The peaks surrounding Cortina d’Ampezzo glisten with an amount of snow not seen in a long time, a cruel joke of nature in a year in which COVID-19 paralyzed activity at winter sports centers.
Cortina will be the scene within two weeks of the 2021 World Ski Championships, during which seasoned skiers will glide down its slopes at full speed. But the World Cup will only fill a portion of the available hotels and it is unlikely to rescue the city’s luxury businesses. Spectators will not be admitted to the fair.
In fact, the World Cup will be almost anecdotal in a season that never took off since the government delays the reopening of the ski centers. The World Cup will offer an idea of what to expect at the 2026 Winter Olympics to be held in Milan and Cortina, but it will not provide economic relief to businesses or people who make a living from winter tourism, which takes almost a year. year suspended.
“The most ridiculous of all is that we produced snow in November because we did not know that it would fall so much and the slopes had to be prepared,” said Marco Zardini, CEO of Cortina Skiworld, which normally operates 35 cable cars in four zones but currently has only four running For use by local clubs and world class skiers trying to keep fit.
The 2019-20 ski season was unexpectedly suspended in March, when Italy became the first country in the West to hit the pandemic. Activity has not yet resumed, unlike in neighboring Switzerland, which authorized the operation of cable cars with certain restrictions in December, or in Austria, where residents can still go skiing. The activity remains suspended in France at least until the end of February.
In Italy, the closures associated with the pandemic are a severe blow to a sector that generates 1.2 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) annually and employs 5,000 people permanently and another 10,000 during the winter season, according to the association. of cable car operators.
The association said the early end of last year’s season caused revenue to drop 20% and the current season is all loss. If hotels, restaurants and other services are taken into account, the sector generates 11 billion euros (13.2 billion dollars) annually.
Travel restrictions are added to the suspension of activities in the mountains.
The paradox is that the 2020/21 season promised to be historic in Cortina and in the rest of the Italian Alps because of the large amount of snow that has fallen, Zardini lamented.
During the winter season, the Corso d’Italia business street in Cortina can compete with the Golden Triangle of Via Montenapoleone, which concentrates businesses of the most exclusive brands in Milan. But there are no customers in the shops and most of the hotels are closed. Many have mountains of snow on their roofs and terraces.
In normal years, Italians account for half the million annual visitors to Cortina.
Bruno Pompanin Dimai, owner of a sports store in Cortina, said the current season has been “a disaster.” He takes comfort in thinking that ski supply companies won’t update their catalogs, so he can sell what he has.
“With all this snow we would have had to work twice as hard,” Dimai said.
Ingrid Siorpaes, owner of a local handicraft business, said sales were down 90%. Only local people and some people who are experiencing the pandemic in Cortina visit their store, where they have a second home.
“I’m going to stay open now, even if I have to let an employee go,” Siorpaes said. “This business misses foreign tourists a lot.”
The situation is the same in the other winter sports centers of the Alps and Apennines, where ski slope operators continue to absorb the costs of keeping their businesses ready for people who may never arrive.
Although the ski season lasts only four months, businesses must invest in year-round maintenance, something the government does not fully understand, according to the sector.
There has been no help from the government and the situation is very discouraging for the workers. Permanent employees can collect unemployment insurance for a time, but seasonal workers cannot afford that luxury.
Valeria Ghezzi, president of the ropeway operators association, doubts that the season will start on February 15, as planned.
“Unfortunately, I must say the season is very committed,” he said. “I can say that it is a total loss. If we open in March, (the losses) maybe 90% or 95%. I cannot rule out that some businesses go bankrupt ”.