It is such a small déjà vu – form as in spring coronavirus wave again, hundreds of clients who bought a trip will not go anywhere. Ski trips to Austria in December, for example, must be canceled.
“The hotels will not open until January, so we are now contacting clients – there are about four hundred of them – and we are agreeing with them whether they will change their trip to stay in the high season or not, if we return the money,” said CK spokesman Fischer. Jan Bezděk.
Czechs who want to go to Austria now have to quarantine for ten days. With a negative test, they can leave it after five days. But in Austria, hotels are still closed.
France, Italy and Germany do not even plan to open ski resorts yet, although many have been preparing for it. “For us, one losing month means minus thirty percent of our turnover,” says Jean-Yves Pachod, mayor of French Coruchevel.
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Entrepreneurs there are rebelling, they are also annoyed by the fact that they will start the season in Switzerland or Austria – albeit under a very limited regime and with mandatory quarantine for all newcomers from high-risk countries.
In Slovakia, some resorts in the Low Tatras were opened. They took advantage of the fact that the government should not talk about national rules until the new week. The lifts and cable cars also started on the Polish side of the Tatras. But people cannot stay here, hotels and guesthouses are open in the country only for business trips.
In addition to special police units, the operators themselves supervise compliance with the rules in this center. “We very strongly demand that each of the skiers have their mouths and noses covered,” confirms Paweł Nalowieski, marketing manager at the Kotelnica Białczanska ski resort.
The Polish government refused to open the slopes at first, but then changed its mind. According to the Minister of Economy, this was directly supported by President Andrzej Duda, who is known as a passionate skier.
Travel agencies attract people for the summer
Under these circumstances, Czech travel agencies try to attract clients even for the summer. And according to Jana Fajtová from the Prague branch of CK Fischer, this office already has such interested parties – three arrived in one morning. He considers this a good sign, because before the autumn restrictions during the day, often no one came at all.
“The client now pays only one deposit, namely 990 crowns and pays the rest up to thirty days before departure. And if he decides not to go on holiday, we will return all his money back to him, “assures CK spokesman Fischer Bezděk. And the offices promise to return the payment regardless of whether the client redeemed the voucher or paid the money.
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Problems with departures thus persist from the spring. This year, the market fell by as much as eighty percent. “Last year, two hundred thousand clients went on holiday with us, this year it was around fifty thousand,” specifies Eva Němečková, a spokeswoman for Čedok. Every year, this office sends about sixty delegates abroad. This year, however, according to Natálie Mikušová from Čedok, there were only a third of them.
While last year the most frequent flights with travel agencies were to Greece and Spain, this year it was Greece and Bulgaria.
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