It just snowed a few days ago up on Germany’s highest mountain. A certain basis would be there, even though the old snow from the previous season, which had been pushed together in shady places, melted away at a similarly rapid rate in the hot summer as the southern and northern Schneeferner. Skiing operations on the Zugspitzplatt depend solely on natural snowfall. In its lower-lying Garmisch Classic ski area, on the other hand, the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn wants to be more independent this winter – and turn on its 134 snow cannons and 75 snow-making lances. Just maybe not all and all the time. Zugspitzbahn boss Matthias Stauch formulates the pending decisions for the entire industry as follows: “How do I make snow? What do I make snow? When do I make snow?”
They are looking for answers to these and similar questions everywhere in Bavaria. Business in tourism is actually going well so far, but the energy crisis is putting it under increasing pressure. Whether snow cannons and cable cars on the mountain, swimming pools, hotels and restaurants in the valley: the operation of almost everything costs more, maybe even too much – which is why an entire branch of the economy takes refuge in optimism. It’ll work, somehow.
This can be observed at the Zugspitze as an example. There, too, people have thought about how winter fun and the energy crisis can best go together. As head of the Zugspitzbahn, Stauch runs the community-owned company in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and, as the president of the association, speaks for the cable car industry. The increase in energy prices will not be passed on to guests one-to-one, says Stauch, whose Zugspitzbahn will be offering day ski passes for 55 to 57 euros. Overflowing profits are not there this winter, black numbers are probably. Among other things, this is to be achieved by the company saving up to ten percent of the energy that is normally required: through a somewhat thinner layer of artificial snow, for example, through narrower pistes or by doing without heated seats on the lifts and any patio heaters and radiators on the restaurant terraces .
And the energy consumption at the Zugspitze is quite considerable. According to the company, nine gigawatt hours are generated in a normal year – about three times as much as at the Munich Oktoberfest, which lasts a good two weeks. 40 percent of the energy flows into cable cars and lifts, a fifth into the snow cannons, the rest goes to heating in restaurants, workshops and administration. Accordingly, the Zugspitzbahn consumes by far the most energy in winter: on the Zugspitze, which has natural snow, two and a half times as much as in summer, and on its classic pistes with artificial snow, almost six times as much. Statistically, each individual skier uses around 16 kilowatt hours per day, of which 4.2 kilowatt hours are only for the artificial snow. But it wouldn’t work entirely without it, otherwise the rest of the town with its hotels, restaurants, ski schools and sports shops would also suffer from a considerable drop in sales.
The number of visitors in the Free State is almost back to the pre-Corona level
So a lot depends on winter tourism – and on creative ideas to make it possible. There is just as much business going on in the summer, and not just on the Zugspitze. The past few months have gone almost as well in tourism as in the pre-Corona times. From June to August alone, the Free State had around 12.3 million visitors. That was a good four percent less than in 2019, but people tended to stay longer; the total of 33.5 million overnight stays corresponds to 0.1 percent more.
Many tourism professionals would like to take the momentum with them into the cold months, despite all the energy issues. At the Bavarian Tourism Day in Munich, an annual industry get-together, there is therefore primarily purposeful optimism on Monday. It is true that skiing is important, says Oswald Pehel from the Tourist Association for Upper Bavaria and Munich, and of course the cable car prices will increase this year due to energy. But: “The glass is half full.”
The tourism association for Allgäu and Swabia estimates the increase in lift prices at an average of ten percent. Otherwise there as well as with the colleagues in East Bavaria and Franconia: a lot of confidence before the start of the winter season. Only in the words of Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (FW) is the culture war raging, it is against “corona hysterics” as well as against climate protectionists who are demanding more alternative tourism concepts and less energy-intensive snowmaking. “Snowmaking is up-to-date,” says Aiwanger. Because: Otherwise, the people who grumbled about it the most here would drive abroad with the SUV.
There are now more pedestrians than skiers on the Zugspitze
Do you keep people in Bavaria by portraying some of them as unreasonable? Many tourism professionals have one hope above all: that people will be won over by the Bavarian hospitality, as they did in the summer, instead of roaming far away. Perhaps one could even emerge stronger from the crisis, one hotelier ponders aloud. According to the Tourism Day, the first booking figures for the winter are also promising. However, it is noticeable that the guests more often book spontaneously. Michael Braun, board member at the East Bavaria Tourism Association, now estimates the lead time at two to three weeks, which means that the hotels have to be more flexible.
The situation at the thermal baths is also bad. In terms of communication policy, “one or two things went wrong,” says Braun – meaning that when energy saving measures were announced, the number of guests was reduced, out of concern that they would otherwise swim in cold pools. Thermal baths and swimming pools at Corona weddings were considered health facilities that were allowed to continue working under strict hygiene requirements, says Braun. Now they are suddenly recreational facilities. “When the going gets tough, they turn off the gas.”
So the situation could quickly turn negative, on the one hand. On the other hand, it doesn’t always have to be just thermal baths or skiing in winter. Tourist Pehel also points out that there are other things on offer, such as Nordic sports, culture and cuisine. Up on the Zugspitze, around Christmas and New Year, they even record “an amazing pedestrian share” of up to 70 percent. And pedestrians also save energy on the mountain. “That,” says Zugspitzbahn boss Stauch, “is of course something that suits us.”