Start of the season: ski areas optimistic – salzburg.ORF.at
tourism
Lots of fresh snow across the country at the start of the season and the storm on the ski resorts has begun. The current inflation does not seem to change that. The booking situation in the hotel industry makes tourism professionals just as optimistic as the advance sale of season tickets.
Winter arrived just in time for the planned ski start. And with it, skiers die. The Almenwelt-Lofer (Pinzgau) ski area is primarily aimed at families. They, in particular, appreciate the corresponding wholes, but winter sports enthusiasts are hardly going to let the increased prices keep them from skiing.
In Lofer, prices have increased by around five percent to absorb rising energy and personnel costs, said Willi Leitinger, Managing Director of Bergbahnen Lofer: “We don’t feel any immediate inhibitions about buying ski passes,” added: “We are very, very optimistic .”
“You can build on record years again”
And elsewhere, too, higher ticket prices don’t seem to curb people’s desire to hit the slopes. In Salzburg’s largest ski association “Ski Amadé”, the season ticket in advance costs nine percent more than last season and thus costs more than 700 euros. Nevertheless, advance sales can build on the record years before the pandemic, said Veronika Scheffer, Managing Director of Bergbahnen Zauchensee (Pongau): “We need the price so that we can do what we have to do – that means an expensive price, because of course we also have to pay our suppliers.” In general, however, one observes the guests closely and is careful.
Consumer behavior of tourists and day visitors changed
There is also optimism in the hotel industry – here, too, there are already signs of a good booking situation – even if the consumer behavior of the guests is very well due to the rise in prices, according to the tourism experts.
At the moment, the bookings for the upcoming Christmas holidays are also at the pre-Corona level: savings are apparently being made elsewhere.