Dachstein-West wants to market itself better
tourism
The cross-border ski area in Salzburg and Upper Austria, the Dachstein-West ski region, will start the new season with better marketing. The region around the Dachstein is now appearing under the new brand “Dachstein-West – of course in the Salzkammergut”.
For the new brand around the Dachstein, the ski areas of Abtenau, Annaberg-Lungötz and Rußbach (all Tennengau) will cooperate more closely with their Upper Austrian neighbors in the future and are now promoting the common destination. “In this case, we have now managed to put the eight municipalities – four each in Upper Austria and four in Salzburg – under a bracket and start a marketing cooperation, whereby we pool our marketing funds,” says Rupert Schiefer from the Dachstein West ski area.
“For the tourism region of Tennengau and the Lammertal, it is a great opportunity to be mentioned in the same breath as lighthouse brands such as the Dachstein and the Salzkammergut,” adds Andreas Neuhofer from Tennengau Tourism. The new association invests purely in the external appearance. Investments in the ski areas remain a matter for the cable car companies on both sides of the national border. Cross-border cooperation has been tried again and again in the past, but has repeatedly failed.
Cooperation now successful after many years
“The national border is still less of a problem, but it’s also a different culture and I think we’ve done it now and we all agreed that we can only do it together,” says Dietmar Tröbinger from the Oberösterreichische Seilbahnholding. Financial injections from the state, for example, were needed again and again in Russbach and Annaberg. In the future, however, we will be able to manage without support. “It’s a clear order for me, the management and the entire team that we have to be able to survive here independently,” emphasizes Managing Director Schiefer of the Dachstein West ski area.
The tourism regions in the Lammertal and in the Salzkammergut are also part of the new brand: a day ticket costs 54 euros – the region clearly stands out from the competition and wants to send a conscious signal in times of inflation, says Christian Schirlbauer from the Dachstein Salzkammergut holiday region. The two regions on the Salzburg and Upper Austrian side counted almost two million nights before the outbreak of the pandemic and they want to build on this level. “The summer has shown that the potential is definitely there to get close again. Extrapolated for this year, we will remain just below the record year ’18/19,” says Neuhofer. The aim is to react to rising energy costs with targeted snowmaking and less deep snow cover.