Especially at the beginning of winter, the ski slopes in the Alps often stretch as a white band of artificial snow over green-brown mountain slopes. According to the almost unanimous expectation of all experts, the man-made climate change will result in an even higher increase in average temperatures in the mountains than in the lowlands. How much does tourism as an economic sector itself contribute to these changes and how can it be shaped under such conditions in such a way that people will still want to vacation in Bavaria in the future?
The Bavarian Center for Tourism (BZT), which is based at the Kempten University of Applied Sciences, deals with such questions, among others. On Tuesday, it brought together the tourism policy spokespersons from four parliamentary groups for a panel discussion. The most important point of contention at the moment is the question of the snow cannons.
While Greens like Christian Zwanziger criticize state subsidies for new snow-making systems as unsustainable and demand an early end, such subsidies are still very important from the point of view of Klaus Stöttner (CSU) and Manfred Eibl (Freie Wahler) in order to attract guests at the beginning and against To be able to reliably offer the hoped-for skiing fun at the end of winter.
If people traveled to the Dolomites to ski instead, then you would have the traffic, but not the guests, added Albert Duin (FDP). Because traveling to and from the destination accounts for about 70 percent of the climate-damaging energy consumption, only 30 percent is attributable to the stay, including the operation of hotels, mountain railways and snow cannons. “Mobility is the biggest factor,” emphasizes Zwanziger. But so that guests can and want to do without a car, not only does it have to make it easier to get there, for example by train, but public transport in the holiday regions themselves must finally be improved.
Climate friendliness could become an important argument when courting guests, as all four discussants – SPD representative Martina Fehlner had to cancel at short notice – largely agree. Martin Eibl even derives special possibilities from global warming. If the increasing heat in the summer becomes particularly noticeable in the cities, more people could be drawn to the countryside to relax. “The opportunities that arise here are very, very large.”