J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

Last Friday the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano (South Tyrol) introduced a new Coronavirus ordinance (Ordinanza del presidente della Provincia No. 73 del 27/11/2020), in paragraph 40 it states that the ski lifts are to remain closed to recreational skiers. No reopening date is given.

According to reports in the Italian press, the central government in Rome will issue a new Coronavirus decree "DPCM Natale" early this week that will come into force on 4th December. We will have to wait until the text is published to know for sure, but the Italian foreign minister is reported to have said that there will be "No Christmas holidays in the snow".

Jean Castex, the French prime minister has just announced that the ski lifts in France will remain closed over the Christmas holidays. https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/les-stations-de-ski-resteront-bien-fermees-pour-les-fetes-de-fin-d-annee-confirme-jean-castex-20201126

The Compagnie du Mont-Blanc has issued a press release on the replacement of the lifts destroyed by fire in 2018. https://cmb.eliberty-insight.com/campaign/email/fr/mirror/YToyOntzOjE1OiJlbWFpbENhbXBhaWduSWQiO2k6MzA5O3M6ODoiZW50aXR5SWQiO2k6NTIzODt9 They are planning to build a new cable car from the railway station at Argentière up to Lognan and a 3S lift from there to the Grands Montets.

The star architect Renzo Piano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renzo_Piano has been commissioned to design the lift stations.

A major stumbling block seems to have been getting the insurance companies to pay out. The two main insurers Generali (55%) and Allianz (30%) have now agreed, but the RSA Insurance Group (15%) is still refusing to pay the claim.

Zermatt has published details of the take-away and home delivery service https://ztnet.ch/de/Aktuelles/Heimlieferdienst

No new measures at national level were announced at yesterday's press conference.

At local level, canton Valais announced yesterday that all bars and restaurants will close from 22:00 on 06.11.2020 https://www.valais.ch/en/information/coronavirus-2019-ncov

Zermatt is reported to be working on a take-away system that will enable skiers to obtain food in the ski area.

The two ski areas in Italy that remained open after Cervinia closed (Val Senales (Schnalstal) and Solda (Sulden) in the Ortler Ski Arena) will close for recreational skiing on 08.10.2020, from that date only athletes who compete at national and international level will be allowed to use the lifts. The hotels are no longer allowed to receive tourists and the bars and restaurants were required to close at midnight yesterday. The measures are to remain in place until 22th November

The central government in Rome has also imposed new restrictions, the regions of South Tyrol, the Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Lombardy and Calabria have been declared 'red zones' there is ban on movement into and out of these regions

Here in Switzerland some of the French speaking cantons have imposed lockdowns, canton Valais is due to decide if further measures are required on Friday. As the number of cases continues to rise and the hospitals are running out of ICU beds I would be surprised if we didn't also go into lockdown, Valais is currently the worst affected region in Switzerland and probably Europe. The federal government is holding a press conference at 14:30 so there may well be new national measures as well.

Austria is going into lockdown from midnight on Monday. The tourist industry will shut down until the end of November.
https://www.thelocal.at/20201031/austria-to-go-into-hard-new-lockdown-starting-tuesday

The number of cases in Switzerland has increased dramatically in recent weeks. The overall prevalence of confirmed cases per 100,000 population over the last 14 days is 836.6. The prevalence is much higher in the French speaking cantons, in canton Valais it is currently 2083/100,00. In canton Grisons it is 'only' 495/100,00, which is slightly higher than the overall prevalence in the UK. If you want to keep up to date on the situation in canton Grisons checkout their COVID-19 dashboard https://ktgr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/3984041586964ec88a8e9f8e76529cd5 St Moritz is in the Maloja region, it has a population of 18,259 and there are currently 63 cases.

If the latest measures introduced by the federal and cantonal authorities don't result in a significant fall in the numbers, I expect that local lockdowns will be imposed. There is little else that can be done to bring the numbers down.

Club Med will probably only cancel your holiday if government action forces them to do so, or if it is uneconomic to run it, as you might expect the TOs, hotels etc. have received far fewer bookings than normal. Even if it were to be cancelled it looks like it would be easier to get blood out of a stone than to get your money back. They seem to have a no refund policy.

I don't see what nationality has to do with it. All the countries you mention including the UK have a high prevalence of COVID-19, assuming the current measures remain in place you will be required to wear a mask in the hotel unless you are seated at a table (bar service is prohibited) or in your room. If anyone in the hotel tests positive during your stay the hotel will be closed and you will be put in to quarantine for 10 days. You can find details of the measures and ordinances in English here: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov/massnahmen-des-bundes.html#-1863604723 the English text has not yet been updated to include the measures introduced on 27.10. 2091

Why will Club Med "have to rethink their whole operation" they are owned by the Chinese company Fosun https://www.fosun.com/language/en/aboutus/1.html who probably have the resources to 'weather the storm', they recently relaunched Thomas Cook after buying the brand from the liquidator. Their CEO said "We are launching now clearly aware of the short-term challenges posed by the pandemic. We and our Fosun backers are taking the long view."