Austria’s ski lifts will open on December 24, while hotels, bars and restaurants will remain closed throughout the holiday season, the government announced Wednesday.

A second lockdown has failed to dramatically lower infection rates, which remain at around 5,000 new cases per day, but the Alpine nation will slowly begin relaunching the economy, starting with schools and businesses next week.

Hotels, bars and restaurants, will only reopen on January 7, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

The winter ski season has been the subject of wide debate as Germany, France and Italy pushed for a European ban on ski tourism until early January. 

Kurz said that Austria, where more than 2,000 ski lifts are a major driver of the €15-billion winter sports industry, had decided to allow skiing and other individual outdoor sports starting December 24 “so that the Austrian population has the chance to engage in sporting activity over the holidays”. 

He emphasised that skiing was an outdoor sport whereas the majority of coronavirus infections can be traced back to private parties and meetings.

In the pandemic’s first wave, Austrian ski hotspots – above all the resort of Ischgl – were accused of failing to respond quickly enough to outbreaks and allowing thousands of infected tourists to travel home and spread the virus.