Skift Take
This conflict between French authorities and British ski tour operators is about money and not about ski safety.
French authorities in the Alps threaten the future of ski companies who offer to show their guests around the slopes.
It is as essential an element of many ski holidays as fondue Savoyard and Europop discos. But now the custom of offering British holidaymakers an informal tour of the pistes, to help them find their way round the lifts and runs in an unfamiliar resort, is under threat from the French authorities.
A British ski company is being prosecuted for allegedly breaching French ski safety law after police intercepted a member of its staff accompanying a group of holidaymakers in an alpine resort.
In what is being seen by British firms as a test case that could put an end to a popular service provided to their guests, Yorkshire-based Le Ski, which takes 5,000 tourists to the Alps each year, will appear in court next month.
The French authorities claim that the "ski hosts" – who show chalet guests around the slopes, taking them to the nicest runs and the best hot chocolate stops but who are not qualified as instructors or guides – present a danger to guests.
The case has in effect set the British tour operators against their French colleagues in a dispute that has echoes of previous attempts by French ski instructors to prevent any other nationality teaching skiing in their resorts.
"We have decided not to take this lying down," said Nick Morgan, who founded Le Ski with his sister 30 years ago. "We don't believe what we do is illegal, and we don't want to set a precedent for the industry.
"The law in question is a very specific law, relating to qualifications for teaching and guiding. But is a ski host a guide o
