Skiers in Europe are thrilled to be coming back to their slopes, after nearly two years of canceled winter holidays.
As travel restrictions through the European Union ease, and resorts are given permission to open up, they won’t have any trouble filling their reservations.
“The desire to return to slopes has created a palpable sense of excitement,” said Richard Lumb, co-founder and director of Kaluma Ski, a tour operator with luxury properties in France, and Austria. “The sheer tenacity of guests preparing for the ski season is evident in the calls we are taking — people will ski this season. There’s a lot of positivity. We’re way ahead of bookings in a pre-pandemic market.”
The Covid-19 outbreak began closing resorts in Europe in February of 2020, cutting short the year’s ski season. Many resorts were early hotspots, with sports travelers sharing the disease in ski lifts, chalets, and restaurants. Resorts were hopeful of a reopening that winter, but the pandemic didn’t play along. France, Italy, and Germany all ordered that lifts and resorts remain closed. Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and Bulgaria allowed some openings, but to locals only.
Now in the early winter of 2021, with extensive vaccination success through Europe and most borders open in at least some capacity, this ski season at last looks to be back on track. Lifts are already running in high-altitude glacier resorts.
“There are a few concerns about how things will operate, and there will be a few restrictions, but I don’t think there will be very many,” said Lumb. Restrictions include reduced indoor seating at restaurants, single-party rules in enclosed ski lifts and of course, obligatory mask-wearing. Some resorts will be requiring proof of vaccination, or even recent negative COVID-19 tests.
For any skiers about to travel to Europe, make sure to contact your destination and ask the specifics they follow – the rules vary by degrees from country to country and are often changing.
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