Christmas.Andalusia eases trade restrictions but keeps the hospitality industry at bay
Pandemic: Andalusia manages to tame (for now) the second wave of the virus
Sierra Nevada will
inaugurate an exclusive winter season for Andalusians on Friday
, December 18
.
The opening of the ski resort has generated hope among businessmen, while some European leaders have proposed the intensification of controls to prevent the massive mobilization of their citizens in case the borders were opened in the coming months.
In Europe, very few ski resorts will open in the next few weeks.
The apert
ura of Granada station is part of the
two-phase de-escalation plan
announced this Thursday the president of the Junta de Andalucía,
Juanma Moreno
, after the consolidation of the fall in the number of new cases of coronavirus in the community.
These measures will gradually give relief to the Andalusian economy, with special attention to the winter season that will open its doors
three weeks later than planned
"with the established capacity, schedule and protocols." The storm that has hit much of Spain has painted its slopes and higher elevations white, with almost a meter of snow in some areas, an idyllic setting for lovers of winter sports in Andalusia that will be able to enjoy most of them next week coinciding with the reactivation of economic activity and with the mobility between Andalusian provinces. For businessmen, hoteliers and leaders, who acknowledge that they came to fear that restrictions were not eased at the level of mobility, this is "the first good news for a long time" after
miss the end of last season
, coinciding with the beginning of the health crisis, and the first important bridge of this. From there, where the pace is set this year by Covid and not snow, the CEO of Cetursa,
Jesus Ibáñez
, asks for "responsibility" and "conscience" so that an avalanche that has little to do with the weather ends the season definitively.
Along these lines, despite the fact that the income expectations of the station managed by the public company are far from the splendor of other years, they are pleased to be able to open for Andalusia since mobility between municipalities would have meant the closure of many businesses that They only operate in the station and whose income comes essentially from the winter season. Likewise, it highlights the `` magnificent experience '' that visitors will be able to enjoy with all the news and facilities revised and ready, among which are the
more than 300 guns
production of snow and the opening of the most demanded skiable areas, the Veleta, Borreguiles, Río and Loma de Dílar slopes, with the intention of expanding the rest of the surfaces as of January.
2019/20 season
settled around
one million users
despite the premature closure, 28% fewer skiers than in the previous period, so its workers foresee that the recently started campaign will end with a somewhat more dramatic scenario.
'' We are more than grateful for the openness, but we cannot ignore the reality of
losses
that we are going to suffer in this second wave due to the closure to national and international tourism that we did not suffer in the first, '' they indicate from the employer.However, hope being the last thing that is lost, Cetursa has established a strict protocol to follow with conditions such as
50% capacity limitation on slopes
, the sale of ski passes exclusively 'online' and a reduction in capacity in the establishments to recover the market in Spain and abroad.
The latter, leisure, concerned the administrations more at the level of the spread of the virus than the sport practice itself -which is carried out outdoors, with sufficient distances and protections- so the capacity restrictions will be more severe in this aspect to contain the spread of the virus and thus position the station as a safe place in the face of the influx of new visitors.
European ski resorts
The decision implies in practice that the Andalusian station becomes, together with the
Catalan
which will open according to the latest information on
next monday 14
, in one of the few great ski areas in the
South of Europe
which opens its doors to the public.
This has generated a gap outside our borders, especially with other member states of the European Union such as
France, Italy or Germany
, which came to pressure the central government asking for prudence and the delay in opening until the Christmas holidays due to the health risk that could involve the displacement of its citizens to the stations that do allow the practice of winter sports. However, it is far away that other Spanish citizens can travel to the Granada facilities - they can only do so with a pass for family reunions or work reasons - the further away is the horizon that European compatriots can do so, so the news has given a In spite of this, since Sierra Nevada is the southernmost station in Europe, some leaders of the old continent such as
Emmanuel macron
or
Angela Merkel
have announced the intensification of controls to prevent exodus in the coming months, as well as the request for bilateral collaboration at least so that their citizens cannot access the ski resorts until the evolution of the epidemiological curve is favorable. These restrictions will act on other European winter seasons, such as the
Italian, finery or German
, what
they will not be able to open
by administrative order until January, the same steps that the Aragonese stations that refuse to open imminently will follow in principle.
It is not the case of
Austria
, which will open its own throughout the month of December or
Switzerland
which also plans to open on the 22nd.
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