How safe winter tourism is possible

In order to ensure safe winter tourism, the complexity of COVID-19 management must be reduced, communicated transparently, acted upon uniformly, the willingness to compromise promoted and acted upon attractively. This is shown by the first interim results of the research project "COVID-19 - Risk Management Winter Season 2020/2021" of the Center for Social and Health Innovation (CSHI) at MCI. After two productive months of research, the CSHI can present these first recommendations for action for tourism in Western Austria, which is currently facing travel warnings due to the significant increase in the number of infections. It should be noted that the next few weeks will be crucial in determining how well countries, municipalities and tourism prepare in the remaining time until the start of the winter season. "The necessary safety distances and behaviour must be organised and, if possible, combined with a quality gain for all involved. But in order for everyone to pull together here, there is still a lot to do." Siegfried Walch, Head of the MCI Department of Nonprofit, Social and Health Management.

"[...] The single most important weapon against the disease will be a vaccine. The second most important will be communication." (John M. Barry 2009: Pandemics: avoiding the mistakes of 1918).

Based on this quotation, the first interim results show that communication is also crucial in the current pandemic, but at the same time still has room for improvement. In a first phase, representatives of municipalities, tourism associations and cable car companies were surveyed both quantitatively and qualitatively to outline the status quo in the individual destinations and to identify local potentials, needs and challenges. "Risk management for winter tourism that is supported by everyone also helps us in other areas of society such as health care, schools, etc." Lukas Kerschbaumer, Center for Social & Health Innovation at MCI. CSHI clearly summarises the following requirements and fields of action:

Today, we know a lot about the relevant circumstances of an infectious event. Not everything has to become the subject of meticulous controls. What is needed is to identify critical points, contexts and situations and to apply simple but effective concepts to these few but crucial hotspots. With the rules for the catering industry, the federal government has taken a first step here.

Many actors wait for legal requirements and often bracket out a proactive approach at the local level. In this context, the CSHI survey names a deficit in networking among tourism actors and criticises the lack of regulation of responsibilities between regional and supra-regional actors. The motto for the coming weeks must be: "We act proactively and with foresight in our respective areas of responsibility and do not wait until every detail is regulated by flanking measures of the federal states or the federal government, but are happy about every coordinated regulation that brings security for the winter season."

Large and medium-sized ski resorts in particular are pushing ahead with preparations for winter tourism measures. However, the CSHI survey shows that this is not equally possible or aspired to for all. At the same time, many actors put a lot of effort into parallel activities. Here, potential for synergies in terms of resources and knowledge remains untapped. For example, many regional investments in contact tracing could be bundled if this supported the nationwide anchoring of the Stop Corona app. "Rapid contact tracing is one of the challenges to be overcome in winter to keep the incidence of infection as low as possible. Therefore, a simple but effective registration is needed," Hubert Siller, head of MCI Tourism, summarises the situation.

What is needed is the establishment of a credibly underpinned message: "Safe Tyrol, safe Vorarlberg, safe winter season. The health of locals, employees and guests is our top priority". The competition this year is not in the neighbouring valley, the competitors are the virus, the travel warning, the lockdown. Safety is given where congestion is avoided or where groups are systematically broken up. The results of the CSHI show, however, that the willingness to reduce occupancy rates has not been up for debate so far.

The current situation has the potential to trigger a cultural change in winter tourism. Not all measures have to be assigned to the minimisation of infectious events, but can also establish a new service concept and increase the quality of winter tourism offers in the long run. (Keywords: no crowds when queuing, no waiting for tickets as online booking is possible in advance, virtual queuing, regulated frequency and space management in gondolas and ski huts). In addition, it is important to keep an eye on cooperation with other areas of society, such as health care, schools, etc. Risk management in winter applies to all areas of life.

Outlook for the second project phase

These interim results are now being compiled into an action model for the winter season, which in turn will be sent to all municipalities, tourism associations and cable car companies in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. At the same time, in the second phase, all businesses are also invited to participate in the survey on the action model.

The aim is to support all decision-makers responsible in tourism in organising a winter season that is as safe as possible, i.e. to recognise the risks associated with COVID 19 contagion, to identify them in their own environment, to assess them, evaluate them and integrate them into their own processes.