PARIS (Reuters) – The French government will continue to support ski resorts affected by the closure of the territory to British tourists due to the surge in contamination by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across the Channel, the Secretary of State for the United States said on Saturday. Tourism.
The ban on all travel to or from the UK, unless there is a compelling reason, came into effect at midnight on Friday. It is seen as a hard blow for the French ski resorts which are losing a precious clientele.
The absence of British tourists risks weighing heavily on a winter sports sector already severely affected during the winter of 2020/2021 by the closure of ski lifts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will continue to be by their side. It is the very clear message that with the Prime Minister, we wanted to pass them this morning,” Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said on BFM TV.
The Secretary of State recalled on this occasion that 7 billion euros in aid were made available to the sector the year after being forced to close the ski lifts.
(Report GV De Clercq and Matthieu Protard)
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