hundreds of British skiers flee Switzerland to avoid quarantine

Rather than stay cooped up in their chalets, they decided to take flight. While some chose to cross the border by train, others left in the dead of night, fearful that hoteliers would report them to police. Britons not subject to the restrictions said they felt they had to speak in “hushed tones” when out and about to avoid a grilling.

The ensuing chaos prompted a blame game amongst local authorities about who was responsible and whether border controls should have been tighter. Many on social media branded the fleeing Britons selfish and irresponsible, whilst local tourist chiefs rallied around their most important foreign clientele, who comprise 20 per cent of Verbier’s winter guests.

One hotel worker said: “We are a holiday resort not a prison. I don’t blame them for leaving rather than sitting cooped up in a bedroom 24 hours a day.”

Simon Wiget, director of Verbier Tourist Office, said: “The British must not be stigmatised. They arrived in Verbier anticipating fresh mountain air but then suddenly they are stuck in a hotel room.

“The reflex would be to leave if you are told this. I think the vast majority of people would have believed they were acting responsibly and within the law.” Wiget insisted there was “no great escape in the dead of night” but that it was not for hotels to enforce restrictions.

Among those who fled the country last week was Andy Wigmore, one of the self-styled “bad boys of Brexit” best knwn for his work on the “Leave EU” campaign.

Wigmore had flown to Wengen with his wife, two children and two of their friends, for a week’s skiing and had been due to return home on Christmas Eve.

They were on the slopes when they were warned by a local that the border would close at 6pm that evening, prompting them to drop everything and flee. “We had to get out of there or we’d have been stuck,” he told The London Telegraph. “The Swiss are incredibly efficient, their track-and-trace system is world class, they track you wherever you are and are constantly texting you.

“We had three-and-a-half hours. We dropped the car at the airport, then went to Basel and took a train over the border. There were a couple of other Brits doing the same thing. We thought it best to take a little village route to evade capture if we missed the deadline.

“There were so many police around at the border, we saw Brits being stopped. We only just made it with 20 minutes to spare – if we hadn’t had the tip-off we would have been stuck.”

A hotelier, who did not want to be identified, said two British guests who had been due to stay until Boxing Day, left on Christmas Eve. They said: “To be honest, I am surprised they stayed as long as they did. They didn’t tell me they were leaving, maybe they thought I would tell the police which of course is not my job”.

Among those who stayed to quarantine were Tom Waycott, 27, and Josh Pitchford, 28, from London, who had arrived at the Hotel La Rotonde on December 18 for a five-day holiday. Waycott said they stuck to the rules to avoid the “hefty” fine of up to 10,000 Swiss francs ($14,838).

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“We have a balcony which has been a saviour because we are literally not allowed out of our room,” he said.

“The hotel has been brilliant and they put food outside the door for us. A friend told us about a Brit on Christmas Eve who scanned his ski lift pass, which had his name on it, at the bottom of Les Ruinettes lift and by the time he was at the top there were officials waiting for him.”

The London Telegraph