Huge ski resorts, hotel, castles, and raucous Après-Ski parties are Standard in many Alpine areas. Not so in the Berchtesgadener Land. The Region has omitted some of the development of tourism, – now you are profiting from it.
Only a faint noise from the Wimbach is to hear birdsong and horses hooves in the snow. Around the small village of Ramsau, in the South Eastern corner of Bavaria, the mountains of the Alps rise powerful. “Beeeetziiiiii Beeeeetziii Beeeeetz, kimm, kimm!”, a cry is resounding through the valley. And nearly 40 sheep pushing to the fence of their enclosure, to Renate Aschauer.
Without you it would not give the animals today. The Alpine stone sheep was almost extinct. But in the meantime, Aschauers animals to mountain pastures in summer, back to the Ramsauer, guarded only by the three working dogs, almost like centuries ago. An Alpine idyll.
The Alpine stone sheep is one of the oldest breeds of sheep at all, and today a highly endangered species
A chairlift of deceleration
In reality, this Idyll is rare. Artificial ski slopes, snow-covered as wide as highways, huge lifts, and Après-Ski-huts in numerous places in the Alps for the Event-hell, with tens of thousands of visitors a year.
Also, Ramsau would have decades ago like a train on the Watzmann, Germany’s most distinctive summit, had. But by the end of the 1970s, with the establishment of the national Park, the Plan was finally buried. “Fortunately,” says Fritz Rasp, Director of Tourism in Ramsau. “Because it is much closer to nature and for us, that is the need of the hour.”
Approximately 1800 people live in Ramsau, the tourism is one of the main sources of income
Instead of a large bed castles, there are mainly small Hotels and pensions, instead of installing the very expensive snow cannons, breed you prefer rare breeds of sheep, instead of 16 gondolas can go the guests directly from the bed in the cross-country trails or go Hiking. Ramsau has the highest mountain in leader density in Germany. And Director of Tourism, Rasp difficulties, all tours in the guest brochures.
The ski area on the high-schwarzeck, however, is tiny. And the chairlift goes in Rasp “so slowly, that our fastest ski climber on the summit before the train arrives there.”
Without snow, the Lift is with the intention of
Within ten minutes, one comes from each house in Ramsau on a Hiking trail
2015 Ramsau so-called mountain village, the first in Germany. The Initiative of the Austrian Alpine club have been a total of four German locations, the nature-based tourism to promote and traditions. The title is for Ramsau, but it is not a Marketing Label, said Rasp. “But rather the confirmation of what we’ve been doing for almost 30 years: man and nature together.”
But this also means: no artificial snow. In warmer winters, the ski lifts are on the high-schwarzeck, therefore, hardly profitable. Nevertheless, the Mini does not want to snow-ski in the future, but more with natural snow advertise. The decision of the Ramsauer.
The long-term from the cleaners up to the lamb
And your concept’s paying off: Overall, the average length of stay in the Alps is less than three days. Over the year, many Hotels are not busy, even to the half of it. In Ramsau, Berchtesgadener Land, were the guests, however, last more than four nights. Accommodations such as the mountain hotel Rehlegg achieve 75% utilization throughout the year.
Two, want to contribute your part to ensure that the mountains remain as they are: Fritz Rasp (left) and Hannes Lichtman EGGER
Hotel-in-chief Hannes Lichtmannegger has converted his house six years ago on the sustainability of the cleaning means and the power supply to regional products. In the past, about the lamb meat from new Zealand came, in the meantime, he covers the entire year need about breeders like Renate Aschauer: “There are two kilometres to the route, instead of 20,000 and you have a quality you don’t get in the world.”
Lichtmannegger the Laufer country wheat re-grow, an ancient, almost Grain forget. The carbon footprint of the hotel is compensated. And in front of the door, electric cars and E-bikes for the guests.
More than Wellness
The use of the nature. On this winter day, the Parking lot of the high-schwarzeck-Bahn is full, the Lift line but short. A young man came with his girlfriend to a Spa holiday in the Region. “A week to the Sauna is a bit monotonous – and here you can go in between for a walk, or sleigh ride,” he says.
Tracks for sledding and mountains – making for these holiday makers from Thuringia Ramsau from
A father from Denmark pushes his little daughter in the Buggy in the direction of the forest. He says: “There are offers for all ages and a good price-performance ratio. This is great for the family holiday.”
Berchtesgaden life rather slow
The benefit of Ramsau comes the concept that the whole Region is a sustainable tourism has prescribed. On the world-famous Königssee electric drive for more than 100 years of boats. The Berchtesgadener Land is a biosphere region. Tradition and craftsmanship are important, such as in-Store from Franz Stangassinger.
He manufactures leather pants, as the grandfather and father. The wait on a tailor-made copy is just under one and a half years. His business stangassinger don’t want to zoom in, however: “We are for 130 always the same and always has. This “always bigger, always more” has for me no future,” he says. “I believe that a time must come in which it is said: It is enough.”
Franz Stangassinger has bought the Spanish Royal house
This Berchtesgadener way to make the beginning of March, about 300 tourism experts from all over the world on the spot – at a UN conference on mountain tourism. “We can make a good business card,” says Brigitte Schlögel, Head of the Berchtesgadener Land Tourismus GmbH. “Closeness to nature is lived here: I don’t know any of Berchtesgaden, not Hiking, skiing, ski touring, mountaineering or mountain Biking. The life of this sustainability.”
Limits of sustainability
Before mass tourism, the Region is not immune however, In the summer, thousands of day-trippers from Munich, from Austria, and visitors from the US or Asia – because of the mountains and the lake Königssee. Jams, wild Parker and long queues are the result.
In the Winter, the boats on the Königssee to St. Bartholomä to only hourly, in summer, in 10-minute intervals
In Ramsau you have therefore increased the Park fees. Vacationers driving with the guest card in public transport in the Berchtesgadener land, free of charge. “But there’s still a lot to do,” said Rasp, the Ramsauer-tourism-in-chief. Without a car it’s not often.
At the beginning of March 2019, the experts of the world tourism organization UNWTO will go on tour around the County: to the documentation center on the Obersalzberg, in the Alte Saline in Bad Reichenhall, on the Jenner mountain and the lake Königssee. And, of course, a Tour leads into the mountain village of Ramsau – here it is then, in the Rehlegg is a Buffet of local specialities, including lamb meat in the Alpine stone sheep.