“Alpine Sport Strategy Tirol” To Focus On Youth
Tyrol is to develop into the leading alpine sport country by 2030. The competence of the four universities of the state was bundled and all stakeholders in alpine sport were permanently involved. The strategy will now be implemented in 2021 along 6 fields of action. The focus is on families and children, sustainable alpine sports culture and healthy mass sports. The expansion of summer and winter sports weeks in their own country for Tyrolean students is at the top of the joint project list.
The work of the experts around the "Alpine Sport Strategy Tyrol" shows the first concrete results. In a first step, the networking of the most important competence centers and experts in the state was successful. All four universities in Tyrol - the University of Innsbruck, the Management Center Innsbruck, UMIT Tirol and the FH Kufstein, as well as other sports institutions and experts were included in the analysis phase.
Secures our quality of life and leisure time
“This first-time comprehensive data analysis made it clear that alpine sport is of enormous importance for the Tyroleans, but also for our guests. The sports facilities on the mountain contribute significantly to our quality of life and leisure time and make up a large part of the attraction of our region, ”says Tyrol's LHStv. and Sports Councilor Josef Geisler to the point.
“Sport in our mountains not only promotes our health, but also offers the balance that we need more than ever, especially in times of Corona. The pandemic is an enormous challenge, but also an impetus for a particularly responsible, environmentally friendly and sustainable further development of the Tirol brand in terms of hiking, mountaineering, climbing, skiing, ski touring, mountain biking, trail running and other trendy alpine sports, ”emphasizes Geisler.
It's about physical and mental health
"Tyrol stands for alpine sports like no other country - this shapes the lifestyle of many locals and is an important aspect for the healthy and sustainable development of our society", Josef Margreiter, Managing Director of Lebensraum Tirol Holding, is convinced. Therefore, developments in this area should not be left to chance, but should be invested in a targeted and strategic manner.
“As Lebensraum Tirol Holding, we were happy to take on the responsibility of coordinating this strategy process. It's about the healthy development of our country, about safeguarding existing strengths but also specifically developing them. It is now important in dialogue with the experts, practitioners and universities in the country to define a common basis and the right projects and to start implementing the first key projects. Because in addition to ecological, economic and social aspects, sport and exercise also play a key role in the physical and mental health of the population. All in all, this image also largely shapes the international perception of our country and thus also the popularity and attraction of the Tirol brand. "
The project team developed a large number of measures for the coming years along 6 strategic fields of action. The focus is on promoting sport and exercise in schools and families, sustainably developing alpine sports, and ensuring a dense sports infrastructure together with the state, regional management, TVBs and communities. Furthermore, the consolidation of the role and value of organized sport, associations and sport as a profession should be guaranteed. Added to this is the pooling and collection of relevant data in the Sports Research Lab, as well as establishing Tyrol as a model region with a role model function in alpine sport.
Whoever loses youth loses the future
“In the course of our work, it very quickly became clear that we can only maintain our mountain sports competence over the next generations if we start with the next generation immediately. Because if you lose your youth, you lose the future, ”emphasizes project manager Christian Wührer. “That's why we set ourselves a clear goal in the first phase of implementation: to significantly expand the annual summer and winter sports weeks for schoolchildren. The sports weeks should be carried out sustainably in their own region, without long journeys, in order to inspire children and young people for exercise in general, as well as for alpine sports guarantee
Well-founded data as a basis for investments
When it comes to the future development of the alpine sports region Tyrol, well-founded data should serve as a basis for decision-making. It is therefore of central importance to know exactly what the sports and leisure behavior of Tyroleans is like, which infrastructures already exist where and to what extent and whether there is the corresponding potential behind investments in sports events.
Martin Schnitzer, from the Institute for Sports Science at the University of Innsbruck, has been intensively involved in the strategy project over the past few months. The sports expert sees the new “Sports Research Lab Tirol” as a centerpiece of the initiative. “The lab is a joint research facility of the four universities in Tyrol. This cooperation is rare, ”explains Schnitzer. “In this way it can be guaranteed in the future that our knowledge is concentrated and that research work does not overlap. The aim is to build up a comprehensive nationwide data pool on the subject of sport and exercise. ”In future, this should serve as an important basis for decisions made in the context of alpine sports. Schnitzer: "That can be big events as well as sport development, leisure activities, Club sports but also affect top-class sports. In the future, we will be able to provide decision-makers with relevant, regional data in the Sports Research Lab, ”says Schnitzer. Projects could thus be assessed on the basis of national overall strategies. The concrete implementation could then contribute in a targeted manner to the desired ecological, social and infrastructural development of Tyrol.
