Lapland ski resorts all closing
Last day of skiing: All major ski resorts in northern Finland announced on Sunday that they will close the lifts.
Queues of cars were reportedly heading toward several of the ski resorts in Lapland after the first announcement said the lifts will be closed by next Friday.
Foreigners are banned from entering Finland due to the coronavirus outbreak, and Finns have been criticized for continuing to travel. Many have even prolonged stays at places like Levi, saying they “are working from home.”
Rather than reducing the number of visitors, the decision has caused more people to arrive for the last chance to ski this season.
“Our decision has turned against itself, so next week the number of customers in our slope centers would have increased rather than gradually being reduced,” said Jouni Palosaari, Managing Director of Levi Ski Resort, interviewed by YLE.
“For this reason, we decided to close our operations even earlier than first announced.”
By Sunday, there are 626 registered coronavirus cases in Finland, up 105 since Saturday.
Levi is the largest of the ski destination in northern Finland, but also resorts like Ylläs, Luosto, Olos, Pallas and Ounasvaara (Rovaniemi) say they will close be closed from Monday, newspaper Lapin Kansa reports. Normally, the ski resorts in Lapland keep slopes open until the first week of May.
