop and called the current season a total loss. In the hotel, restaurants and other services, the ski industry generates 11 billion euros ($ 13.2 billion) annually, but travel restrictions have kept activity almost zero above the stationary lifts.
‘Mountains, you can not be left to themselves. They need to be taken care of, “said Valeria Ghezzi, president of ANEF.
The paradox is that 2020-21 would have been a season for the record books in Cortina and elsewhere in the Alps of Italy, where snow was plentiful, Zardini said.
In any season, Cortina’s sleek Corso d’Italia shopping street can compete with the Golden Triangle of Montenapoleone in Milan for its concentration of luxury brands, including Dior, Fendi and Moncler. But shops are empty of customers and most hotels are closed. Many hotels have a few meters of snow on roofs and terraces.
In a normal year, Italians make up just over half of Cortina’s nearly 1 million visitors, and Americans are the best foreign visitors, ahead of Germans and Britons.
While global fashion brands can hope to balance the strong decline in business with brisk sales in China, this is not the case for local businesses. Bruno Pompanin Dimai, the owner of a sports shop, called the season a ‘disaster’ for Cortina. He only sold a pair of boots and one ski jacket all winter. His only consolation is that ski brands have promised not to update their offer next season so he can sell his surplus stock.
“With all this snow, I would have worked double,” Dimai said.
Ingrid Siorpaes, who runs a local craft store, says sales are down 90%. The only people walking in the snow town in the main street are residents and people driving out the pandemic in their second homes.
“We stay open, even if I have to fire a salesperson,” Siorpaes said. “Foreign tourists are missing from this store.”
It’s not that different in other ski areas across the Alps and along the Apennines, but instead of generating cash, many lifters are raising costs for a season that may never dawn.
While ski resorts generate cash for four months of the year, maintenance and upkeep are the cost of the whole year – something that ski resort operators believe the government in Rome has slowly understood.
No aid package is available for the ski industry, and the situation is bad for workers. Permanent workers can be laid off in the short term, but such programs are not available to seasonal workers, who make up a large part of the elevator operators, ski instructors, mountain guides, rental workers and hotel and restaurant workers.
Ghezzi, the president of the ski lift association, doubts whether elevators will open on February 15 as currently planned.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that the season is in irreparable danger,” she said. ‘We can say the season is a total loss. If we can open in March, it might be 90% or 95%. I can not rule out that some companies may fail. ”
A March opening would give Giulio De Luca, who runs the ski school in San Vito, which is part of Cortina SkiWorld, a maximum of one month of teaching time. Since last spring, he has seen only two payments of 600 euros ($ 722) from the government – which was quickly followed by a tax bill of 950 euros ($ 1,143).
“In November, December and January, instructors did not receive a single cent,” De Luca said. The ski school has so far also not been eligible for assistance, while the rent, utilities, telephone and tax bills are still running out.
“I now have the money to pay taxes, but not next month,” he said.
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