Successful Summer For Carinthia's Lift Co’s 1.1 Million Guests In Summer 2023

Summer mountain railways are more than ever a reliable pillar of Carinthian summer tourism

Carinthia's summer mountain railways offer 187 days of summer experience in 2023.

They invite you to experience and enjoy the mountains until November 1st and will welcome around 1.1 million guests this year. With their variety of mountain experiences between the end of April and the beginning of November, the summer mountain railways make a key contribution to the attractiveness of Carinthia as a holiday destination.

In BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM, on the GERLITZEN ALPE and on the TURRACHER HÖHE, the summer cable car season lasts until November 1st, 2023. Also KATSCHBERG (until October 31st), ANKOGEL and NASSFELD (until October 29th) and WEISSENSEE (until October 26th) and MÖLLTAL GLACIER (continuous until May 2024) still invite you to an alpine mountain experience and mountain enjoyment at lofty heights.

"With 187 days of summer operation (April 29th to November 1st, 2023), we 14 Carinthian summer mountain railways are a very important pillar of summer tourism in the country. We satisfy our guests' ever-increasing longing for the mountains even during the festival, which is so important for the tourist region of Carinthia - or off-season," emphasizes Manuel Kapeller Hopfgartner, chairman of the cable car specialist group of the Carinthian Chamber of Commerce.

Enjoyable and challenging

"While 8 of our 14 adventure mountains are still in summer operation, we can look back on a summer of 2023 that was both enjoyable and challenging from a summer mountain railway perspective. The high demand from guests shows that the consistent increase in the attractiveness of our adventure offerings over the years is paying off. Behind the scenes "We had to cope with enormous cost increases and weather extremes such as the weather-related cancellation of the second half of the season on the Petzen," the specialist group chairman is proud to be able to welcome 1.1 million guests in 2023, as in the previous year.

Ecological enablers of mountain experiences

“Our guests really appreciate that we are more than ever ecological enablers of alpine experiences. Summer mountain railways are the most comfortable, simple and ecological way to enjoy the mountain adventure arena,” says Kapeller Hopfgartner.

Review of summer 2023

• BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM: “We can be more than satisfied with the current 2023 summer season. Despite the many rainy days in July, a general decline in overnight stays in Carinthia, high inflation and the upswing in long-distance travel, we were able to increase the number of first-time arrivals again compared to summer 2022,” explains Hansjörg Pflauder, board member of the Bad Kleinkirchheimer Bergbahnen. "The continuous investments in the mountain experiences around the Bad Kleinkirchheimer Bergbahnen are having an effect. Hikers and bikers of all ages appreciate the diverse offering from the end of May to the beginning of November 2023," said Pflauder.
• KATSCHBERG: "Compared to 2019, the last summer before Corona, we at Katschberg were able to increase our guest numbers by a pleasing 14 percent in summer 2023. In terms of sales, we even managed to maintain the top figures from 2022," says Josef Bogensperger from Katschbergbahnen with satisfaction Balance sheet.
• MÖLLTAL GLACIER & ANKOGEL: "We were able to attract a large number of international guests thanks to the touching uniqueness of the glacier ambience on the Mölltal Glacier and the also very impressive 3,000-meter mountain world on the Ankogel," emphasizes Constanze Schaffner from the Mölltaler Gletscherbahnen and the Hochgebirgsbahnen Ankogel.
• GERLITZEN ALPE: "The weather situation in the main season was difficult due to the mixed weather. However, September and the first half of October were very nice. This contributed to our increase in guests. We received very good feedback on our new children's playground and generally on the offerings for children," explains Gerlitzen Alpe Managing Director Hans Hopfgartner.
• DREILÄNDERECK: “Despite rain in June and July, we had a frequency increase of +4 percent in the summer of 2023,” says Wolfgang Löschers from Dreiländereck happily.
• HEILIGENBLUT: “We are very satisfied with summer 2023. In terms of first entries per day of operation, we have achieved our goals,” explains Peter Schmidl from Heiligenblut.
• PETZEN: “We can look back on a successful season until the early end of the season due to storm damage on August 3rd, 2023,” says Franz Skuk from the Petzen, summarizing the summer of 2023.
  Outlook 2024 - optimism & many new offers
• PETZEN: "At the beginning of winter 2023/24, the Petzen will resume operations as usual. The commissioning of a drag lift in the valley for mountain bike and biker transport is also planned for summer 2024 and has already been approved by the authorities. New mountain bike routes will also be built (about 5 km additional)," Franz Skuk von der Petzen looks optimistically into the future
• BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM: “We are planning new attractions in the area of ​​the Brunnach reservoir for 2024,” reveals Hansjörg Pflauder from Bad Kleinkirchheim.
• KATSCHBERG: "The plan is to implement the first construction phase of 'Katschi's Alpine playground'," emphasizes Josef Bogensperger from the Katschbergbahnen.DREILÄNDERECK: “We are working on new, cross-border lift offers in the summer for 2024,” is Wolfgang Löscher’s positive outlook for the border triangle.
• MÖLLTAL GLACIER & ANKOGEL: "At the Mölltal Glacier we are planning to expand the family and children's activities on the glacier and are in the process of creating a tourist excursion highlight even in bad weather. Another highlight will be ice floe sightseeing with glacier ice bathing. We are also planning walk-in glacier experiences as well as making the bike and hiking trails more attractive. At the Ankogel, the development of the viewing platform at the mausoleum into a top spot with an attractive range of information is on our agenda together with the German Alpine Club," says Constanze Schaffner, describing the plans of the Mölltaler Gletscherbahnen and the Hochgebirgsbahnen Ankogel.
  Numerous different groups of guests

