Tourism contributes significantly to the GDP of many tourist regions. Unfortunately, the tourism business is also linked to high CO2 emissions. A paper in Nature suggests that emissions account for up to 8% of global greenhouse emissions. That’s HUGE.
Transport is a significant contributor: after all, to get to a gorgeous destination, holiday makers drive, motorbike, fly or cruise to get to where they want to spend their holiday.
So what are tourism businesses in Tirol doing about this challenge?
One common approach is to offer a “mobility card” for guests. This is simple: when guests check in at their hotel, they receive a card that allows them free travel on local or regional public transport. This has long been in place in tourist areas in both north and south Tirol.
Seefeld, a beautiful and well-known summer and winter tourist destination in north Tirol, has taken this one step further with their “Free Trip to your Dream Holiday” („Freifahrt ins Urlaubsglück“) promotion. From June to November 2023, anyone who travels in an environmentally friendly way to reach their holiday destination in Seefeld—for example, by train or Flixbus—will have their travel costs reimbursed by the tourist association.
There is pot of €60,000 for the campaign, and lucky holiday makers will be able to receive a refund for their travel expenses for up to €150 per person over 15, and for younger children, up to €75.
Getting around locally is easy and free with their guest card, called the “PlateauCard”, which connects local villages and towns, and can take guests as far as as Mittenwald and Telfs. In summer and winter, additional connections to Wildmoos and Gaistal are provided, and in winter, access to ski buses.
The campaign will serve to demonstrate just how easy it is to travel to and from the region with low or no CO2 emissions involved in the journey. The tourism website also provides some integrated tools to make it easier than ever to plan the journey. This difficulty in planning journeys with public transport can be a real barrier to adoption of car-free journeys, so this could be something that makes the shift to public transport a no-brainer.
It will be fascinating to see the results of the campaign, and whether this helps with attitude and behavioural change on the part of holiday makers, or whether people will revert to travelling by car once the financial incentive is gone.
For more information about the project, see;
For more information about Seefeld’s mobility choices, see: