CORTINA, Italy (AP) – The granite peaks that majestically surround the northern Italian town of Cortina d’Ampezzo glisten with one of the most productive snowfalls in years, a cruel joke of nature as the COVID-19 pandemic hit Italy’s winter resorts silences.
Cortina will be flashing on TV sports channels for two weeks this month, while the previous and future Olympic host city will host the 2021 World Ski Championships, with skiers flying down steep slopes. But the event only covers a fraction of the available hotel rooms, and much business is unlikely to go to the city’s luxury boutiques. Spectators are not allowed.
In fact, the spasm of activity seems to be just a flicker in a ski season that seems destined to never take off as the Italian government is delaying the reopening of lifts for leisure skiers. The world championships will offer good optics in view of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026, but little economic relief for local businesses and workers living off the winter sports economy, which has been stalled for nearly a year.
“Absurdly, we made snow in November because we couldn’t have known there would be that many and the slopes needed to be prepared,” said Marco Zardini, the CEO of Cortina Skiworld, which normally operates 35 ski lifts in four areas, but has now only four lifts for use by local clubs and aspiring world-class athletes who need to stay in shape for seasons to come.
Italy’s 2019-2020 ski season ended unexpectedly in March last year, when the country became the first Western country to be hit by the pandemic. A new season has yet to start, unlike neighboring Switzerland, where lifts opened with restrictions in December, or Austria, where residents can still ski. In any case, the ski lifts in France will remain closed until February.
In Italy, the pandemic-related closures are a hit for an industry that generates 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.5 billion) in annual revenues and employs 5,000 permanent and 10,000 seasonal workers, according to the association of ski lift operators, ANEF.
The association said the early end of the season led to a 20% drop in sales last year, calling the current season a total loss. Taking into account hotels, restaurants and other services, the ski industry generates 11 billion euros ($ 13.2 billion) in annual revenues, but travel restrictions have kept activity near zero on top of the stationary lifts.
“You cannot leave mountains to itself. They must be taken care of, ”said ANEF President Valeria Ghezzi.
The paradox is that 2020-21 would have been a season for the record books in Cortina, and elsewhere in the Italian Alps, where snow has been plentiful, Zardini said.
In any season, Cortina’s tony Corso d’Italia shopping street can compete with Milan’s Montenapoleone Golden Triangle for its concentration of luxury brands including Dior, Fendi and Moncler. But shops are empty of customers and most hotels have shutters. Many hotels have a few meters of snow 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 biggest foreign visitors, ahead of Germans and British.
While global fashion brands can hope to balance the steep drop in sales with rising sales in China, that’s not the case for local businesses. Bruno Pompanin Dimai, the owner of a sports shop, called the season “a disaster” for Cortina. He’s only sold a pair of boots and a ski jacket all winter. His only consolation is that ski brands have promised not to update their offerings next season, so he can sell his leftover inventory.
“With all this snow I would have worked double,” said Dimai.
Ingrid Siorpaes, who runs a local craft store, says sales are down 90%. The only people walking the snowy main street are locals and people driving out the pandemic in their second home.
“We remain open even if I had to fire a salesman,” said Siorpaes. “This shop misses foreign tourists.”
It’s not that different in other ski resorts in the Alps and along the Apennines, where instead of making money, many lift operators incur costs for a season that may never come.
While ski resorts generate cash for four months a year, upkeep and maintenance are a year-round cost – something ski resort operators say the government in Rome has been slow to understand.
No aid package for the ski industry has been released and the situation is dire for the workers. Permanent workers can be temporarily laid off, but such programs are not available to seasonal workers, who are a large part of the lift operators, ski instructors, mountain guides, landlords, and hotel and restaurant staff in the industry.
Ghezzi, the president of the ski lift association, doubts the lifts will open on February 15 as currently scheduled.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that the season has been irreparably compromised,” she said. “We can say that the season is a total loss. If we can open in March, it might be going to be 90% or 95%. I cannot rule out that some companies will go bankrupt. “
An opening in March would spend a month at most teaching Giulio De Luca, who runs the ski school in San Vito, which is part of Cortina SkiWorld. He has seen only two payments of 600 euros ($ 722) from the government since last spring – which was quickly followed by a tax bill of 950 euros ($ 1,143).
“In November, December and January instructors did not receive a penny,” said De Luca. Nor has the ski school been eligible for aid so far, while rental, utility, telephone and tax bills continue to come in.
“I have the money to pay taxes now, but not next month,” he said.
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