Austria's Lift Co’s Industry Returns To Pre-Crisis Level, Focuses On Sustainability
Franz Hörl, Chairman of the Austrian Cable Car Association (WKÖ), and Erik Wolf, Managing Director of the Austrian Cable Car Association, gave an up-to-date look at the local cable car industry today at the INTERALPIN trade fair in Innsbruck. “The leading international trade fair for alpine technologies is a reflection of what is already happening in our ski areas today. Because things are being developed in the direction that guests are asking for, and that is clearly the issue of sustainability. Accordingly, industry and ski areas go hand in hand and show what winter sports of the future can look like: climate-neutral, resource-saving, habitat-preserving,” emphasized Hörl. Even the bare numbers - 0.3 percent share of Austria's total energy consumption,
The developments in snow-making technology are also a good example of this. “In Austria, this is operated almost exclusively with domestic green electricity. And here, too, the energy consumption of some products has halved or even tripled within a generation. With such successes, the manufacturers make an important contribution to achieving our common goals," says Hörl, who speaks of a satisfactory 2022/23 season. "In addition to the often cynical comments about white ribbons on green slopes, there is a large number of enthusiastic guests and holidaymakers who have remained loyal to the Austrian ski winter and were enthusiastic about the product," Hörl sums up. In numbers, this represents a “quasi return” to pre-COVID-19 development, with just under 50 million first-time admissions. With more favorable snow conditions, the winter season would have been even more successful. "Furthermore, it was shown that the demand from Austria was even better than expected, but at the same time the trend from longer vacation trips towards day trips continued," says Hörl.
The cable car chairman is already looking positively towards the summer season. "The cable car summer has already increased significantly in the seasons affected by COVID-19 and will also be a popular form of vacation this year - also due to the current topics of savings pressure, cost increases and climate discussion," says Hörl. The prospects for this are good: According to a study by the ÖW, 37% of Austrians plan to spend their summer holidays inland - making Austria the most popular destination. Among our German neighbors, Austria is in third place with 11%, and the Netherlands is in 16th place (with 3%). The best Austrian summer mountain railways guarantee a holiday offer. “More than 20 years after the start of this quality initiative, it now includes 79 companies and new members are added every year.
Ski potential study shows potential
The ski potential study carried out in Austria, Germany and Switzerland also ensures optimism in the industry. The image development survey conducted by MANOVA for the third time shows that the potential is still great despite multiple crisis situations. "Skiing has been a successful product over the past five winters - both overnight stays in mountain regions in the DA-CH area and first-time entries to the mountain railways have risen continuously. Overall, demand rose by around ten percent from winter 2013/14 to winter 2018/19,” reports Erik Wolf, Managing Director of the Cable Car Association.
In the DA-CH region, almost 85% of the demand from before Corona was already achieved in the 2021/22 winter season, with Switzerland even being able to increase and the restrictions in Austria causing the biggest minus. The reason for the decline was the absence of some skiers. Instead of the usual almost 70 percent, this year only around 60 percent of skiers could be enthusiastic about the slopes. "But these winter sports enthusiasts have not been lost to the industry, because almost nobody has stopped winter sports because of the crisis," says Wolf, looking at the numbers. There is no decline in children or beginners and the image of winter sports has even improved, for example when it comes to being 'healthy'. But 'great' and 'cool' are now also attributed to over 90% of winter sports enthusiasts. Interest among non-skiers in taking up the sport has also increased, now 7% want to start safely compared to 3% previously.
Since this season, the professional association has been focusing on cable car employees to strengthen and optimize internal communication. "These are becoming increasingly important multipliers and communicators for guests and should in future also provide more information about everything else, such as the activities of the ski areas in terms of sustainability," says the managing director of the association, who also spoke in this context refers to the second, large-scale employee survey of the professional association. The direct feedback and the knowledge of the needs should also express the importance of the teams in the ski areas. “This commitment is also reflected financially in our industry. Currently the collective agreement is with plus 10, 2 percent well above the inflation rate,” says Wolf. As “ambassadors who are best trained and credible in an international comparison”, the employees should now also play a more central role in communication. "There is so much to report, and so much good is happening with foresight and a sense of responsibility - we have to get these messages across to men and women even more intensively," says Wolf.
