Tourism problems in Austria: Almost 8000 incidence in ski resort - 1000 Dutch return infected
Created: 01/11/2022, 09:16 AM
From: Franziska Schwarz
Omikron makes everything difficult for Austrian tourism.
Now the industry is worried about the winter season - some are even calling for a new corona lockdown.
Flachau / Salzburger Land - With more than 7,500, the Austrian Flachau ski area currently has an incidence that sounds incredible when you first hear it.
According to the mayor's remarks, it becomes more plausible - but they also highlight tourism-specific problems in the corona pandemic.
Because, according to Thomas Oberreiter, there are currently 15,000 to 16,000 more people in the 3,000-inhabitant town: tourists and tourism industry employees.
According to him, they currently make up 60 percent of corona cases.
But: of the approximately 230 infected people, not a single one is currently receiving medical treatment, he told the APA news agency.
"Half of those affected, usually young people, are also without symptoms."
Second, tests are carried out very heavily in Flachau - the second reason for the high incidence, Oberreiter believes.
"We have our own test center, where many people who have recovered or have been vaccinated can be tested regularly - for example all ski instructors."
Ski season in Austria © Eibner-Pressefoto / EXPA / Feichter / Imago
Corona variant Omikron poses major hurdles for the tourism industry
Testing alone only solves a few problems.
The construction of some accommodations does not allow guests to be kept at a good distance from one another.
"We have to take preventive measures here," said health officer Christian Stöckl (ÖVP) of the APA.
“Unfortunately, we have no experience of how high the demand will be.
In the previous year we prepared two hotels as quarantine quarters, but then there was no season. "
The Austrian Health Fund (ÖGK) protested against the idea of converting a spa center into accommodation for tourists who tested positive.
She needed the building for rehab cases.
"We want to finalize 70 to 80 units this week, where we can accommodate infected holidaymakers in January and February," said Stöckl.
Numerous staff are in quarantine and the affected hotels can hardly be operated.
"If we don't do anything now, we will have a de facto lockdown anyway, the system is already about to collapse," said Kitzbühel tourism association chief Christian Harisch of the APA.
Ski schools are also in emergency operation. "It would therefore be important to shorten the quarantine period or - if there are no symptoms - to cancel it entirely," he says.
Omikron in tourism and ski areas: The number of unreported cases is likely to be high
Of course it doesn't only look like this in Flachau. The numbers are rising particularly in the provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg, which are popular with tourists. This "anecdote" sounds strange in this context: 964 Dutch people tested positive at the beginning of the year when they returned from their vacation in Austria. This was reported by the news portal
NL Times.
The Netherlands are currently considered virus variant areas in Austria, but the quarantine obligation after entry does not apply to people who have been vaccinated three times (i.e. with booster), according to the report.
One has to assume a certain number of unreported cases anyway.
Many guests probably do not even allow themselves to be tested in order to avoid a quarantine.
If they do, they will be isolated in their room - or they will travel home by car without stopping.
In theory.
"But there are a number of cases where this is not so easily possible," says Stöckl.
Because of all this, individual voices from the tourism industry are now calling for a quick and rather short lockdown in order to save at least the rest of the winter season.
Corona in Austria: The federal and state governments will discuss on January 6th
The new contagion curve in Austria is steeply upwards overall.
On January 5, almost 9,800 cases were recorded in one day, almost twice as many as a week earlier.
The situation in the normal and intensive care units initially remained stable.
The much more contagious omicron variant of the virus has dominated the infection process in the Alpine republic since the end of the year.
The federal and state governments will discuss the current situation on January 6th.
Our news ticker for the Corona summit in Austria will then be continuously updated.
(frs)
