Opening of Austrian skiing for foreigners.

Anyone out there thinking of an Easter trip if restrictions are eased as great snow out there at the moment or have you written off the season?

dachstein west skier wrote:Anyone out there thinking of an Easter trip if restrictions are eased as great snow out there at the moment or have you written off the season?

Will be interesting to see how things play out. Overall signs not good and I'm increasingly looking towards maybe Hintertux in June or July! Latest 're-opening to tourism' date for Austria (and maybe Italy and Germany?) is Feb 15 but not sure hopes are very high that will happen (and in any case will we be able to leave country we live in to travel there? quarantine restrictions etc etc). Austrian media reports that the 'open' ski resorts (everything closed except lifts) are like "ghost towns" at present. Just putting up a story from Inghams that they are cancelling all holidays to April 2nd. Only thing interesting there is they haven't actually, yet, cancelled whole season - April 2nd seems to leave Easter as an outside possibility, so there remains a very small hope, but may be kidding ourselves... PS. Getting increasing "Book now for 21-22 before everything goes" PR releases from tour ops in to J2Ski Towers. No doubt desperate sales hopes but if (big if) things are fairly normal next winter there is a logical argument that pent up demand combined with postponed bookings from past two seasons will book everything up early.

I cant see restrictions being eased for travel from the UK.
At the moment 2 things need to happen; resort lifts need to run and the UK skiers need to be able to travel through Borders.
I think France is very very unlikely this season, almost nil chance.
Swiss and Austria...and possible Spain are the only chances but two of those might have French border ramifications.

Atm, Alpine countries werent on the red quarantine on return list..?
need to keep an eye on that

Just a rumour, but have heard from someone who lives in Zell that it is likely the lifts are all going to close at end of Feb as they are currently running at a big loss.

I always thought the longer they push back the date of opening, the less time they have to make any money so will not bother.
Time will tell if Swiss hoteliers won...
Im pretty sure pressure from that industry was behind Switzerland's policy of 'open' resorts but France and Austria didnt follow suit.
Checking on Spain but last i heard was internal travel was still restricted and with Neighbouring Portugal looking bad...doubt they will open borders.

I live in Portugal and the border with Spain is still open . However there is a state of Emergency here which means you are only allowed to leave home for essential purposes which I don't think going skiing would cover. The State of Emergency is likely to continue till the 12th February , at least.

The current entry restrictions are scheduled to remain in force until at least 13 March 2021:

https://www.oesterreich.gv.at/en/themen/coronavirus_in_oesterreich/pre-travel-clearance.html

As the B.1.1.7 variant is expected to become widespread in February and March. It is likely that the current entry restrictions will be extended.

The lift companies are currently losing money hand over fist, turnover is reported to be down by 50-70%, if the hotels, restaurants etc. aren't able to open soon its likely that they will have to close as well.