Because while the weather has played rather badly for the ski area operators since the beginning of the holiday, at least yesterday Friday could be booked as “the first peak day of the season”, as Helmut Holzinger, managing director of Bergbahnen Hinterstoder-Wurzeralm, said. Gerald Paschinger, managing director of Hochficht Bergbahnen, also spoke yesterday of “the best visit during the Christmas holidays”.
50 percent decline in sales
Around 6,000 tickets were sold yesterday’s skiing day in the Hinterstoder-Wurzeralm area. That is not bad, says Holzinger, “but far from a conventional peak day under normal conditions”, when an average of 7,000 visitors are out and about on the slopes. In addition to fog, snow and rain, the corona-related measures have so far had a negative impact on the balance sheet of the ski areas: “In the past, around 1000 children came to us with their ski clubs during the Christmas holidays, but we are of course now missing them.”
The travel warnings for Austria also deterred many foreign winter sports enthusiasts after the PCR test required for entry cost around 80 euros and thus twice as much as a day pass. Holzinger has therefore been talking about a 50 percent drop in sales during the season. Gerald Paschinger can also tell you a thing or two about it. Around a third fewer admissions to the Hochficht mountain railways have been recorded since the start of the season. Nevertheless, he says, it is a little easier this year than in the previous season, when the huts and hotels were also closed.
“We’re happy that we were able to start this year, but it’s still very difficult and challenging for us.” Especially since the effort due to the Corona measures (control of 2G and FFP2 mask requirements) is higher than usual, “but we have about a third fewer admissions”. Paschinger expects a drop in sales “in the amount of 30 to 40 percent” compared to a normal season.
According to Dietmar Tröbinger, Managing Director of OÖ Seilbahnholding, the December business went “basically gratifying”. On the one hand, because a lot of fresh snow had fallen right at the beginning of the month, and on the other hand, because compared to the previous season, the capacity restriction in the gondolas no longer applied and the huts are also allowed to be open again. “That’s why the guests go skiing all day again.”
That applies from Tuesday
In view of the upcoming Omikron wave, new measures will apply in Austria from Tuesday. This includes, among other things, an FFP2 mask requirement outdoors if the two-meter distance cannot be maintained.
For the ski areas, therefore, from January 11th, the FFP2 mask must not only be worn in chairlifts and ski lifts – as before, but now also in outdoor areas such as in front of the huts.
Source: Nachrichten
