In the north of the Theresienwiese it looks recently as if the spring festival came in in the warm rain and accidentally lost its two large beer tents. You are now dealing with the corona version of a folk festival, the so-called “summer in the city”. The Bayerntower, for example, is there, a chain carousel that rotates almost 90 meters above the ground, and a wild water slide, but also a few smaller rides and stalls. However, there is still calm on the festival meadow, which has become a test meadow in the past few months with two large medical tents, because the official start is only in just under two weeks, on July 28th.
Folk festival splinters of this kind are now gradually being distributed over the entire city, so to speak an Oktoberfest with a lot of distance and without beer tents. The “summer in the city” does not only consist of distributing rides, stands with roasted almonds and throwing booths all over Munich.
This year, the city’s economic department involved a number of cooperation partners who complement the program. “We want to create a framework for many different activities,” says economic officer Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU), “so that the spirit of life returns to the city.” The Munich Tourism Initiative (TIM) – an amalgamation of around 200 companies from the hotel, travel and gastronomy sectors – announced what is going on there on Thursday at a press conference in the “Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art” (MUCA) in the bunker the Hotterstrasse.
The cultural program starts on July 21st
The aim is to set up a “welcome campaign for cultural and leisure facilities, retail and gastronomy”, under the fashionable title # münchenistwiederda, so that people with a digital affinity also understand what it is about. The cultural summer programs will start next Wednesday, July 21, the showmen section will follow a week later – not only on Theresienwiese, but also, for example, as last year on Königsplatz and other places.
The concept of the event program is not as new as you might think. Anna Kleeblatt from the TIM board reported that the first coordination meeting had already taken place on April 7th of last year, in other words during the first lockdown: “At that time we did not expect it to take so long before it was implemented.”
Many of the suggestions – for example catalog raffles in the Lenbachhaus or discounts in the Bavaria Filmpark – are now becoming reality. Baumgärtner says that this year the “summer in the city” was, so to speak, “made wider and even more cultural and tourist service providers included”. The target group is not only the people of Munich, but also “guests from other European regions” – after all, there are still major deficits when it comes to the influx of tourists. I want to say to them: “The city of Munich is a safe place and you can have fun here”.
Wolfgang Fischer from the City Partner retail association also hopes “that tourism will now slowly pick up again”. You have to show what liveliness, culture and solidarity Munich has to offer: “We have actually already proven that all along, from the first action ‘Munich keeps tam’ to the provision of economic aid and its quick processing by the city administration . “
What special offers are there
There are also special offers between July 16 and 25. For example, the first 1,000 visitors to Hellabrunn Zoo are given an ice cream for free. In the MUCA there is free admission to the new exhibition bunker, the Olympiapark is giving away tent roof tours on the Olympiastadion, in the GOP Theater there is an Aperol Sprizz as a welcome drink to start a new culture, and a new exhibition area is being opened in the Sea Life in the Olympiapark, a tropical island. Tour guides also take part; “Your Munich Tour” now also offers night tours through the New Town Hall and a visit to the town hall balcony with a view of Marienplatz. The program can be found on the city’s homepage www.muenchen.de/muenchenistwiederda.
An “important building block” for tourism “is not only the hotels, but also the restaurants, cafés, bars and Bavarian inns in the city, according to Daniela Ziegler, district manager of the Dehoga Hotel and Restaurant Association. Their location, however, remains bad: “It is still cruel, especially in the hotels.” The occupancy rate is still only between 20 and 30 percent, which is mainly due to the lack of tourism from abroad and the canceled trade fairs. From the upcoming IAA International Motor Show The hoteliers therefore expect some relief.
According to Ziegler, the operators of restaurants, clubs and bars are also skeptical about the future: “23 percent say they will have to give up their operations this year.” That was the result of a survey by Dehoga. There are no exact numbers; Those who have to file for bankruptcy often see it as a personal defeat and do not trumpet it. “It is often the case,” says Ziegler, “that someone can be found quickly to take over the business. In Munich there is enough money from investors, here it looks different than in Straubing or Bamberg, for example.”
A lot of money has also gone to the hospitality industry via the state Corona aid. On Tuesday of this week, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced figures for the city of Munich. According to this, the federal and state governments have so far paid out around 1.4 billion euros to Munich companies. Almost half of them, 48 percent, went to companies in the hospitality industry, i.e. to hotels, restaurants, discos, bars and catering companies.