Corona pandemic
Skiing holidays in neighboring Austria are a long way off
The skiing holiday in Austria is canceled for German tourists.
© Tomsickova Tatyana / Shutterstock.com
With the new regulations for combating corona in Austria, skiing holidays over Christmas are basically impossible for German tourists.
For passionate winter sports enthusiasts, a ski holiday in Austria over the Christmas holidays is the last hope for a little normalcy in the remaining days of the year. But with the latest measures that Austria's Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (34) imposed on Wednesday (December 2) until the turn of the year, this hope also died suddenly.
There are several reasons for this, as should emerge from a decision paper from which the "Bild" newspaper cited. There are the greatly tightened entry regulations, or, as Kurz puts it, "rigorous border management". Anyone planning to enter Austria between mid-December and at least January 10th should ensure that they are not coming from any risk area – countries with an incidence value of 100 (per 100,000 inhabitants) are then considered to be such. Germany currently clearly exceeds this value with almost 140.
No overnight accommodation
A ten-day quarantine is therefore mandatory for people from risk areas, which can only be ended prematurely with a negative PCR test after five days. In other words: German ski fans would have to sacrifice at least five of the valuable vacation days to get out of quarantine. Exceptions should only apply to commuters and on the occasion of short family visits.
However, this is a purely hypothetical consideration for tourists anyway, because there will be no overnight accommodation for them over the Christmas holidays. Because Kurz also announced that the hotel and catering industry will have to remain closed until January 7th. The fact that the ski lifts will be running again from December 24th and that skiers are allowed to stand in front of them with mask compulsory will largely only allow locals to ski.
In general, the Austrian population can look forward to the easing of the very strict lockdown regulations imposed there. From next Monday (December 7th) compulsory schools, retailers and "body-friendly service providers" will be allowed to open again, including museums and libraries. The exit restrictions are also limited to the period between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.