According to Christian Schirlbauer, Managing Director of the Dachstein Salzkammergut holiday region, larger crowds are not expected until summer. In general, the focus is more on European guests. In Hallstatt, which is particularly popular with Asian travelers, there are already many tourists again, but hardly any from the Far East. The citizens of China have been allowed to travel again since January 7th, the first planes have already landed in Europe, but the rush is still limited: “We have the first bookings, but it’s very manageable,” reports Schirlbauer. He assumes that many Chinese will have to have their passports renewed after the surprising relaxation, and that cooperation with tour operators is only just beginning again. “We do not expect an increase until summer 2023”.
No rush in Hallstatt yet
The mayor of Hallstatt, Alexander Scheutz (SPÖ), paints a similar picture: “There aren’t any Chinese tourists here yet,” he doesn’t expect more crowds from there until late spring or summer at the earliest. The first bookings have already been received. Nevertheless, Hallstatt was confronted with “overtourism” during the holidays, just because of other visitors. The number of Asian tourists, which has disappeared due to the pandemic, has already been compensated for by day visitors, but not quite yet by overnight stays, “here we are at the 2017/18 level”.
In any case, one does not want to be reduced to Chinese tourists in the Salzkammergut, as tourism expert Schirlbauer emphasizes, even if Hallstatt is a popular destination for their European trips alongside Vienna and Salzburg. The main markets for the Salzkammergut are guests from Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Holland. Active marketing is also carried out here, such as placing advertisements or being present at trade fairs. Israeli guests recently discovered the region without any marketing at all and are already the fifth largest group – even in the Salzkammergut, nobody really knows why.
“We’re not sending anyone home”
Travelers from China made up a low double-digit percentage before the pandemic, Schirlbauer explains. In the Far East, however, there is currently no active advertising, even if every guest is of course welcome. “We’re not sending anyone home.” In general, the marketing budget has been reallocated: Only half as much is invested in marketing as in the previous year. Instead, the money will flow into innovative and infrastructure projects as well as into projects for the Salzkammergut Capital of Culture 2024.
In the absence of a mass rush of Chinese guests, whose home country is currently being overtaken by a huge wave of infections, fears of a cluster in the Salzkammergut caused by this are also put into perspective. In addition, travelers from China in Austria must present a corona test anyway. The waste water in the region is examined twice: On the one hand, AGES tests for variants, on the other hand, the country has the waste water analyzed for excreted virus components as part of its monitoring, which should give an early indication of an increase in infections. However, Scheutz and the head of the Reinhaltungsverband (RVB) Hallstättersee, Hansjörg Schenner, complain that they would not receive any results for data protection reasons. The coordination of measures, should there be a conspicuous result, is the responsibility of the country’s crisis team, which has reported a stable situation and no abnormalities since the easing in China – not even in the Hallstatt region.
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