"We in Hallstatt are not children"

2023-08-27 22:04:00

HALLSTATT. When Susanne Kraus-Winkler (VP) opens the “Liveable Alpine Region” congress in Hallstatt on September 28th, Austria’s Secretary of State for Tourism will not win hearts. At least not those of the local politicians. “We were really annoyed by this choice of words here. It was instructive and condescending,” says Hallstatt Mayor Alexander Scheutz (SP).

In an interview with the Kleine Zeitung, Kraus-Winkler told the people of Hallstatt that they had not done their homework on visitor management. Every spa hotel and every shopping center knows how to manage simultaneity. In Hallstatt, however, almost nothing is managed at all at the moment. Access to the community must be regulated, and guests should have to book a “slot,” she said. “If it were that easy, we would have done it long ago. Besides, a municipality cannot be compared to a hotel or a supermarket. Also: homework? We’re not children here,” says Hallstatt’s mayor.

“Only tolerate half”

Scheutz could imagine “Hallstatt tickets”, as Kraus-Winkler had in mind. However, only for long-distance travelers. “Then Hallstatt can be booked just like Machu Picchu. But what do we do with a Goiserer, for example? Does he have to reserve a ticket if he wants to go for a coffee with someone in Hallstatt? I don’t think that’s a good solution,” says Scheutz.

Venice had already planned for the 2022 summer season to introduce a reservation obligation and fee for day visitors. But it wasn’t that easy after all: Due to a lack of approvals from regional authorities, the introduction was postponed to 2025 at the earliest. However, Kraus-Winkler, Scheutz and many citizens of Hallstatt agree on one point: the status quo is not an option. “We’ve really tried a lot in terms of visitor management. But we’ve reached a point where we’re at the end of our options. As a place, we can only tolerate half of the tourists who come now,” says Scheutz.

Citizen list tunnel blockade

The municipal council faction “Bürger für Hallstatt” blocked the access tunnel to the municipality for around 15 minutes yesterday at noon to draw attention to the overload caused by tourists. More than 100 people joined her. “We have to reach visitor numbers like ten years ago. At that time, 85,000 cars came to Hallstatt each year, which was still reasonable. Today, these numbers have almost tripled,” says Friedrich Idam from the Bürgerliste. Mayor Scheutz also attended the rally and underlined its importance, but he was not happy with the timing. Because in the background, planning for a new project had already started, together with traffic planners, neighboring communities, tourism, the state and for Austria. Topic: Control of visitor flows and quotas. The starting shot will be given on September 9th.

“If you ask me, steering can only work over the state road. Then the barriers not only have to go down when there is a risk of avalanches, but also when the place is completely overcrowded,” says Scheutz. But Hallstatt is not at the end of the valley and he understands that Obertraun and the Styrian towns would not be happy with that.