Vienna to offer year-round skiing fun

Vienna is set to get Central Europe’s first ski hall with an event focus by autumn 2012, with construction due to begin shortly, according to the initiators led by Gerhard Hrebicek. Planning for the 100-million-euro project has been in full swing for almost three years. Hrebicek highlights the new ski hall’s diverse range of dining options, its fun park for children and young people, a wellness area, a ski school and extensive training facilities as key advantages. With these and other attractions, the ski hall aims to set itself apart from existing facilities of this kind while also serving as a model for future projects.

The ski hall in Vienna is planned to be 400 metres long and 100 metres wide, and its potential catchment area is expected to include around 6.5 million people in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It will also attract other visitors, such as city tourists, who can enjoy the ski hall in Vienna to their heart’s content 365 days a year.

Hrebicek expects the ski hall to create up to 120 new jobs in Vienna, with a further 300 jobs during the construction phase. The ski hall in Vienna is to be built as a low-energy building and will be powered exclusively by solar energy. Martin Dolezal, president of the Vienna Association of Ski and Snowboard Instructors, offers a very optimistic forecast for the future, citing the ski hall’s enormous event and marketing potential as well as the excellent infrastructure already largely in place in the Austrian capital.