Vorarlberg Lift Co’s Declare A Provisionally Positive Season

The Vorarlberg cable cars will draw a preliminary balance sheet for the 2023/24 winter season to mid-March. Initial projections show a pleasing result: Despite challenging weather conditions, 200 more operating days were recorded by February than in the 2022/23 winter season. The ski areas were also able to increase significantly in first-time admissions, achieving an increase of around 300,000 skiers compared to the previous year.

The joy of skiing and winter sports is still unbroken. This is confirmed by the figures that the Vorarlberger Bergbahnen publish in their interim balance a few weeks before the end of the season. By the end of February, around 2,800 operating days and 4.2 million first entries were recorded. That's around 200 days of operation and 10.2 percent more skiers than in the previous year. “The development of the last few years is particularly positive: Since Corona, we have been able to get more people excited about skiing every season. “We’re not quite at the high level we had before Corona, but we’re close,” says Andreas Gapp, chairman of the Vorarlberg cable car section, happily.

More support for small (small) ski areas

“The start of the 2023/24 winter season was almost picture-perfect with great snow conditions in December and January,” says Andreas Gapp. After that, things became difficult, especially for the upstream ski areas. “Although we were able to achieve a positive result overall in Vorarlberg, the small, remote ski areas can look back on a challenging winter. Some of them were only able to record a few days of operation this year and others had to end the season in February due to the snow. In order to be able to support the affected companies even better in the future, we have adjusted the small (small) ski area funding in 2024,” explains Andreas Gapp.

This funding has been available on the initiative of the cable car specialist group together with the state of Vorarlberg since 2017. A funding amount of 100,000 euros is available per year. In 2024, the procurement guidelines were revised: applicants for funding no longer have to be in a tense economic situation as before, but can apply for support beforehand. “Small and micro areas play an important role in Vorarlberg when it comes to awakening a passion for skiing in children and young people. “It is all the more important to support these companies,” concludes Gapp.

The Vorarlberg Cable Car Specialist Group represents the interests of 75 members and 32 ski areas. There are 287 cable cars and lifts in operation across Vorarlberg, serving a total of around 1,000 kilometers of slopes. On average, over 1,000 employees and 25 apprentices are employed by the Vorarlberg cable car companies.