Bold guidelines and pressing questions...

Bold guidelines and pressing questions of mountain hut management. Following last year's extremely poor mountaineering season, especially in the high mountains, which calls for guidelines ahead of the new mountaineering season, and at the same time with plans to integrate mountaineering into Slovenia's tourist offer, the Economic Commission of the Alpine Association of Slovenia held a press conference on Wednesday, 18 February 2015, at the PZS headquarters. PZS Vice-President Miro Eržen, Head of the PZS Economic Commission Janko Rabič, and PZS expert associate Dušan Prašnikar presented the results of mountain hut operations in 2014 and the operational guidelines for mountain huts in 2015, the issues of ecological hut refurbishment and the project Management of Water Resources and Wastewater at Mountain Huts in RS, PZS guidelines for including mountain huts and trails in Slovenia's tourist offer, and the new leaflet of mountain huts in the central part of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and Karavanke.



The register of the Alpine Association of Slovenia lists 178 huts, shelters, and bivouacs with nearly 7400 beds and more than 10000 seats. 1661 mountain trails pass by them through the mountain world. Work in the mountains is demanding, sometimes in extremely adverse weather conditions, and last year's mountaineering season was severely impacted by the whimsically weather summer, which decimated mountain visits. Due to fewer visitors, the season was very unenviable for hut owners and managers. As Dušan Prašnikar highlighted in the assessment of the season at mountain huts in 2014 (including 42 huts from all mountain regions of Slovenia), prepared with the previous expert associate Klemen Petko, the 2014 mountaineering season was noticeably worse compared to the previous year: "The level of total revenue in 2014 for the huts in the analysis is about 15% lower compared to 2013. High-altitude huts were hit the hardest, with more than 25% lower total revenue than in 2013, which was also not among the better ones. Some huts, for example Zavetišče pod Špičkom and Koča Antona Bavčerja na Čavnu, had more than half less income, of course there are exceptions – Planinski dom na Zelenici with 30% higher total revenue. The level of foreign guests remains the same as the previous year, so especially in the high mountains, foreign guests saved the season." The most common reason for fewer visits and management problems at huts, as stated by mountaineering associations, was bad weather, others included ice breakage (closed and damaged trails), wind breakage (closed trails), damage to facilities, recession, labor legislation, tightened business conditions, renovations, and repairs at huts.



Associations and hut managers simply cannot imagine another season as bad as last year, so for this season everyone's wish is for kinder weather, highlighted Janko Rabič, Head of the PZS Economic Commission, and in the hope that business guidelines at mountain huts will show more positively this year, he presented the operational guidelines for mountain huts in 2015: "The funds generated by associations from revenue are the only source to cover all costs for staff, maintenance, renovations, and increasingly stringent legal regulations that allow no deviations, which is right but causes problems. Successful hut operations are influenced by several different factors. Above all, it is important that associations manage to provide staff who will manage the stations well and thus contribute to a more successful season – especially to provide good offer, to be friendly, for the hut interior to offer homeliness, to be able to provide information on surrounding hikes, mountain trails, and various curiosities." The PZS Economic Commission has no dedicated funds to help associations in such poor business seasons as the previous one, but contributes through various actions and projects, mainly via the investment and ecological refurbishment advisory office. Special attention deserves the projects Environmentally Friendly Mountain Hut, whose goal is to ensure environmentally friendly and energy-efficient hut management, and Family-Friendly Mountain Hut with the aim of attracting children and their parents to mountain huts and ensuring they feel as good as possible and thus return gladly. So far, PZS has awarded 16 certificates for the first project and 15 for the second. Promotion of mountain huts is also important in helping huts, both through PZS websites and publications and at various events, this year for example at the Alpe-Adria fair, where more than 20 huts presented themselves at the PZS exhibition space in four days.



Among ecological refurbishments, the project task Management of Water Resources and Wastewater at Mountain Huts in RS must be highlighted, led by Drago Dretnik, member of the PZS Economic Commission, who was absent from the conference due to health issues. Of the total 161 mountain huts, only 53 are equipped with biological treatment plants, and two are connected to the public sewage network. Given that the Regulation on Emissions of Substances in Wastewater Discharge from Small Communal Treatment Plants requires the installation of small communal plants by the end of 2017 also at all mountain huts, it is high time for effective action, as PZS does not want to limit visits but wants to improve ecological standards of mountain huts. The project aims to long-term solve water supply and wastewater treatment problems at mountain huts through comprehensive treatment of water resource management, and as Dušan Prašnikar emphasized, its purpose is primarily to obtain funds for solving this issue: "Since mountaineering associations cannot provide these funds themselves, PZS is seeking interlocutors at the state level as well as funds through European sources." The planned total investment is 5,534,450 €, most of which would be allocated to the construction and renovation of small treatment plants, the rest to water supply within huts.



"Slovenia does not recognize mountain infrastructure, i.e., mountain huts and trails, as part of tourist infrastructure, even though we are all tourists – both mountaineers and guests staying in hotels who go on shorter mountain excursions but use the mountain infrastructure maintained by mountaineers with volunteer work. Therefore, we face the demanding task of changing the mindset that mountain infrastructure must also receive attention from the wider community," warned PZS Vice-President Miro Eržen on the next issue. He presented the guidelines for including mountain infrastructure (mountain huts, mountain trails, Slovenian Mountain Bike Trail) in Slovenia's tourist offer: close cooperation with mountaineering associations in publishing information on the opening of individual huts and the condition of mountain trails, stronger linking with local tourist organizations in including mountain hut offers in tourist-hiking packages, greater attention to promoting mountain huts abroad, Slovenian Mountain Bike Trail as a new opportunity for tourist and mountaineering economy, active participation in promotional actions of LTOs and RDOs, international promotion of Slovenian mountaineering and tourist offer of the Julian and Kamnik-Savinja Alps at the Alpine Festival in Prague on the 115th anniversary of the Czech Hut, closer cooperation with Triglav National Park in coordinated marketing of this area, transferring examples of good practice within cooperation with mountaineers of three countries (Austrian Carinthia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia), and active work to recognize mountain infrastructure as part of tourist infrastructure.



Since the Alpine Association of Slovenia wants to appear more prominently in Slovenia's tourist story, it organized the 4th conference on mountaineering economy and presentation of the Austrian Mountain Villages project at the Alpe-Adria fair in January. A successful Austrian contribution to sustainable tourism, which has already spread to Bavaria and South Tyrol, encourages the development of smaller places with mountaineering tradition and natural assets for mountain tourism on the principle of less is more, which mountain visitors seek today. There are many potential places in Slovenia (just think of Jezersko, Bohinj, Trenta, Solčava) – and interest among them is encouraging, so PZS will strive within its capabilities to start this project in Slovenia as well if all actors are seriously prepared, said Eržen.



Important approaching to mountain visitors – both domestic and foreign, both mountaineers and tourists – is also information. The popular free leaflet of mountain huts in the Julian Alps has recently been joined by the leaflet of mountain huts in the central part of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and Karavanke. Their purpose is to inform as wide a base of mountain visitors and excursionists going into nature as possible, they provide data on huts, accommodation capacities and contact details, QR code of all presented huts and PZS instructions, they can be obtained at tourist information centers and mountain huts, in Slovenian and English, and in the future we plan to cover the rest of Slovenia with leaflets.