The cable car operators will discuss their future operations on Monday, and some ski areas have already reduced their offerings.
The lockdown in Austria is being extended. Careful opening steps for trade and schools are only to be taken from February 8th. It looks bleak for gastronomy and tourism. You will not be allowed to unlock in February, the government announced on Sunday. So the hotel industry has to write off the winter season entirely. An evaluation and a decision will not be made until mid-February as to whether the opening is possible in March.
A ski vacation during the semester break will therefore not be possible this year. The ski areas will only be available to locals and day visitors. Based on these requirements, the cable car operators will discuss their further operation on Monday.
Since there are no tourists from abroad, some ski areas have already reduced their offer. Others only unlock on weekends. But it could be that this will change for the semester break. As Erich Egger, spokesman for the Salzburg cable car industry, told “orf.at”, each company decides for itself.
For some ski areas in the west, however, the operation is not profitable. You are dependent on foreign guests. A closure in late February or early March would be conceivable. “If the guests from Germany and the Netherlands stay away this time, the Easter business will also be lost. How long the lifts in Salzburg will actually be open will still be decided,” said Egger.
Wolfgang Hettegger, board member of Snow Space Salzburg, would have liked clear guidelines from the federal government. Because planning security is currently not given: “Today we are discussing all these things, when you can see right away that we currently only have about seven to twelve percent of the guests we would otherwise have. People only go skiing for around two hours because Of course, the overnight guest who spends a whole day on the mountain is not there either. So big losses are actually inevitable. “
Now there are no vacationers in February either. Hettegger and Egger therefore demand a corresponding financial compensation for the cable car industry. The announced three million euros in compensation for losses are just a drop in the ocean. “The season is a total failure,” emphasized Egger.
