The corona crisis is expected to result in losses of around 104 million euros for tourism and the economy in the district this year.
District
- "The loss due to lost sales in March and April alone amounts to around 53.1 million euros," reported Harald Gmeiner, director of the municipal tourism company Alpenregion Tegernsee Schliersee (ATS), now in the district development committee.
The lockdown practically brought tourism to a standstill.
By the end of the year, forecasts show a loss in turnover of 71 million euros in accommodation and 33 million euros in day tourism.
This corresponds to a decrease of 21 and 19 percentage points respectively.
1.23 million overnight stays from January to August
Still, there is good news.
"In July and August we reached the previous year's figures again," said Gmeiner.
“I am optimistic that it will continue like this.” Bookings were now made at significantly shorter notice, and the conference business has reduced considerably.
This is compensated by guests who are now increasingly arriving outside of the holidays.
In total, the ATS counted around 1.23 million overnight stays from January to August in the eight municipalities that levy a resort fee.
In the previous year there were 1.64 million in the same period.
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ATS board member Harald Gmeiner
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Gmeiner demonstrated the importance of tourism for the region on the basis of a value-added study. In 2019, holiday guests and day-trippers generated gross sales of around 513 million euros.
The hospitality industry profited the most with EUR 307.8 million, followed by services (112.6) and retail (92.6).
Visitor management is playing an increasingly important role
Of course, a lot of turnover also means a lot of traffic, and so visitor management will play an increasingly important role in the future.
The number of day visitors alone has increased by 17 percentage points over the past five years.
There were around 8.2 million in 2019, an average of 22,500 per day. On peak days, the number even rose to 70,000 - including the district citizens who were looking for relaxation at the lakes and in the mountains.
The Corona crisis has not contributed to the relaxation, on the contrary.
“Travel behavior has changed,” says Gmeiner.
"And because many people avoid public transport because of the risk of infection, private transport has increased."
Participation in the research project Smart Tourism Region
ATS will therefore rely on digital visitor guidance in the future.
As part of the research project Smart Tourism Region, which is funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs with 1.32 million euros, the partners want to develop a forecast model over a period of two and a half years that will help prevent traffic congestion in the region.
"The guest should already be informed about the traffic situation on site if he still has the opportunity to evade", Gmeiner outlined the concept.
On the way to the Oberland, day trippers find out which roads are congested or where free parking spaces can be found digitally or using digitized signposts.
All of this is only possible if the corresponding digital infrastructure is available.
ATS project group is now working on this.
In the future, all data relating to tourism will be brought together on one platform - from traffic and parking lot data to events and offers from service providers to weather data and information from guests.
“We have to be master of the data,” said Gmeiner.
"Digitization and visitor management are two major projects in the next few years."
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