Advertising ban for flights – Hörl adds: “Facts and data on the table”

Once again Tyrol’s top cable car operator brought up a CO2 statement or “categorization” in a conversation with the APA. “If we are serious about discussing the issue of climate change and resource conservation,” we need these “serious and reliable data” and numbers. The cable cars would already communicate this “very transparently”, Hörl emphasized. Air and cruise traffic, on the other hand, are currently “deftly seeking cover”. “What is possible with food and electrical appliances via traffic light labels or clothing, should also be possible in tourism: customers must know what is in it and what environmental impacts are associated with the choice of a holiday,” explains the eloquent Zillertal hotelier and ÖVP out. – Big.

Hörl is sure of victory
The cable car’s top representative has no doubts about who would benefit from such a label in terms of climate technology: “I am convinced that holidays in the Austrian Alps – be it winter or summer – will emerge as a frontrunner of such a classification. come.” The Federal Environment Agency confirmed how well a skiing holiday in Austria compares to a car trip to the Adriatic Sea or a flight to Mallorca. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, a week’s skiing holiday in this country only accounts for “21 percent of a flight to Spain”, if you travel by train you only get 13 percent.

“It frustrates me that when it comes to the carbon footprint, only winter tourism is discussed,” explains Hörl. The cable cars and all winter tourism have done “exemplary work” in terms of energy. Hörl again did not skimp on criticism of (climate) media coverage: “I am convinced that the partly fact-free criticism and the hunger for photos of green-framed ski slopes in recent weeks have caused considerable damage.”

“Seems to have hit a sore point”
His demand for an advertising ban on particularly harmful forms of vacation such as air travel, for example for city breaks, was an “exaggerated description or wording”, but he stands by what he said. The discussion was started. The sometimes sharp public criticism and debate surprised him, but: “It seems that a sore point has been hit.” Hörl objected to the frequent criticism that many guests from Austria and Tyrol first travel to the ski resorts by plane: The guests who came to Tyrol by plane represented only an average single-digit percentage.

“However, we still need to expand the environmentally friendly journey from home to hotel”, he also saw the need for action here. The arrival and departure here is “the biggest lever to become even more economical and environmentally friendly”. “The path can only lead to the most successful redistribution of traffic flows towards the railway. We have been aware of this for a long time and this is exactly the direction in which we are working,” concluded the cable car chairman in the Chamber of Commerce.

Mattle agrees with Hörl
By the way, when asked about Hörl’s advances, Tyrol governor and economic coordinator Anton Mattle (ÖVP) said on Tuesday: “Everything can be discussed”. However, he noted, “Vacations and travel is something that society wants.” Hörl is known for always being on point. Mattle explained that the round trip is always responsible for the largest carbon footprint. “A trip to the Alps for winter sports leaves a much smaller carbon footprint than a flight to a holiday destination,” the country manager agreed with Hörl.