Italian ski resorts, faced with rising costs and declining subsidies, have warned skiiers: If your insurance doesn’t cover your rescue, you’ll have to pay for it.
The warning covers resorts in a number of areas in the Alto Adige, Trentino and Val d’Aosta, where the costs of maintaining snowmobile, toboggan and sometimes helicopter rescue services come at a time when austerity has reduced financial contributions from regional authorities, which used to finance all that equipment.
In turn, local operators have complained that the availability of the highly-trained rescue teams has sometimes led to abuse by skiiers who have had too much to drink or taken too much risk. The charges range from €100-200, depending on area. One ski-area operator told the newspaper La Repubblica that “Having rescue services which you have to pay for discourages abuse.”
In the Valle d’Aosta region, which is just implementing its €200 fee, the rescue services aid around 3500 skiiers a year, many of whom are covered by insurance. For more details, see thelocal.it HERE
Photo: Rescue helicopter, Lusia region of Italy. Wikimedia, photographer unknown.
I believe that the fees quoted are actually a penalty, intended to discourage abuse of the service and to encourage insurance. I can’t imagine a fee like that would ever cover the cost of a serious rescue operation, even without a helicopter.
I do wonder if, in the end, it will achieve the effect they’re looking for, or just discourage skiing…
It seems quite reasonable to me that the skier should pay for the rescue. €200 is a bargain rate — I’m sure it actually costs much more, especially if a helicopter is involved.
I agree with mandatory insurance in the ski pass. I don’t think there should be a penalty if that mandatory insurance is not there because there will be some people that don’t call for help quick enough because of a 200 Euro( or a lot a lot higher in Italy’s neighboring countries) fine.