The “fastest lift in the world” is located in the Canton of Valais. So it looks like at least the Air Zermatt, promoting your new business idea with this superlative. Together with the rental-car company Hertz Air Zermatt has put together an “exclusive package”, which combines the “Best of the mobility in the air and on the road”: First of all, it comes with a diesel-powered, “luxury SUV,” the Volvo brand from any Swiss Hertz Station “convenient” to Raron in Valais, and from there by helicopter directly onto the slopes around the Matterhorn.
The “adventure” will cost a total of 1665 Swiss francs, a maximum of five skiers can join together, in the best case, the per capita power 333 of the Swiss franc. In the price of the rental car for 24 hours, the helicopter flight, as well as a ski ticket for the whole day, as well as, optionally, the loan of ski equipment is included. For the last weekend of the offer had been booked for the first time, by a five-member group, as Gerold Biner, CEO of Air Zermatt, confirmed. The helicopter, however, could not stand out of the nasty weather.
extension of the offer conceivable
Of those are adversity faced by the promoters at the political level. At the end of January Mountain Wilderness has required the waiver of this business model. The offer was “almost a symbol for the ignorance of the environmental problems of our time,” writes the protection of the Alps organization in a letter to the two providers. “While tens of thousands of people in Switzerland and worldwide for climate protection to go on the road, pleasure to advertise for totally oversized, environmentally harmful mobility than leisure.”
With your claim, the Alps, the guards run into the Void. “There is probably no better way to see the unique beauty of our mountains, bring the guests of Zermatt,” says Air Zermatt, CEO of Biner. And makes it clear that The offer is running, as long as a demand exists, an extension is conceivable. Barriers to the exercise of the limited number of by the Federal government allotted mountain land places, so Biner.
tourism experts are not surprised by the new offer. In addition to the Size of the ski area and snow safety, accessibility for guests, today is an important criterion in the choice of Destination, says Therese Lehmann, Deputy Director of the research centre for tourism at the University of Bern. In addition, the guests to, according to Lehmann, less skiing, and especially when the weather is nice, which leads to more day-trippers than those for a whole week in the holidays. “These social Trends to speak for the “quick” offer and that there is a certain demand.”
at Least the flight from Raron is in demand in a part of the skiers: Since 2010, this possibility is used especially in the months of February and March. How many Postings since then, not Biner to say. The demand was “emotionally consistent”.
arrival time of 75 minutes shorter
the helicopter flight directly to the ski resort, the check-in time is shortened from the Valais Central valley to Zermatt from 90 to 15 minutes. Just for one-day tourists, whose number has increased since the opening of the Lötschberg base tunnel, strong, looks Biner is a significant relief. The traveller to come to one – to two-hour drive from the regions of Bern, Basel and Zurich to the railway station Visp, then they would have a further, about one-hour train – and Busanfahrt to the actual ski area. Biner assumes that the new service will particularly appeal to guests from Switzerland.
That it came with the Hertz partnership, owes Air Zermatt to the “social commitment” to the Car rental company. So anyway, Hertz established the cooperation: You think much of the rescue services of Air Zermatt, but it had a deficit, with the partner offer, they wanted to grab the helicopter company. What this means financially, Hertz is open.
“This smells like pretty speeches,”
Environmental concerns Hertz does not, apparently, The 60 litres of kerosene for the flight, with the best possible occupation holds 12 litres-per-skiing guests, the car rental is reasonable. Also, you place “only” a Volvo and not a HP-stronger car, just as you would in advertisements explicitly to the desired group size of five people, in order to keep the utilization as a maximum.
Mountain Wilderness holds the cited arguments for advanced. “This smells very much like retroactive justification, and pretty speeches,” says Maren Kern, Executive Director of Mountain Wilderness. “Hertz and Air Zermatt to help to destroy what you live as a tourism provider: the glacier and the snow.” The 15-minute flight need the same amount of fuel as 1000 to 1200 kilometers by car and bring an additional noise disturbance from Raron to the valley of Zermatt, calculates the core. “For us, that is not acceptable.”
tourism expert Lehmann says that there is, from an ecological point of view, there is simply no Pro-arguments for the offer. “And yet, to say that all the Swiss, to make a long flight for a holiday range in the distance instead of driving in the mountains Ski, a lot more climate-damaging gases emit.” Lehmann does not want to justify the offer but, as you emphasized. “Quite consistently, in the holiday “slow” on the road, because tourism is the ejection means to approximately 90 percent of mobility, and mobility.” Lehmann assumes that the business idea will remain a niche offering, and not with other providers will prevail.
Demonstration in March
The Alpine guards, for their part, hope that the provider will have a rethink. In March, the Mountain Wilderness will have to demonstrate a currently secret location in the Alps. In the context of this year’s “Stop Heli-skiing”-action, the Alps, the guards will reaffirm what you have been asking for for years: a limitation of the tourist mountain flying. (Editorial Tamedia)
Created: 12.02.2019, 12:01 PM
