Austria wants to attract as many Romanian tourists as possible

The most popular ski region of Tyrol is Otztal, especially due to the ten various resorts found there. This is where you can find the resorts Haiming, Sautens and Otz, which sport a special program for families, "Happy Family", and Solden, famous for its night life.

In the region of Tyrol, the Otztal area is favored by the Romanian tourists, who spent thousands of nights here, during 2007.

Christian Schnöller, sales and event manager at "Otztaler Gletscherbahn" GmbH & Co KG, stated: "In 2007, our region registered 3.3 million accommodation nights. We are, after Vienna, Austria most powerful tourist region. A number of 40.000 of those accommodation nights were Romanian tourists. They usually spend about a week and most of them buy ski subscriptions. Based on some estimates, this year, the number of Romanian tourists is on a slight increase. Romania is a market that we have been working with for five years and it is very important to us".

The ski season in Tyrol begins in October and the season officially ends on May 3rd. Following some polls, the average price for a day - accommodation, meals and ski subscription - is estimated to be around 150 Euros. In that region, transport between the stations for all the tourists, is free, just like the ski subscriptions for children below 6 years of age. Also the cultural and sports events are available free of charge for tourists.

During the ski season various events take place, such as skiing championships, thermal baths at Aqua Dome - a futuristic construction with natural thermal waters, (the only one of the kind in Tyrol), dog-sled races, the "Hannibal" festival, which concludes the season etc.

In the Solden area there are 150 km of slopes and 34 km of ski lifts, which provide the transportation from 1377 to 3340 m. Solden is the closest resort to Innsbruck, from whence the tourists are transported, free of charge, from the airport to their hotel. The investments represent the entire profit of a season and are set aside each year, for the modernization and improvement of the tourism infrastructure: gondolas, ski lifts, (this year the first 8-person ski lift was commissioned, replacing the older 3-person model), restaurants, guest houses etc.

In 2008, a big Tyrolese-typical restaurant will be made available to tourists, with suspended escalators, for the skiers coming from the slope with their ski boots on. The total amount of investments this year for the Solden resort is 20 million Euros.

In Obergurgl, the third most important resort in the Otztal region, there are approximately 110 km of slopes and 22 transport installations. This is the location of the highest village in Austria, permanently covered in Snow. Until the end of November, in Obergurgl takes place the "Cirques des montagnes" festival, which started a few days ago.