Carinthia tourist towns spruce up for summer guests

Carinthia’s tourist towns are investing time and money in their appearance and daily preparations to encourage visitors to return, ORF reported. More than two million guests come to the Austrian state on average each summer.

In Velden, a town on Lake Wörthersee, around a dozen municipal employees begin work at 6 a.m. to clean up the town centre. Gardener Heribert Bierbaumer, who has worked in Velden for five years, spends about three hours each morning with his team watering flowers, mowing lawns and trimming hedges.

“You simply have to be committed. You have to have a heart for it and for the plants, otherwise you cannot make it look like this,” Bierbaumer said.

The workers also clean streets and paths. Velden spends several tens of thousands of euros each year on its appearance, Mayor Margit Heissenberger said. The municipality aims to make the town even greener as temperatures rise.

Watering plants has become particularly challenging during heatwaves, said Markus Kuntaritsch, the municipal executive responsible for maintaining the town’s appearance. Velden uses its own springs for watering and is not connected to the public water network for that purpose.

Walkers said the work carried out from the early morning was part of what made a good tourist town. They also noted that clean towns were customary in Austria and said residents should be grateful to the workers who maintain them.

Tourist businesses also prepare early for the day. Wolfgang Winkler, owner of a beach club, said staff started work early because swimmers and water skiers came in for coffee before breakfast, which began at 8 a.m.

Christian Zingerle, captain of the tanker ship Carinthia, arrives at the marina at 6 a.m. to have the vessel refilled before it departs. He said the quiet morning atmosphere and the increasingly beautiful August sunrises made the early start worthwhile.