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Boats and cable cars are working on protection concepts to be ready for the start of the summer season in early June. With a protective mask requirement, companies could carry more passengers. But for people to come, restaurants must also be open.
The Swiss lake boats are preparing for the start on June 8 (in the image, a copy of the Lake Zurich shipping company).
Bathing in Lake Geneva instead of the Mediterranean, camping in Freiberg instead of the Scandinavian forests, traveling to Lucerne instead of London – this summer nothing will work for the vast majority of the Swiss population abroad. But summer in Switzerland is more fun when trips to the mountains or lakes are possible. The signs are currently favorable. Starting June 8, according to today’s planning, the tourist railways should work again. The Federal Council did not clearly communicate this past week. But the industry has received positive signals from the administration.
The industry, which has been hit hard by the Corona crisis, can wait. The federal government estimates that Swiss tourism will lose 25 to 35 percent this year. However, this only applies if the restrictions are relaxed as planned and there are no major relapses. The industry expects guests from abroad in the autumn at the earliest and only occasionally. The federal government does not expect the normalization of tourism until 2022.
“A real problem”
However, for people to climb the mountains, it takes more than just operating the cable cars. “If the restaurants remain closed, we have a real problem,” says Ueli Stückelberger, director of the Association of Public Transport (VöV). Eating and drinking in the mountains or on the boat are part of the experience. Therefore, the industry has mountain pubs and shipping restaurants to reopen in June at the latest. The Stanserhornbahn has developed five different opening levels for its restaurants. At level one, only the kiosk is open. The Lake Lucerne shipping company will occupy the tables in such a way that the distance rules are observed.
“We should also be able to guarantee the two-meter distance on the ship,” says Stefan Schulthess, managing director of the shipping company. It assumes that ships can only occupy half of normal capacity. Operation at this level is only economically viable. Control shouldn’t be a problem: passengers are counted when boarding today.
The Stanserhornbahn would still carry two instead of eight guests per compartment if the two-meter distance rule still applies in June. Instead of 39, the funicular carries 10 passengers per trip. The convertible train with an open top cover in the second section still seats 15 passengers under the planned protection concept. Such a company is not profitable, says director Jürg Balsiger: “But we will not calculate what is most worthwhile: restarting the business or sticking to work in the short term. We will open as soon as we can. However, there are other attitudes in the industry.
Balsiger assumes that people will increasingly wear protective masks on a voluntary basis. Therefore, he ordered masks for a monthly requirement from a Swiss provider that could be made available to passengers. With protective masks, it should be possible to position passengers with less distance and thus increase capacities.
Catch up with Swiss guests
The demand is a great unknown. Swiss tourists could at least partially compensate for the lack of foreign guests. “Because it is a leisure activity, people should be able to trust that they are not infected,” says Schulthess. Those who are afraid do not pay more money to face this risk. For the industry association, this means that the federal government changes the recommendations for the population. The so-called “stay home” doesn’t go well with tourist trips, says Stückelberger. Traveling with a guilty conscience is not fun. A relaxation of the assembly ban would also be desirable. When two families travel together, more than five people quickly get involved.
After the two-month shutdown, the surveyed railways assume that Swiss guests will have to catch up. However, smaller companies in particular fear a struggle to move. The railways in Titlis, Rigi, Pilatus and Jungfrau account for a large part of its sales with foreign tourists. They would have to compensate for the drop in guests and would therefore work intensively in the domestic market, says Bruno Vattioni, Managing Director of Säntis-Schwebebahn.
The Cable Car Association will present its protection concept this week. Before that, the requirements were discussed throughout the public transport sector. You want the recommendations to be within the same framework for all providers.
