France: Business owners share relief as British skiers allowed to return to French slopes after travel restrictions eased | World News

There is no winter sport resort quite like Chamonix. Nestled in the shadow of Mont Blanc, it has a glittering history and a reputation for challenging even the best skiers.

People travel from all around the world to try their luck on these slopes. And now, the British can join them once again.

For nearly a month, holidaymakers were banned from crossing the Channel as a result of COVID restrictions. They were brought in when the Omicron variant was dominant in the UK, but not much seen in France.

Now, that has changed; Omicron is omnipresent in both countries and, after hesitating for a short while, the French have reopened their border to British tourists. Many of those now crossing are heading towards the Alps.

The only country that sends more tourists to the French Alps than Britain is France itself. In Chamonix, it’s reckoned that around one in four people on the slopes is British; in other resorts, the ratio is even higher.

What that means is that there are plenty of businesses in these mountains who depend on the Brits. And when they stopped coming, those businesses started to worry.

Shona Tate was among the nervous. She helped to found a ski school in Chamonix 18 years ago, but says that the past two years have been the hardest time they’ve faced. She told me that her business depended on British tourists being allowed to return.

“If the restrictions hadn’t been lifted then we wouldn’t have been able to survive,” she said. “You need cash flow to keep going. At the moment, we’re not even paying ourselves.

“The whole industry has taken a hit, and it hasn’t been pleasant. But as soon as the announcement came out that…