Grenoble (AFP)

All French ski areas will have closed for the season this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. after going to stage 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic, professionals in the sector announced.

"The ski season ends today. Each operator took his instructions from his organizing authority at night," said Sunday morning in a tweet Domaines Skiables de France (DSF), the national union of ski lift operators .

"Vacationers and professionals, all passionate, we must make up our minds given the gravity of the situation," he added.

As of Saturday evening, several ski resorts, such as Val Thorens or La Plagne, in Savoie, announced their immediate closure on social networks. Other ski areas, on the other hand, closed on Sunday morning or, like in Alpe d'Huez (Isère), will only close on Sunday evening, the time to organize the departure of holidaymakers.

"The closings will spread out over the course of the day. It is a brutal shock for the whole sector. We could not have anticipated anything," said Jean-Marc Silva, the director of the France Montagnes association. , specifying that the closings will all be effective Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

"A large part of the season was done but for some stations, there was still a month and a half of activity. The current period was important economically", he specifies, adding that the sector will resort to partial unemployment.

France was one of the few countries in Europe where you could still ski on Saturday, while in Italy, Austria or Switzerland, the stations had closed their doors to limit the spread of the virus.

After the first restrictive measures announced by Emmanuel Macron on Thursday evening, the French ski resorts had received numerous requests from customers worried about the continuation of their stay.

Some, especially in the Alps, had decided to lower the capacity of their chairlifts, gondolas and cable cars to reduce the crowding between skiers.

"What is important today is to manage the returns of our customers, who for the most part arrived at the same time as the Prime Minister's announcement", said Jean-Marc Silva on Saturday evening.

"We will be looking in a few days at the real economic impact of this premature end of the season," he concludes.

© 2020 AFP