Two months ago, media reported that the mayor of Hallstatt, Alexander Scheutz, asked tourists from around the world to stay away from ‘the most instagrammable town in the world’. Over the last years, the picturesque lake village has been completely overrun by tourists mainly due to the town’s popularity in China and South Korea. The situation got so bad that the town was considering far reaching measures to keep tourists out of his town. The Daily Mail described that mayor Scheutz was on a mission to reduce the number of tourists ‘by at least a third’ but that he had no actual means of stopping the flow of tourists.
- Hallstatt no longer overrun by tourists.
- Up to 50% hotel cancellations in Venice
- Private jet travel surges as the rich avoid crowded airports
- Lufthansa cancels up to 25% of all flights.
- ING: Asian GDP through lost tourism receipts alone: €96.92-115 billion
Within a month, the majority of those tourists are gone, and Hallstatt is no longer overrun by tourists. Not because of Scheutz’ call to stay or away nor due to measures taken by local authorities. The novel coronavirus has heavily impacted tourism in Hallstatt. Tourists from China and other Asian countries, the majority of tourists in Hallstatt, are staying away. The number of buses arriving in the Austrian town each day has dropped from 50 to 15, Stern.de writes.