Climate impact adaptation strategy Wipptal

Project description

The Wipptal with its mountain valleys has positioned itself very strongly and successfully in the field of alpine sports in recent years. The sports of mountaineering, hiking, biking, ski touring, snowshoeing and climbing (in all its various forms) play an important role here. All of these tourist activities have one thing in common: they are heavily dependent on external factors (weather, snow conditions, conditions, ...). Examples:

If there is no snow, no ski tours are possible. The businesses specializing in these groups of guests (accommodation, service providers) remain without bookings during the affected period. Ski tour weeks that have already been booked are therefore simply canceled by the organizers.
When the snow on the glaciers melts away early in the summer season, many (high) tours are no longer accessible due to the risk of falling rocks and ice. This has a negative impact on the affected businesses (no bookings).

The past summer seasons (hot, dry) and the selected past winter (sometimes with little snow) have impressively shown how dependent we are on nature in tourism and how climate change has a direct impact on us. Consequently, we are forced to rethink our current offers and develop strategies to reduce our dependence on external conditions. The project in question involved the development/conception of four specific measures:

Information transformation: Deals with the question of how existing information (e.g. online tour descriptions) should be changed so that, for example, winter mountaineering can be an attractive substitute for ski tours.
Offer transformation: This area examines the existing offers and analyzes strengths/weaknesses. In the next step, an attempt was made to sensibly transfer the existing offers into climate-friendly offers.
Infrastructure transformation: The focus here was on how existing infrastructure (e.g. climbing gardens) can be converted to additional use independent of weather conditions (e.g. drytooling).
Seasonal transformation: This transformation measure examines what a seasonal shift can look like and what measures are necessary for this transformation.

Project details

Project title: Climate impact adaptation strategy Wipptal
Project sponsor: Wipptal Tourism Association
Project type: VHA 16.02.2.a Pilot projects in tourism
Projektnummer: 2023-0.824.216;LE14-20-LT/2023-2374
Project duration: 01.10.2023 to 30.09.2024
Overarching objectives: To help reduce the tourism industry's dependence on snow in winter and the weather in summer, and to help create alternative offers under the premise of making the best possible use of what is available
Funding: The project was carried out with support from the European Union, the EAFRD and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Economic Affairs
Project costs: EUR 38,000 (70% funding, 30% own contribution by the project sponsor)

https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy/rural-development_de

https://www.bmaw.gv.at/Themen/Tourismus/tourismusfoerderungen/leuchtturmprojekte.html