Swiss rile neighbors with ski green light

Switzerland is plowing ahead with preparations for the year-end holiday season despite pressure from neighboring Italy, France and Germany to shut until the latest coronavirus wave passes.

Skiing, and more specifically the travel and apres-ski socializing, have been identified as contributors to the initial spread of the virus in Europe earlier this year.

Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset has proposed limits on the capacity of ski lifts at Christmas and the New Year, but lift operators and mountain regions that already expect many foreign visitors to stay away during the festive period bristle at added restrictions.

Eloi Rossier, mayor of Bagnes below the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, acknowledged feeling the heat from other countries, but said that his town's ski economy was too important to simply call off the season. He cited the measures the resort was taking to keep people safe.

He expects up to 45,000 people over Christmas and New Year, fewer than normal due to "a lot of cancellations".

"There is an economic aspect that we cannot deny. It is extremely important," Rossier said.

Border controls

France, Germany and Italy have decided to shut their resorts this Christmas, with France hoping to reopen toward the end of January.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex has said random border controls will be introduced to stop people traveling to Switzerland to ski this winter.

"We've got a problem with the French government which shuts the slopes a month before Christmas while our Swiss neighbors keep theirs open," he told French radio.

The President of the Italian Health Council, Franco Locatelli, called the Swiss decision "disappointing" and said if necessary, people returning to Italy from Switzerland may have to be placed in quarantine.

This Christmas, Austria will allow skiing to take place but only in limited numbers, and with anyone coming from abroad having to spend time in quarantine.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he hoped it would be possible "for a large part of our population to go skiing at least for the day".

In Verbier in southern Switzerland, lift operator Televerbier was not expecting droves of people, given that foreign visitors who make up as many as half of a typical winter's crowd are unlikely to travel this year.

"We lost a big part of our clients... from Asia, the Middle East or the Americas, so we don't think that if the Italians or French remain closed that they will compensate,"Televerbier Chief Executive Laurent Vaucher said.

Agencies and Julian Shea in London contributed to this story.