A major French winter resort is about to close its doors due to lack of funds, CNN writes.
The Alpe du Grand Serre ski resort is located in Southeastern France. The ski resort will not open this year, however, after the local municipal council decided to stop funding it as it wants to reduce its reliance on winter sports.
The resort is one of several lower-lying ski resorts in Europe that have faced an existential crisis in the past few years as climate change brings warmer and shorter winters.
Faced with ever-decreasing snowfall, the city backed the Alpe de Grande Serre 2050 plan, which aimed to replace the ski lifts and improve the station for both summer and winter sports.
“Closing the resort would be truly catastrophic for the region,” Marie-Noël Battistel, a member of parliament for the Isère region, told local TV station Télégrenoble last Friday, the day before the vote.
“There are close to 200 jobs that depend on it. Closing a station of such importance sends a catastrophic signal nationally,” she added.
On Saturday, 47 members of Matheysine council, which includes the resort, voted to terminate the contract with ski lift operator SATA Group. Only 12 members voted to continue operations, according to CNN.
Local council president Coraline Saurat said around €2.8 million had been invested in turning the area into a year-round resort since 2017.
She explained that with winter snow becoming increasingly rare, taking a few more years to complete the project was too much of a risk.
“Dedicating another two years to this project is absolutely pointless,” she said, speaking to France Bleu on Saturday.
“The state is not giving us concrete support for the future of the resort or for a transitional operation,” said Saurat, who warned back in January that the resort was facing a €7 million financial hole.
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