CORTINA, Italy (AP) – The majestic peaks surrounding the majestic town of Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy shine with one of the most prolific snowfalls in recent years, a cruel joke of nature as the COVID-19 pandemic silences the resorts. winter in Italy.
Cortina will flash over sports TV channels for two weeks this month, as the past and future Olympic host city hosts the 2021 World Ski Championships, sending downhill skiers flying down steep slopes. But the event will occupy only a fraction of the available hotel rooms and is unlikely to bring much business into the city’s luxury boutiques. Spectators are not allowed.
In fact, the spasm of the activity seems to be a simple glimmer in a ski season that seems destined to never take off, as the Italian government delays the reopening of lifts for leisure skiers. The world championships will provide a good perspective for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, but little economic relief for local businesses and workers living off the winter sports economy, which has been closed for almost a year.
“Absurd, it snowed in November, because I couldn’t know that there would be so many and the slopes had to be prepared,” said Marco Zardini, executive director of Cortina Skiworld, which normally operates 35 ski lifts in four areas. but it has only four lifts that can now be used by local clubs and world-class sports aspirants who need to keep fit for future seasons.
Italy’s 2019-2020 ski season ended unexpectedly 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 lifts or in Austria, where residents can still ski. Ski lifts in France remain closed at least until February.
In Italy, pandemic closures are a success for an industry that generates annual revenues of 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.5 billion) and employs 5,000 permanent workers and 10,000 seasonal workers, according to the association of ski lift operators, ANEF.
The association said the end of last year led to a 20% drop in revenue and called the current season a total loss. Given hotels, restaurants and other services, the ski industry generates annual revenues of 11 billion euros ($ 13.2 billion), but travel restrictions have kept activity close to zero on the top of ski lifts.
“Mountains, you can’t leave them to themselves. They must be taken care of “, said the president of ANEF, Valeria Ghezzi.
The paradox is that 2020-21 would have been a season for record books in Cortina and other parts of the Italian Alps, where snow was plentiful, Zardini said.
In any season, the Corso d’Italia shopping street in Cortina can compete with the Montenapoleone Golden Triangle in Milan for the concentration of luxury brands, including Dior, Fendi and Moncler. But the shops are empty of customers and most hotels are closed. Many hotels have a few meters of snow piled on the 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 first foreign visitors, ahead of Germans and British.
While global fashion brands can hope to balance the hasty decline in business with booming sales in China, this is not the case for local businesses. 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 the ski brands have promised not to update their offers next season, so he will be able to sell his remaining inventory.
“With all this snow, I would have worked twice as hard,” Dimai said.
Ingrid Siorpaes, who runs a local craft store, said sales were down 90 percent. The only people walking on the main street with snow are the locals and the people riding the pandemic in their second home.
“We remain open, even if I should fire a salesman,” Siorpaes said. “This store lacks foreign tourists.”
It is not so different in other ski areas in the Alps and along the Apennines, where instead of generating money, many ski lift operators raise costs for a season that may never come.
While ski resorts generate cash for four months of the year, maintenance and upkeep are costs throughout the year – something that ski resort operators say the Rome government has been slow to understand.
No aid package has appeared for the ski industry, and the situation is grim for workers. Permanent workers may be laid off on a short-term basis, but such programs are not available to seasonal workers, who make up a large part of industry lift operators, ski instructors, mountain guides, rental shop employees and hotel and restaurant workers.
Ghezzi, the president of the ski lift association, is skeptical that the elevators will open on February 15, as currently planned.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that the season is irreparably 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 can’t rule out that some companies might fail. ”
An opening in March would provide at most a month of teaching time for Giulio De Luca, who runs the San Vito ski school, which is part of Cortina SkiWorld. He has only seen two 600-euro ($ 722) payments from the government since last spring – which was quickly followed by a 950-euro ($ 1,143) tax bill.
“In November, December and January, the instructors did not receive any money,” said De Luca. The ski school has not been eligible for aid so far, while rent, utilities, telephone and fees continue to rise.
“I have money to pay taxes now, but not next month,” he said.
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