Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn AG Annual General Meeting - A Positive Outlook For The Future
At the general meeting of Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn AG, the management board looked back on a challenging 2019/2020 financial year and gave an outlook on the current one. "Even if the environment was and is difficult for the company due to Corona, we can show what entrepreneurship, teamwork and cooperative partnership mean for us," says board member Andreas Gapp. Despite the global pandemic and the early end of the winter season, sales in the past financial year remained stable at a high level of more than 8.0 million euros. Looking at the year as a whole, the mountain railways are satisfied with the demand of 360,000 guests, despite Corona-related breakdowns.
Use the opportunities of the crisis
“A standstill of the mountain railways does not mean a standstill of the company. Quite the opposite: We continued to work with a lot of motivation, pushed projects forward and completed them earlier than planned, ”said fellow board member Johannes Krieg. With the start of the complete renovation of the Nebelhornbahn in May 2020, which was completed in spring 2021, the expansion of the shared services of the Kleinwalsertaler Bergbahn AG within the OBERSTDORF • KLEINWALSERTAL BERGBAHNEN mountain railway network and the technical innovations at the Fellhorn summit lift The local mountain railways can look back on an energetic business year. But new pilot projects have also been launched: "In the course of ecological preparatory work for the design of autonomous snowmaking on the Fellhorn, the occurrence of the protected forest birch mouse was determined in the vicinity of the Kanzelwandhaus", explains Johannes Krieg. Together with experts from the LFU, LRA and the government of Swabia, they are now getting to the bottom of the extent to which the animal has settled in the Fellhorn area and whether there are species-appropriate options for relocation. The “intelligent parking guidance system” project was also started in the past financial year. This went into operation in the summer of 2021. “Even before arrival, the guest can call up the current parking situation in Oberstdorf-Kleinwalsertal via our website - with the current status and live occupancy figures.
Carefully, safely, gently - also in the current financial year
"So that we could continue to guarantee our guests safe mountain experiences in summer 2020, we have developed a well thought-out hygiene concept for safe coexistence on the mountain - to protect our guests and our employees," says Johannes Krieg. This was firmly anchored in the two-country region together with the two tourism associations. “The fact that we could not start the winter season as a mountain railway network despite the tried and tested summer concept that was further developed for winter 2020/2021 was a major blow for us. In order to preserve the special status we had for the Kleinwalsertal, we supported the decisions of the Bavarian state government, "says Andreas Gapp and finally adds:" We can already say today that the 2020/21 financial year will be one of the most difficult in our company's history.
