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By default, people would already be preparing for the ski season. For most Hungarians, Austria is a destination where well-maintained slopes await the public and are easily accessible: you don’t need to travel as much as Italy or France.
Quantifying this, one can imagine that
About 500,000 Hungarian skiers travel to Austria in the winter,
With this, last year we ranked ninth on the list of emitting countries, and in terms of guest nights we exceeded one million.
The situation is different this year. The coronavirus epidemic rewrites everything, one of the biggest victims of which is tourism and hospitality. Especially now that new austerity measures have been introduced in Austria until December 6. The ski lifts have been closed in front of the general public, which means that amateur skiers cannot satisfy their passion, only cyclists can use the slopes and hotels, only for business guests, leisure facilities have also been closed and the restaurants.
They were closed to open
Tourism accounts for a significant part of GDP in Austria, which is why the country was closed in November. This is how they want to save, which can still be saved. They are confident that the numbers will drop in these few weeks, if they do, they will not extend the measures and then there may still be some of this year’s ski season from mid-December or January.
– Ildikó Kaufmann, Österreich Werbung’s marketing manager, told the Index, who said that in this case there will be domestic tourism, Germans can also be expected, but guests from other countries are also welcome, such as the Netherlands and Hungary. The question is how you will be able to travel in and out, but there are certainly those for whom skiing is so important that they would also run a 10-day home office after returning home.
Az Austria Werbungról
As the Austrian national tourism organization, the Österreich Werbung sees its central task as maintaining and developing Austria’s tourism competitiveness, together with all its partner organizations involved in tourism.
Winter ski tourism is a key element of the Austrian economy, so the government is also trying to avoid a complete shutdown; you are interested in having a ski season again this year. It also supports tourism businesses, so businesses that are directly affected by the restrictions of the second closure will be compensated up to 80 percent of the turnover lost in November compared to November last year. Kurzarbeit was introduced to preserve jobs, with a 5 per cent VAT rate on hospitality and accommodation, while the previous € 375 million state loan guarantee facility was raised to € 625 million.
Of course, there is a lot of uncertainty, but according to Ildikó Kaufmann, they are already very prepared to open it again. Consequently, a number of security precautions have been taken, monitoring the distance, condensing the number of elevators, restricting how many can enter if necessary, monitoring mask use, and tickets and passes can be purchased online in advance, further reducing the risk. In short, there are many things you can do as host and guest to make the season work.
There will be a lot of work for the instructors.
They cannot afford not to open the ski slopes. The Austrian economy would collapse. So I didn’t worry for a minute. I am not enthusiastic about the work, it will definitely be abundant, because when the current situation eases the closeness to nature will be appreciated, who knows, I will go to the ski slopes immediately.
Said Adolescence Veronika, who has been working as a snowboard and ski instructor in Hermagor and Bad Gastein for years and is not afraid this season will be significantly worse if it could be reopened.
Everyone is waiting for the opening just because it was already snowing in October in October, they expect a strong winter, in addition to snowfall that has not been seen for years. Since the ski slopes had already been open in October until the November restrictions, Adolescence Veronika was also able to slide a few days this year, and even then it seemed that safety measures were being taken seriously.
“The atmosphere on the track was refreshing, the epidemic could not be detected, and there was even a Sunday when not a buttonhole could be dropped in the parking lot, it was so crowded,” said Veronika Adolescent. The rules, on the other hand, were taken very seriously. Although they all had a mask if they only covered someone’s mouth and not their nose, the elevator immediately screamed. “
Survival depends on openness at home.
The situation in Hungary is not too optimistic either, the main problem is uncertainty. One measure follows another, it is difficult to react to them. In most places there is only hope, including Eplény, where they hope to open it in December for those who want to ski.
We do not have any reserves, we have already spent everything in the spring, so now our existence is at stake.
– said Bálint Ebele, managing director of Síaréna Kft., which operates the Eplény slopes, who is confident that the weather will be cold enough for the opening and that the legal environment will be favorable.
This year was difficult enough, it hit tourism. In Eplény, the ski lift season starts immediately after the ski season, but due to the corona virus, this was not possible in spring 2020. According to Bálint Ebele, August and September were acceptable months, while the rest were total failures. Although basically between 42 and 45 thousand tourists visit the Eplény cable cars every year from spring to fall.
The winter season, on the other hand, is even stronger: 50-55 thousand people buy tickets,
with approximately 30,000 escorts from December to March. You can still ski in Eplény, the rule does not prohibit it at home, which is understandable, after all, there are far fewer slides on the slopes in Hungary than in Austria; in fact, the two are incomparable. During the weekend, it will probably also start snowing to prepare for the December opening.
“We can operate as a ski resort, although without a restaurant, skiing is not real Said Bálint Ebele . – We hope that the situation will return to normal from December and that the restaurants can also reopen. The facility has twenty-three hectares, so we expected that if we open the two main roads and introduce a daily limit of three thousand people, in the worst case, they will all get 20 square meters, which will provide adequate security in terms of spread of the virus ”.
(Cover image: Kreischberg, Austria. Photo: Shutterstock)
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