[ad_1]
Apartment rented for quarantine month and a half before
It says on January 16: “Hey hey, we’re planning to go to Bad Gastein this Monday. We’ve been paying for accommodation since December 1, so we have an apartment where we can quarantine. (Translation from Swedish with Translate, note). Plus: “Someone has been lost here lately and knows if there are problems at the border and how they can be solved.” The answer is: “We didn’t stop at all. There is also no border control “
Talks at the tourism association
The Bad Gastein tourist association is aware of the problem: “Yesterday in the association we had a very long discussion on the subject. The problem is not the hotels, but second home owners and private owners who simply keep renting rooms, ”says Olaf von der Wetter, Bad Gastein’s tourism director. In addition to his role in tourism, the native German is also the managing director of the Janus Hotelbetriebsgesellschaft, which runs a whole hill full of hotels in Bad Gastein. Also called “Sweden Hill” by the locals. Because the main group of hotel guests are Scandinavians. “What do you think sticks in my pants when we have to keep our factories closed and people in other places don’t comply with regulation,” says von der Wetter. It was agreed in the tourism association to send any reports of violations directly to the district administration.
Job references wanted
Even with the police, illegal ski vacationers in the Monte Carlo of the Alps are on their radar: “We control everything as much as possible, but our hands are tied, as long as people indicate professional purposes as a reason for entry, not we can do nothing. It’s legal, ”says Hans J. Wolfgruber, press spokesman for the Salzburg State Police Directorate. Five days ago in the Scandinavian chat he said something like this: “Hello, my friend and I are going to Bad Gastein today. However, we have a problem. Little did we know that you would need to repair job references to enter the country. Does anyone know how to fix it QUICK? Any advice helps. ” There are ten comments on the post, but only the harmless ones are visible to everyone.
Wolfgruber: “If there is a new regulation that gives us measures, we will use them.”
Since December 30, the municipality of Bad Gastein has registered 65 registrations for two residences of foreign citizens. In order to control the situation, Mayor Gerhard Steinbauer now sends all reports to the responsible district authority for review. But the authorities are not complying with controls due to the amount of work that Corona generates.
Morality versus law
There is little understanding among the population of Bad Gastein by holiday-loving Swedes. “We feel like they are cheating us. Everyone sticks to the guidelines and vacationers run like we don’t have a pandemic, ”says a local. And a Gastein resident living abroad adds: “For professional reasons, I cannot afford to self-quarantine when entering and leaving the country. But it is apparently considered a new sport to cross the border without being seen. And for what? What can you go skiing?
The Salzburg police understand this upset: “We understand the population and their anger. But what is morally reprehensible is not necessarily automatically punishable, ”says police spokesman Wolfgruber.
The fact that the mood among the locals is not the best with respect to the Far North guests is also reflected in the Scandinavian chat group. It says there: “I also received signs that there is some irritation among the locals. (…) I can only remind you to carefully follow all the rules, to keep the papers in order and not to hold them unnecessarily. ”
The Gasteiner would now say: Thank you very sacred. Or in good Swedish: Tack så mycket.
