More vacant holiday apartments and overnight rooms plus booking cancellations for the turn of the year: This is bad news for a tourist region like the Isarwinkel around Lenggries. Because in winter, the main business is done during the holidays between the Christmas holidays and Epiphany. When it is cold enough for skiing in December, the slopes on Lenggries’ local mountain, Brauneck, are busiest. However, the increasing number of coronavirus infections is currently unsettling guests. In addition, the cable car operators are downright shocked by the recently announced 2G Plus regulation by the Bavarian state government. From their point of view, a ski operation is hardly economical. An overview of how those who are dependent on tourism experience the situation:
The landlady
For winter sports enthusiasts, the house with five holiday apartments from Maria and Andreas Heiss could hardly be better. On the Lahnersbach, guests have a clear view of the Brauneck and only a few minutes to the valley station of the mountain railway. Usually everything is fully booked for the Christmas season at the end of November. This year two of the five holiday apartments are still free for the first week of vacation between December 25th and January 1st. For one, the guests canceled only a few days ago because the pandemic situation was too sensitive for them. Maria Heiss has never experienced this in 15 winters as a landlord. “Economically, that’s not great,” she says. As a private landlord, she and her husband would not have received any state subsidies in the previous pandemic lockdowns.
That makes the situation difficult. Maria Hot can also understand any of her guests who are insecure. The majority are skiers. “I can’t even tell you for sure whether the mountain railways will open,” she says. She was able to convince guests who had booked for mid-January to wait and see instead of canceling. There were never as many gaps as this year in the winters before the pandemic, says the trained hotel specialist. Attracting guests with discounts does not help. As a host, she is dependent on the applicable state regulations.
The picture was completely different last summer. “From the end of May to the end of October, all holiday apartments were practically always rented,” says Heiß. “They weren’t empty for three days.” So much would people have been looking forward to vacation after the month-long lockdown. At least renting out holiday homes is not the family’s only source of income, he said. Her husband runs a carpentry business.
Maria Heiss rents out holiday apartments.
The tourism manager
Last Wednesday, the central booking platform for vacationers in Lenggries showed 21 vacant accommodations out of a total of 156 listed online there. “That’s a lot by our standards,” says Ursula Dinter-Adolf when asked. “Normally you can find almost nothing at this time (end of November, editor’s note).” Because of the pandemic, there is already one or the other demand because vacationers are insecure. The majority of the guests are currently still waiting, that’s their impression. But you will also experience people who feel safer with the new rules – only vaccinated and convalescent people are allowed to spend the night on vacation, i.e. 2 Gs.
From their point of view, the worst would be another lockdown. “We hope that the situation does not worsen again and that the tourism businesses can at least remain open under the current regulations,” said Dinter-Adolf. Because that would not only affect the hosts, but also retailers and tradesmen. For events, she and the Lenggries tourism team have to react every day to what is possible and what is not. The Lenggrieser Kripperlweg with various stations in the shop windows of retail stores will take place again this year. “We want to give our guests something nice to give back to,” says Dinter-Adolf.
Only the Benediktenwand group separates the central winter sports center of the district in Lenggries from the municipality of Kochel am See. There is the Herzogstand with its cable car and a natural snow descent to Walchensee. The winter tourism move more away from the hustle and bustle of the slopes, says the Kochler tourism boss Daniel Weickel. In the same way, there are still plenty of vacant accommodations for Christmas around Kochel and Walchensee. “The reasons are complex,” emphasizes Weickel. Some accommodation providers reported their businesses as vacant for this period, even if they had actually closed. Some guests canceled their vacation in a row, others booked right now. So far, however, he has hardly been able to get a clear picture of the mood among the landlords. Weickel believes that many in the tourism industry are now waiting to see how the situation develops. The Kristalltherme – one of the most important attractions in the two-lake region – is currently open under 2 G Plus conditions.
The mountain railway spokeswoman
“Rigid shock”: That is the first word that Antonia Asenstorfer comes up with after the new 2 G Plus regulation of the Bavarian state government for leisure facilities such as cable cars. For the head of communications in the Alpen Plus network, which also includes Brauneck, this means that only those who have been vaccinated or recovered can use their systems and who also do a rapid antigen test. “It’s almost like a de facto lockdown,” explains Asenstorfer. It is completely unclear how the necessary tests for each day of skiing could be logistically processed at all. The test stations are already overcrowded.
According to Asenstorfer, advance sales for season ski passes are also more sluggish than in the pre-pandemic period. For every full calendar month in which the facilities have to remain closed due to official orders, the mountain railway promises a 25 percent repayment of the purchase price. Nevertheless, Asenstorfer estimates that 30 percent fewer ski passes have been sold for the coming winter season than usual.
The German cable car operators had hoped for a 2 G regulation for skiing operations like in neighboring Austria. “That would have been an incentive to get vaccinated after all,” said Asenstorfer. Now in Bavaria, anyone who has been vaccinated is also punished. The cable car operators are now “completely incomprehensible”. There is currently no planning security at all. “We are now sending winter sports enthusiasts to a high-incidence area,” claims Asenstorfer. By this she means that many would now switch to skiing across the border to Austria, where the incidence figures are currently much higher, but the 2 G regulation there simplifies a lot.
The cable car managers
For the German cable car industry, the new Bavarian 2 G Plus rule is actually economically unsustainable. That is the tenor from the annual press conference of the Association of German Cable Cars (VDS). Its peak also rated the upper capacity limit of 25 percent of the possible utilization critically. There is talk of a lockdown through the back door. How this should be interpreted for the lift systems – from the closed gondola lift to the open chair lift or drag lift – remains unclear from the VDS perspective.
“With 2 G Plus it is currently impossible to be able to do a reasonable operation”, says the deputy VDS chairman Peter Lorenz. He is also the managing spokesman for the Alpen Plus Partners, which also includes the Brauneck Bergbahn. Lorenz still leaves open whether there will even be a ski operation in the network under 2 G Plus conditions. “We still hope for 2 G.” That would mean that politicians are loosening the rules again. That is what the Herzogstandbahn managing director Jörg Findeisen would like. “Under the current conditions, it is not feasible to open the driving mode,” he says. He therefore hopes for appropriate changes at the next Prime Minister’s Conference in December.
The cable car industry has proven under the regulations that were in force in the summer that its concepts worked. When it comes to safety when dealing with the corona virus, the mountain railway operators are pioneers, says Findeisen. The industry has implemented new government regulations from one day to the next. The fact that new regulations for operation were repeatedly passed on the following day, but not until around 6 p.m., was actually a “cheek”. Findisen generally misses long-term, unambiguous regulations. This way, the time can be used much more sensibly for larger upcoming projects such as fire protection upgrades. Because for this, the system has to be partly put out of operation. Given the bit by bit changing provisions during the pandemic, this is difficult to plan. “We’re in the rain,” says Findeisen.
On Lenggries’ local mountain, Bergbahn managing director Lorenz still wants to start artificial snowmaking. The predicted temperatures should allow that. For the time being, however, only depots, i.e. piles, would be formed on the slopes, the snow not yet being distributed. Lorenz’s appeal to politicians: “Let’s go to sensible regulations.” At the moment, he thinks, an arbitrary wall is being erected.