Car-free travel to Tyrol - is that possible?

Brigitte Hainzer: The proportion of guests arriving by public transport has risen steadily in recent years and demand for rail travel is booming like never before, although there is still room for improvement. The majority of our guests arrive by car. Most locals also use them in their free time.

Every overnight guest, every day visitor and every local who leaves their car behind in their free time contributes to reducing traffic and thus to preserving nature. Nature, in turn, is the basis of our health and recreation, but also of our economy. There are many reasons to take a closer look at this topic, which I have been doing very intensively for almost 10 years as part of my mobility coaching.

In order to achieve the goals set out in the "Tyrolean Way" - by 2035, the share of public transportation should be 20% - there is still a need for action on the supply side, e.g. public connections, flexible systems such as on-demand services or car-sharing offers, and on the communication and awareness-raising side.

The conditions for a further reduction in the proportion of cars are promising. The mobility behavior of our guests is currently undergoing a major change. People in large cities often no longer have their own car. Young people do not have a driver's license. Commuters are multi-modal, traveling by car, train and perhaps a bicycle or on foot for the "first and last mile". In addition, people want to move more, as various studies show, including Evolution and Mobility, a study by the Zukunftsinstitut on behalf of the ADAC.

We must use these conditions as an opportunity to motivate our guests to go on vacation to Tyrol without their own car and/or to leave their car behind on vacation and explore nature by bike, on foot or by public transport.

Brigitte Hainzer: Thanks to the intensive efforts of Tirol Werbung in the "Tirol on Rail" network, Tirol is ideally connected to the European conurbations, with numerous direct day and night trains and other good transfer connections, e.g. via the ICE hub in Munich.

The main challenge is to make guests aware of this offer. In the minds of our guests, there is often still the preconception that you need a car for a vacation in Tyrol, even to be mobile locally. It is therefore a matter of ignorance, but of course also of convenience or resentment towards changing trains, missed connecting trains, luggage transport and the question of how to get from the station to the hotel, which cause guests to use their car.

Brigitte Hainzer: First and foremost, it's about communication, information and inspiration. In recent years, tourism associations and accommodation providers have produced excellent information material on traveling by train. In addition to good accessibility, the issue of luggage (changing trains, door-to-door luggage and storage options) and the question of how guests get from the station to their hosts are decisive factors in whether they decide to travel by train. Here there is the Tirol train station shuttle, the local cab providers or the option of a guest car service for commercial accommodation providers.

It is particularly challenging in regions that are not directly on a railroad line. However, the Wilder Kaiser Tourism Association shows that rail travel can also be successfully used here. A great deal has been invested in local mobility here in recent years. In the "Green Arrival" package, guests can also book the train station shuttle from the station to their accommodation.

"Convenience" is a term often heard in this context. Most customers are not so much interested in the fact that using public transport should not cost anything, but that they can see the services on a platform and ideally book them directly. Seefeld has upgraded the Wegfinder app with information on local mobility as a good example of this.