French ski lifts will not reopen on February 1 and it is not clear for now whether French people can start booking winter holidays in February, French Tourism Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said on Thursday.
French ski resorts can welcome tourists but the lifts have not been allowed to open since the start of the season. With no mechanical means to lift them up the slopes, skiers and snowboarders have resort to trudging up the slopes with snow shoes.
Early January, the government said lifts would be allowed to reopen on Jan. 20 if the spread of the COVID-19 virus had been slowed, but in recent days new cases have spiked higher again.
Lemoyne declined to say when ski lifts could reopen, but he said certainly not on Feb. 1 and that the government might have to take additional measures if necessary.
He also said that it was too early to say whether French citizens could go on holiday in February and too early to say when restaurants could reopen.
“Things are uncertain now because the priority is the fight against the virus,” he said in an interview with France 5 television.
Earlier, a government source had told Reuters that ski lifts would most likely remain closed until the end of the season. Tourists can visit French resorts but the lifts have not run since the beginning of the season.
The source also said restaurants, closed apart from limited takeaway services since the end of October, will probably not reopen as planned on Feb. 1, with French media saying they would remain shut until early April.
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