School skiing trips that rely on British personnel to staff their EU winter camps could be wiped out by Brexit after it emerged they are facing the same obstacles as the music and theatre sectors. Just like rock bands and music artists, instructors who work on the slopes of France, Italy or elsewhere in the EU are now required to have visas if they work in Europe, even if it is for just one week at a time. Pre-pandemic, Robert McIntosh, the managing director of Interski, took 250 groups a year involving 10,000 to 12,000 children to Aosta in Italy. He employs 40-50 British staff who he normally takes to Italy for the entire season, and now needs visas for them as well as up to 600 instructors, potentially costing around £300 per visit. Typically, ski schools would hire British instructors for one, two or three weeks at a time to mirror the school peaks in the December holiday and February half-term. McIntosh does not know if this current British staffing model for such trips will continue to be viable. “I am facing a battle on two fronts. Brexit throws uncertainty into everything. The increase in costs because of the visas will be in the region of 100%. You don’t have to be an economist to know that is not going to be viable,” he said. “It is a disaster and there is almost nothing said by the government, they have not provided us with any information on how we work this.”
His warning came two years after ski industry businesses warned of the loss of 25,000 jobs if they could not hire British staff at ski resorts and chalet villages after Brexit. Lincolnshire-based ski instructor Nick Orgles, who has worked with school trips for the past 20 years, said: “Since Brexit, we have all lost our jobs, our passion. The UK government has put nothing in place to allow us to continue to work in the EU. “I would normally be going down three, four or five times a year to teach students to ski in the valley. I now can’t do that.” He says his experience is “the tip of the iceberg” and the same visa requirements will hit other sport instructors in sectors including sailing and climbing. And it echoes the concerns of musicians furious that the government did not strike a visa-free deal with the EU for creatives. Last week Sir Elton John said he was “livid” with the government, warning that the UK music industry could lose “a generation of talent” because of post-Brexit restrictions on touring. Not all school skiing trips have been hit though. Hugues Raulet, who runs Halsbury Travel in Nottingham, said the only issue he is anticipating is delays at the border. This is because his company employs local staff who do not need work visas. • This article was amended on 5 July 2021 to clarify that Robert McIntosh was talking about the impact of Brexit on the British staffing model for school ski trips, not on his business specifically, the survival of which is not at risk as suggested in an earlier version.