"We welcome many different groups of guests on our mountains, from small children to grandparents. Some of the visitors come to enjoy being up on the mountain, to stop off and take easy mountain walks. A second group is drawn to our adventure attractions and family themed trails to summer toboggan runs. Others come to hike from the middle or mountain station, from leisurely to sporty. Mountain bikers use the uphill transport service by cable car and then ride down to the valley on one of our flow trails or nature trails. And special offers include via ferratas near the cable car "Mountain station, yoga on the mountain, paragliding opportunities or challenging uphill training routes including a cable car descent to particularly sporty guests," says specialist group chairman Kapeller-Hopfgartner, describing the different groups of guests.

Sustainability, biodiversity & energy efficiency at Carinthia's cable cars

Sustainability, biodiversity and energy efficiency have been the focus of Carinthia's cable cars for years. This commitment was reinforced by the enormous increase in energy costs. “This has further increased the willingness to work with new technologies and take new paths,” says Manuel Kapeller-Hopfgartner. “We have been actively working on the cable car vision of the future in workshops, excursions and much more and in spring 2023 we presented a comprehensive guide that is available free of charge to all Carinthian cable car users,” emphasizes the specialist group chairman.

The basis for summer operation is successful winter operation

"For us as a cable car industry, summer operations are constantly becoming more important thanks to attractive, specialized offers. Nevertheless, summer is only conceivable on the basis of successful winter operations. Because winter is and remains our main business, to which we cannot devote enough energy and attention. At least it generates "We get 80% to 90% of our income in the winter," said group leader Manuel Kapeller-Hopfgartner, emphasizing the importance of winter.

Carinthia's summer mountain railways 2023 - THE FACTS

• Summer 2023: Early start & very long season from April 29th (WEISSENSEE) to November 1st, 2023 (BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM, GERLITZEN ALPE and TURRACHER HÖHE)
• Guests (technical term first accesses) in summer 2023: around 1.1 million guests (extrapolation as of October 17, 2023, because 8 cable car companies are still operating in summer)
• Review 2022: 1,099,030 guests | 2021: 1,081,394 guests | 2020: 1,011,631 guests | 2019: 1,123,388 guests (previous high)
• A total of 14 Carinthian cable car companies with summer operations
• 6 of them are certified as “Best Austrian Summer Mountain Railways” for their outstanding quality of experience. Specifically: • Bad Kleinkirchheim, • Gerlitzen Alpe, • Goldeck, • Katschberg, • Nassfeld (with all three cable car companies) and • Turracher Höhe
• 8 additional summer mountain railways: • Ankogel, • Dreiländereck, • Heiligenblut, • Klippitztörl, • Kreuzeck, • Mölltaler Gletscher, • Petzen and • Weissensee
• 5 of the 15 Carinthian summer mountain railways (• Bad Kleinkirchheim, • Nassfeld, • Petzen, • Turracher Höhe, • Weissensee) have a special focus on mountain bikers as FLOW TRAILS KÄRNTEN. www.flowtrails-kaernten.at