This pictures were taken “behind” the Walcher Wasserfall (Cascade) – in Ferleiten. Ferleiten is a part of Fusch an der Glocknerstrasse – here is the toll station for the Glockner Hochalpenstrasse. You can visit this cascade doing an easy hike of about 2 hours.
Filed under random pictures from great places
On Monday I attended the Tourismusforum Alpenregionen in Zell am See. This event is an annual conference where tourism professionals of the Alps meet up. It is in german, therefore its mainly Austrians and Swiss – this year with a lot of Swiss people. The most are Destination Managers or CEOs of Ski resorts. I attended as I was interested into the afternoon session – which was titled “Grow – From the West to the East to the Far East – the markets of the future”. The morning session did not really fit my interests and I was rather disappointed, but I had some nice talks during lunch breaks and “Networking” is one of the main reasons to attend this kind of event.
The afternoon session was much better and I could learn a lot. There were presentations by a guy from the Austrian Tourist board, Renate Ecker from Zell am See/Kaprun tourism, Stefan Otz from Interlaken tourism, Ankita Makwana, an indian movie director, who lives in Mumbai and Zurich and finally from Waseem Hussain, a swiss/indian business man, who supports Swiss companies who do business in India and vice versa.
It was very interesting to hear about the specific needs people from different countries have and to get examples from people who have guests from this regions for some years already. I thought it was very inspiring and am happy that I attended. I especially liked the very international approach of Interlaken, who have guests from all over the world, which is very unusual for the alpine tourism destinations. I will definitely visit Interlaken in the next couple of months to see, how the international mixture of guests in a swiss town looks and feels.
Anyone ever been to Interlaken? Did you enjoy it? What are the things to be done there?
Filed under Talking about Tourism
Hi. I am writing this new blog post from Zell am See, where I am staying for a couple of days. My wife comes from the area and we visited her parents for the weekend. Tomorrow I will attend a conference on Tourism in Zell am See – the Tourismusforum Alpenregionen 2012.
Zell am See is still busy with ski tourists, but everything is turning green again and you can now sense what a great place it is in summer.
Panorama of Zell am See from the other end of Zeller See Deutsch: Zell am See (rechts), vom Nordende des Zeller Sees, links Halbinsel von Thumersbach Blick Richtung Süden über das Salzachtal Mitte Hoher Tenn (3368 m) mit Imbachhorn (2470 m) und Vorbergen, rechts Kitzsteinhorn (3203 m), links Schwarzkopf (2765 m), dazwischen ferne Brennkogel (3018 m) über dem Hochtor der Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. Ganz rechts Abhänge der Schmittenhöhe, links des Hundstein. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
During winter Zell am See has a very international group of guests, and this is also true for the summer. What is especially interesting for me, is the huge amount of people from the Gulf States that visit Zell am See during Summer (especially July). This is due to immense work done by the Tourist board to establish the Alpes as a place to visit for people from the Arabian Peninsula. Zell offers their Arab guests all the things they do not have – an impressive green landscape, lots of Water (Zell am See means Zell at the Lake) and snow. There is a nearby glacier, with a summer skiing resort, so people from Arabia love to try some skiing without the coldness, that comes with winter.
But Zell is also a very great place to visit for people from all over the world, not just the Arabian Peninsula and I will come back to that the next time I visit Zell am See.
In my next forum post I will try to concentrate on the conference I visit tomorrow to give you some insights into the Alpine tourism professionals scene.
Filed under Traveling in Europe
This week there was a guest blog article on this blog. It was themed around “picture perfect places to visit in Cornwall”. This blog normally concentrates on stories about visiting Central Europe, as this is the region I live in and have great knowledge of. But I believe that many visitors from overseas also want to see other regions of Europe and I want to show some places that are worth visiting outside my region, too.
I chose Cornwall as first example, as it is quite easy and affordable to get to England from my region and vice versa. Today I would like to give some advice on how to combine England with Central Europe.
Getting to England from Western Central Europe is quite easy. There are dozens of airlines which connect to London and other major English cities. I want to point out some of the connections I use, for my visits to England.
