Huts – The Glory and Grief of the Alpenverein
Translation of an article from Alpenverein* 04.05 Sep-Oct 2005
*OeAV magazine, since January 2006 renamed 'Bergauf'
Lobbying by the Alpenverein brings great success for the alpine clubs.
Parliament decides to continue the Huts and Paths redevelopment programme.
By Peter Grauss, President of the OeAV (1996 - 2007)
“Die Hütten sind die Lust und die Last des Alpenvereins” (the huts are the joy and the burden of the Alpenverein) as our honorary member Prof. Luis Oberwalder once said. Elegantly wrapped in a German alliteration, this phrase neatly sums up the heart of the problem. On the one hand the Alpenverein sections put a great deal of enthusiasm and immense amounts of voluntary work into maintaining both their huts and paths and into bringing the waste disposal and energy supply of the huts up to the latest environmentally-friendly standards, while on the other hand the maintenance costs and investment required for this work are spiralling ever higher. In the medium term these costs cannot be met without corresponding support from our political leaders. The maintenance of the alpine infrastructure may be the duty of the alpine clubs, as laid down in their constitutions, and they may do it with great enthusiasm, but the following facts show that the alpine infrastructure is of much wider socio-political importance:
The Importance for Tourism and Mountain Sports
The alpine huts and paths network form the central pillar of walking and mountaineering tourism in Austria. Every year 4.75 million people from home and abroad visit alpine huts and 1.1 million stay at a hut overnight. The latest market research figures from 2004 underline how important this infrastructure is for summer tourism: 28% of all tourists fall into the category “walkers/ramblers”, far ahead of the next category “city/culture tourists” at 15%. Walking and mountaineering brings in a thousand million Euros annually.
For Austrians themselves walking and mountaineering is the clear leader on the popularity scale. The paths network maintained by the alpine clubs with a total length of 40,000 km is the basis of the most important and extensive sporting facility in Austria.
Maintenance of the Alpine Infrastructure
In order to maintain the 696 huts in Austria with their 39,000 beds, the alpine clubs need to invest 20 million Euros annually. 80% of this investment flows directly into the local economy, while the remaining 20% goes to Austrian companies throughout the country. In total 2,300 jobs, mostly in structurally disadvantaged regions, depend on this investment either directly or indirectly.
The Federal contribution to this investment requirement has fallen by 40% in real terms since 1991, due to a lack of indexation as well as budgetary reductions in 2002. Federal funds currently available for alpine huts stand at 2.5 million Euros. The contributions made by the Lände are less, amounting to only about 25% of the Federal contribution.
Costs in Focus
Almost 80% of alpine huts can only be wardened in summer and must achieve their annual turnover in 3 to 4 months. Added to this is the fact that all building and maintenance work in high alpine areas costs around 2.5 times more than in the valley. This is why the highest and, from a mountaineering point of view, the most indispensable huts are the most difficult to operate economically. In the last 15 years large sums have been invested in environmental technologies (waste disposal, and renewable energy such as photo-voltaic cells) to try and reduce the footprint of these huts on the sensitive high alpine landscape. Building and operating these facilities increases the operating costs of alpine huts by 40%. On top of this a raft of health and safety, environmental and fire regulations must also be adhered to. In many cases the law doesn't distinguish between the standards required for hotels in the valleys and those that apply to the smallest high alpine hut.
Results and Conclusions
In summary it is fair to say the overall maintenance of the alpine network of huts and paths can only be achieved with the enormous financial and voluntary contribution of the alpine clubs. But this contribution must be properly recognised and supported, because of its touristic and wider sporting importance for the general public. Since miracles rarely happen these days, and never of their own accord, the Alpenverein set off for parliament last year on a “lobbying pilgrimage”, armed with comprehensive facts and figures. Politics is a tough game, best played backed with properly thought through arguments. Thanks to particular support from Federal Chancellor Dr. Schüssel and Club representative Herr Molterer, the governing Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) brought a parliamentary motion to the house before the summer recess this year.
The unanimous decision of the National Assembly to continue to support the programme of hut and path renovation with the approval of the allocation of official funds has secured state funding until 2010. However, these funds alone are not enough. In future the Länder must make a much larger financial contribution – after all, local authorities and Länder also profit from the income generated by alpine tourism. The justified desire of the alpine clubs for a much larger contribution from the Länder, which has been raised at the heads of Länder conference for the last three years, ought finally to be granted.
All in all this Alpenverein initiative shows just how socio-politically relevant our network of huts and paths is for the general public. I believe that you, dear members, as supporters, co-owners and hopefully also as frequent users of the alpine infrastructure, can be rightly very proud, as we are, of this important achievement of the Alpenverein.
Land (Länder) = [Austrian] province(s)
Sektion Britannia/AAC(UK) has been contributing to the huts from its earliest days when members took blankets out to the huts. Later the Hut Fund was established to help with the maintenance and modernisation of huts and paths. The thousands of Euros that we donate may be a small proportion of the millions of Euros necessary but every little helps and the sections also appreciate the moral support that our donations represent.
The AAC(UK) Hut Fund is needed more than ever, please contribute to it generously:
Contributions to the Hut Fund can be made when you join or renew your membership
or please send a Cheque or Debit/Credit card payments to the Hut Fund now
c/o AAC(UK) Office! Cheques payable to the 'Austrian Alpine Club'.
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Last updated: 11 December 2006