Covid certificate may not be a blanket requirement for Swiss skiing

Some ski resorts may still make the Covid passport compulsory for all areas, as the Fideriser Heuberge resort has done. Keystone / Arno Balzarini

There will be no general obligation to show a Covid certificate in Swiss ski resorts this winter, the Swiss ski lift organisation Seilbahnen Schweiz said on Tuesday. However, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) then cast some doubt on this. 

Seilbahnen Schweiz said ski lift operators had agreed with the federal government and cantons not to introduce any new anti-Covid rules for the time being, although this could change depending on how the health situation develops.

Eating inside restaurants in ski resorts will still require a Covid certificate, as in the rest of the country. Ski enthusiasts will have to wear masks in ski lift cabins and keep their distance inside buildings, the association said.

This means that skiing in Switzerland would be possible this winter in many places without a Covid certificate.  However, at least one Swiss ski resort has already announced that it will be compulsory. The Fideriser Heuberge resort in the southeastern canton of Graubunden requires a Covid certificate for all activities and operations in the entire ski area.

Shortly after the Seilbahnen Schweiz announcement, Patrick Mathys of the FOPH called it “presumptuous”, saying that it was up to the federal government and not the ski lift operators to take such a decision. He told the press on Tuesday that the government was in contact with the ski lift operators and other concerned actors and that “we will see how the situation evolves at the time”.

Switzerland was one of the few countries that kept ski resorts open last season. The decision was controversial at the time as most resorts in neighbouring regions were closed.