Massive Expansion Plan For Swiss Resorts (15-May-11)

A massive 140 million Swiss Franc ($160/£100m) development...

A massive 140 million Swiss Franc ($160/£100m) development installing 18 new ski lifts between two famous Swiss resorts to create one of the country’s and the world’s biggest ski areas has been announced.

The plan to link Andermatt and Sedrun’s skiing will be carried forward by the Scandinavian ski resort developers SkiStar who currently run five of the top resorts in Norway and Sweden, including Are and Hemsedal.

The linking of Sedrun’s skiing to that of Andermatt would create a ski area of at least 250km as the two resorts currently offer 130km and 120km respectively, this would immediately make it one of the country’s three largest and possibly second only to the 4 Valleys.

The plans are backed by Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris who is already transforming Andermatt resort itself by adding six luxury hotels, apartment complexes and new homes as well as a golf course in a development due to be completed for winter 2013/2014.

However Swissinfo.ch reports that the plans have not proved universally popular. The boss of Andermatt’s lift company says that in order to be sustainable the development needs to be staged rather than all at once, and fears that the development could prove to be a white elephant if not grown gradually, with the public purse left to pick up the pieces. A spokesperson for the Swiss alpine club feared environmental damage and the loss of pristine terrain currently only accessed by ski tourers and winter climbers.