Urgent efforts to repatriate 30,000 British tourists from ski resorts in
France are under way amid warnings of “widespread failures” in the travel sector in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
French mountains resorts closed at midnight on Saturday just hours after tens of thousands had landed for their annual holiday in the snow.
Leading ski and summer activity holiday company Neilson has called for the government to step in with “emergency measures”.
There were reports of chaos and confusion across the Alps with one source saying local police had taken the French government’s message into their own hands and going round hotels and restaurants telling marooned Britons to go home immediately.
Diane Palumbo, sales and marketing director at SkiWorld, said she had 900 customers across the Alps and they had been in talks with all the key resorts on Friday to warn them that if they were to close not to do so on Saturday when a fresh influx of tourists were scheduled to arrive.
“We are getting over our anger. It was literally not until 10pm last night that we were confident of the information we were receiving. The same people who had assured us on Thursday, Friday or even Saturday that they would remain open, have now all closed,” she said.