Filed under Traveling in Europe
It’s snowing again – after weeks of arctic coldness temperature has risen to about zero degree Celsius (32 degree Fahrenheit) and at the moment it is snowing. According to the weather report this won’t stop until tomorrow, and there should be another 50 – 80 cm snow up in the mountains! are great news for people who consider to go skiing in March. This year you will be guaranteed loads of Snow.
great days ahead - March 2012 will be a great month for skiers
March is one of the best times for skiing in my opinion – the high season is already over, meaning less people and lower prizes, its getting warmer already and the days are longer. Sadly in the last year snow was a problem in March – but this is just taken care of.
So if you have not booked your skiing holidays already, or are still considering whether to book, or not: Go for it! This March will be great!
Links to Austrian Skiing resorts:
Filed under Winter
Today I would love to introduce you to a very convenient way to travel Austria – by railway. A lot of the major cities, in Austria are connected that way.
I just recently wrote a guest article at Voyage Articles – Three Cities to visit in Austria. There I wrote a short review about the three major Cities, tourists visit in Austria. The nice thing about Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck is, that they are very well connected – not only by car, but also by train. They are all part of the Westbahn-Trasse, which connects Bregenz (Vorarlberg) to Vienna – this route is one of the backbones of the Austrian railway system. This way you can go from Vienna to Salzburg in approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes. Innsbruck – Salzburg are another 2 hours and to go to Vorarlberg you will need another 2 hours. But it is well worth the way, as the railway tracks between Innsbruck and Vorarlberg run over high bridges and through narrow alpine valleys.
A lot of trains are on international routes – there are a lot of trains from Vienna to Zurich (via Feldkirch, Innsbruck, Salzburg); there are trains from Munich to Rome (via Innsbruck) and from Munich to Vienna (via Salzburg) – others run from Bregenz to Budapest (via Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna).
There is a second major route – the Südbahn. It takes you from Vienna to Carinthia (via Graz) and connects to Venice.
Visiting Europe by train is a very good alternative, as it is convenient, safe and gives you a lot of opportunities to see rural Europe. I love to travel by train, as it gives me time to read, to meet people or to work (I prefer it to flying – check out this article) There are international train tickets for Tourists who want to use the railway system in different countries – you can find information for international visitors at Eurails Homepage – European Travelers can use the Interrail System.
Image via Wikipedia
Other important links:
ÖBB (Austrian railways) Route planner: click here
Westbahn (private operator from Vienna to Salzburg): click here
Filed under Traveling in Europe
Next week I will visit my parents in law in the Zell am See region – therefore I decided it might be helpful to add to my article
“Great skiing resorts in Tyrol and Vorarlberg” which can be read here by giving some information about Skiing resorts I know in Salzburg.
Most people know Salzburg as a city – but there is also a province with the same name, as its capital. Famous for “Sound of Music” and for being Mozarts birthplace, the region has a lot to offer. In Winter they have some really great skiing resorts.
And by great, I mean huge – Ski Amadé is a cooperation by a lot of Salzburg (and some Styrian) skiing resorts – 860km of pistes for all levels offer plenty of great skiing. 2013 there will be the Alpine Ski World Championship in Schladming, one of the resorts that belong to Amadé.
There are also a lot of smaller resorts, that are worth visiting. I personally like Rauris – it is a small resort in a beautiful valley, which has some great runs and very traditional huts to have some delicious food with breathtaking views. Rauris is promoting itself for family friendliness, but if you just want to have a day of skiing fun, it is a great location, too.
A lot bigger is the Europasportregion Zell am See/Kaprun. The area consists of a bigger skiing resort (Zell am See), a smaller one (Kaprun) and a glacier skiing resort above Kaprun. Therefore you can go skiing almost all year long. The view to picturesque Zeller Lake is wonderful and you can spot a lot of Austrias highest peaks in the “Hohe Tauern”, including Austrias highest peak – the Grossglockner (3797m).
Further down the Pinzgau you can find Mittersill. Mittersills skiing resort has been connected with the Kitzbühel skiing area for some years now, and this part of the skiing resort, might not be as famous as Kitzbühel, but it provides you with a lot of great skiing.
Just around the corner of Zell am See, there is another huge skiing arena – Saalbach/Hinterglemm – which can also be reached from Leogang. This area is one of my favorite spots in the Alpes, as you find a lot of great runs not only for beginners and intermediates, but also for good skiers, who want to give it all.
Salzburg is definitely a great spot for skiing and if you are considering to come to Austria in Winter, you should not miss out on it. After all this is where the hills are really alive.
Filed under Winter
Heartland Europe 