If things go according to plan - there being snow, for example - the Winter 2021/22, Sierra Nevada skiing season will commence on the 27th of November.

Forfaits were put on sale a month ago in preparation and hotel reservations are looking up. For these reasons the businesses up there; restaurants, shops and hotels, feel optimistic about the coming ski season.

Compared with last year, they have every reason to expect a better year, for the 2021/2022 skiing season.

The Chairman of the Asociación de Empresarios de Sierra Nevada, Enrique de la Higuera, explained that last season with travel between provinces and regions curtailed, they only managed a 30% occupation figure compared to the 90% prepandemic figures.

This season will commence with 55% of the 5,000 beds (hotels and tourist flats) in use but this figure should grow as the ski season progresses.

Business owners up there are keeping their fingers crossed for a good turn out from foreign tourists, which in a normal year represents 20% of the total.

Early figures show that the December bank holidays (6th and 8th) already have 60% of their available beds reserved and for Christmas Eve the figure is 70%… and we’re still only in October.

Many skiers had to cancel their reservations last year but promised that they would return, and many of them have already rebooked, true to their word.

Lastly, the association has requested that the Junta increases the skiable area because the existing ski lifts are more and more burdened by the work load.

(News: Sierra Nevada, Granada, Andalucia)