CORTINA, Italy (AP) – The granite peaks that majestically surround the Italian city of Cortina d’Ampezzo shine with one of the most prolific snowfalls of recent years, a cruel joke from nature as the COVID-19 pandemic silences the winter resorts of Italy. Italy.
Cortina will run on sports TV channels for two weeks this month, while the Olympic host city of the past and future holds the 2021 World Ski Championship, sending skiers down steep slopes. But the event will occupy only a fraction of the available hotel rooms and is unlikely to bring much business to the city’s luxury boutiques. Viewers are not allowed.
In fact, the spasm of activity seems to be a mere oscillation in a ski season that seems destined to never take off, as the Italian government has postponed the reopening of the cable cars for leisure skiers. The world championships will provide a good perspective in view of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, but little economic relief for local companies and workers who live off the winter sports economy, which has been paralyzed for almost a year.
“Absurdly, it snowed in November, because we couldn’t have known that there would be so much and the tracks needed to be prepared,” said Marco Zardini, chief executive of Cortina Skiworld, which normally operates 35 lifts in four areas, but now has only four lifts to use by local clubs and aspiring world-class athletes who must keep in shape for future seasons.
Italy’s 2019-2020 ski season unexpectedly ended in early March, when the country became the first western country to be hit by the pandemic. A new season has not yet been launched, unlike neighboring Switzerland, which in December allowed the opening of restricted cable cars, or Austria, where residents can still ski. France’s ski lifts remain closed until at least February.
In Italy, pandemic-related closings are a blow to an industry that generates 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.5 billion) in annual revenue and employs 5,000 permanent and 10,000 seasonal workers, according to the association of operators of ski lifts, ANEF.
The association said that the start of the season last year led to a 20% drop in revenue and considered the current season a total loss. Based on hotels, restaurants and other services, the ski industry generates 11 billion euros ($ 13.2 billion) in annual revenues, but travel restrictions have kept activity close to zero on top of stationary cable cars.
“Mountains, you cannot leave yourselves abandoned. They need to be attended to ”, said ANEF president, Valeria Ghezzi.
The paradox is that 2020-21 would have been a season for record books in Cortina and elsewhere in the Italian Alps, where snow is plentiful, Zardini said.
In any season, Cortina’s elegant shopping street Corso d’Italia can compete with Milan’s Montenapoleone Golden Triangle for its concentration of luxury brands, including Dior, Fendi and Moncler. But the stores are empty of customers and most hotels are closed. Many hotels have several feet of snow piled on roofs and terraces.
In a normal year, Italians account for just over half of Cortina’s nearly 1 million annual visitors, and Americans are the main foreign visitors, ahead of Germans and Britons.
While global fashion brands may hope to balance the steep drop in business with rising sales in China, this is not the case for local companies. Bruno Pompanin Dimai, the owner of a sports store, called the season “a disaster” for Cortina. He only sold a few pairs of boots and a ski jacket all winter. His only comfort is that ski brands have promised not to update their offerings next season, so he can sell his remaining stock.
“With all this snow, I would have worked twice as hard,” said Dimai.
Ingrid Siorpaes, who owns a local craft store, said sales were down 90%. The only people who walk down the snow-covered main street are the locals and the people who face the pandemic in their second homes.
“We remain open, even if I have to fire a salesman,” said Siorpaes. “This store is losing foreign tourists.”
It is not so different in other ski areas in the Alps and along the Apennines, where, instead of generating money, many cable car operators are accumulating costs for a season that may never arrive.
Although ski resorts generate money over four months of the year, maintenance and upkeep are annual costs – something that ski resort operators say the Rome government was slow to understand.
No aid packages have been launched for the ski industry and the situation is bleak for workers. Permanent workers may be dismissed for a short period, but such programs are not available to seasonal workers, who represent a large proportion of industry elevators, ski instructors, mountain guides, rental staff and hotel and restaurant employees.
Ghezzi, the chairman of the cable car association, has doubts that the cable cars will open on February 15 as currently planned.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that the season is hopelessly compromised,” she said. “We can say that the season is a total loss. If we can open in March, it may become 90% or 95%. I cannot rule out that some companies may go bankrupt. “
An opening in March would give a maximum of one month of classes to Giulio De Luca, who runs the ski school in San Vito, which is part of the SkiWorld Cortina. He has seen only two 600 euro ($ 722) payments from the government since last spring – which were quickly followed by a 950 euro charge ($ 1,143).
“In November, December and January, the instructors did not receive a cent” from the government, said De Luca. Not even the ski school has been eligible for help so far, while rent, utility bills, phone and tax bills keep coming.
“I have money to pay taxes now, but not next month,” he said.
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