Health Protection Is Top Priority For Austrian Ski Schools For 2020 - 21

Ski schools are a key factor in the success of winter tourism. Nobody else spends as much time with the ski school guests as their snow sports instructors. A sensitization of the employees in ski schools with regard to the challenges of the coming winter season is therefore inevitable. Together with Univ.-Prof. Cornelia Lass-Flörl, Director of the Hygiene and Microbiology Section at the Medical University of Innsbruck, the Austrian Ski School Association has developed comprehensive recommendations for action on health protection in winter tourism for ski schools and their employees. The basis for this: the requirements of the federal government.

"More than 18,000 snow sports instructors in 679 ski schools have to pull together to make this winter as safe as possible for everyone involved," says Richard Walter, President of the Austrian Ski School Association. “But it's not just the snow sports instructors themselves who are challenged, but also front-office employees in the ski school office, child care workers or employees for manual activities - the field of action is more extensive than it seems at first glance. If we want to master the season successfully, health protection and hygiene must have top priority. ”Taking into account all current regulations, extensive recommendations for action were therefore made for ski school offices, assembly points, children's (adventure) worlds,“ warm-up rooms ”, kindergartens, Children's restaurants as well as for practical snow sports lessons and the care of children. These are currently being coordinated with the Ministry of Health and will be refined accordingly in accordance with the final specifications for winter 2020.

"Maintaining the minimum distance is - as in all areas of public life - all about and about in the ski school", says Univ.-Prof. Cornelia Lass-Flörl. “But of course we know that it is precisely this measure that is difficult or impossible to implement in the care of children. Wearing mouth and nose protection is therefore always the alternative as soon as the minimum distance cannot be maintained. With the recommendations for action, a guide for the winter is made available to employees of all ski school facilities - from the prevention of Covid-19 to the registration of each individual ski school guest and instructions for action in the event of a suspected case. "