FOCUS online: Tourism in the Zillertal is flourishing again after the Corona years. On the one hand, how did you get through the past, difficult time and, on the other hand, did you use it to be prepared for the future?
Hannes Kröll Schnell: We used the time for comfort improvements and planning and have already implemented parts of it. With measure and goal, of course, because the times were uncertain and financially disastrous. The topics of sustainability and independence have increasingly been incorporated into the planning. Our advantage is of course the size and diversity of our resort, but also the fact that nature, health, mountains and sport are very trendy.
FOCUS online: What were and are currently the greatest challenges?
Kröll-Schnell: First and foremost, the personnel situation has come to the fore even more, not only in our industry, but also in some cases with partners and suppliers. The uncertainty caused by the many lockdowns has driven many good employees out of the catering trade. Of course, as a tourist business that is open all year round, we have a certain advantage, but we have also optimized and made a lot of things more flexible with our employees themselves. Benefits such as new staff apartments, use of the swimming pool and fitness room, e-car rental and bonus program are at the forefront.
FOCUS online: What changes have been made to save on electricity and water consumption in particular? What has been optimized in terms of sustainability or is it still being planned?
Kröll-Schnell: We started our sustainability program 20 years ago and installed our first combined heat and power plant with fully electronic heating control. Water-saving showerheads and faucets have been installed throughout the resort. The swimming pool works in a particularly energy-saving way thanks to night setback and heat recovery. A large-scale thermal solar system is available for hot water production, which is particularly efficient here at a fog-free altitude. All lighting systems in the resort use energy-saving LED technology and are time-controlled fully automatically. All cooling systems run via a heat recovery system in order to direct the waste heat back into the heating system.
We are currently planning a large-scale photovoltaic system on all parts of the building in order to produce a large part of the required electricity ourselves with the sun. Our employees, who commute daily, have electric vehicles available for their car pools. Further measures such as a Waste 2 Energy waste recycling plant are being planned. All in all, investments in sustainability and energy efficiency have been in the millions in recent years.