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Winter sports season starts: Bavaria's chance is Austria

2020-10-24T05:47:45.134Z


Despite massive cancellations, there is hope in the Bavarian Alps. Because a winter holiday in the risk country Austria seems impossible for many, the German Alpine regions could benefit.


Despite massive cancellations, there is hope in the Bavarian Alps.

Because a winter holiday in the risk country Austria seems impossible for many, the German Alpine regions could benefit.

  • Because of

    Corona *

    , winter holidays are flat for many - especially in the risk area Austria *.

  • Bavaria's winter sports areas could benefit from the fact that the

    7-day incidence *

    on the other side of the border is even higher than in Germany.

  • Preparations for hygiene concepts are in progress on the slopes.

    But après-ski is out of the question.

Munich - Margot Niedermüller is currently receiving tons of messages that should actually sadden you.

“We are being overwhelmed by a wave of cancellations,” says the manager of the “Alte Wurzhütte” hotel on Spitzingsee.

The seven-day incidence, which the whole of Germany is currently looking at, has torn the 50 mark in the Miesbach district.

“And soon the 100 limit will also fall, we don't need to fool ourselves.”

By December 17th, reports Niedermüller, almost all of the guests had actually canceled.

That's why the hotel manager doesn't sound too kinked.

Firstly, she can't change it, and secondly, she has had a successful summer.

These days the situation is difficult again due to the increasing number of infections - but the ski season gives

cause for hope

.

The ski areas in the Free State could benefit from the fact that a winter holiday in neighboring Austria is associated with major obstacles.

“In winter, the guests are usually with us for two or three days.

Now we have a lot of bookings from long-term holidaymakers who want to stay for a week or two until Mardi Gras, ”reports Niedermüller.

“That is clearly different from previous years.

Anyone who would otherwise go to Austria comes to us

. ”Bavaria's ski areas could therefore benefit from Austria's misery.

Because except for Carinthia, all of Austria is now a risk area.

For ski vacationers that would mean: After returning home from a longer ski vacation, a quarantine would currently be due.

In the neighboring country, people are accordingly nervous.

It's a ten-minute walk from the Alten Wurzhütte to the valley station of the Spitzingsee mountain railways.

Peter Lorenz is responsible for these as managing director, as well as for the Wallbergbahn at Tegernsee and the Brauneckbahn in Lenggries.

He believes that the snow conditions will determine the season this year too.

Only 15 to 20 percent of the skiers - at Spitzingsee there are an average of around 220,000 per season - are overnight guests, the majority of customers are day-trippers from Munich.

And whether they come depends less on incidence values ​​than on the weather.

+

In Austria, the corona situation is getting out of hand.

© Jean-Christophe Bott / KEYSTONE / dpa

Coronavirus Bavaria: Après-ski will not be an issue

Lorenz is absolutely certain that winter sports enthusiasts will be in good hands in Bavaria's ski areas.

“We have a

hygiene concept

with which we were able to gain experience in the summer.” As Vice President of the Association of German Cable Cars, he was also involved in discussions with the authorities.

In essence, you do what everyone is doing in the ski areas: mask compulsory in rooms and where things get tight - including in lifts and gondolas.

The visitors would have felt comfortable so far.

In any case, according to the number of passengers, one had “a normal summer”.

In winter, too, the cabin windows should remain open in gondolas and

the

hoods should be opened

in

chairlifts

, explains Lorenz.

Consideration is being given to

organizing

the

queuing areas

at the valley stations of the lifts differently in order

to avoid

crowds

.

You are asked to pay by card at the cash registers.

Lift passes can also be booked in advance and picked up on site at the machine using a QR code.

Après-ski

won't be a big issue at Spitzingsee, says Lorenz.

Umbrella bars where tourists meet to drink elsewhere will probably not exist.

There is also remodeling in-house.

"It is enough if an employee has the

flu

, then the colleagues he was in contact with also drop out until it has been clarified whether it wasn't

Corona

after all

," says Lorenz.

That's why you want to form fixed, smaller teams.

"Then maybe a lift will stand still, but not everything." Building up a staff reserve is not economically feasible.

In the Garmisch-Partenkirchen ski areas they want to create more space in the outdoor catering in the huts and restaurants.

Additional open-air bars and barbecue stations are planned, says Verena Altenhofen, spokeswoman for Bayerische Zugspitzbahn AG.

The individual restaurants have adapted concepts, the seating areas have been thinned out and large tables divided with partitions made of wood or Plexiglas.

The number of passengers in the large gondolas had already been reduced in summer.

In the cabins of the

Zugspitze cable car,

for example, only a maximum of

80 instead of 120 people are allowed to

ride.

On the Zugspitze, skiing is scheduled to start on November 13th; in the other Bavarian ski areas, people want to get started as soon as there is enough snow or it is cold enough for artificial snowmaking.

Coronavirus Bavaria: Garmisch is hoping for a good winter

The booking situation in Daniel Schimmer's “Garmischer Hof” is still modest.

But with the experiences from the summer -

from June to September the number of overnight stays in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was even higher than in the previous year despite the lack of international guests

- he is confident that a good winter will follow.

That accounts for around 40 percent of the business in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The local ski areas number between 600,000 and 750,000 ski tourists.

What should no longer happen, says Schimmer, is short-term or opaque political action.

In the case of the ban on accommodation, for example, it was unclear which German regions it really applied to, says Schimmer, who is also the Garmisch district executive in the hotel and restaurant association.

“Now there is also a dark red level.

And next, purple? ”

Nothing happened in the hotels of the market town with 758,000 overnight stays in the months after the lockdown.

Margot Niedermüller no longer wants to accept what politics decides in resignation.

If, as recently in Berchtesgaden, an order should be issued for the Spitzing area to

suddenly send all guests home

, "the hoteliers are also prepared to take on the barricades".

Stefan Reich - * merkur.de is part of the Ippen network.

List of rubric lists: © Jean-Christophe Bott / KEYSTONE / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-10-24

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