Skiing is one of the most popular sports in Austria and in Austrian
history. An Austrian citizen with no skiing ambitions cannot
be considered a true Austrian. Austrian professional skiers
rank top of the world and Innsbruck was not host for the Olympic
Winter Games twice in 1964 and 1974 for no reason. Many different
skiing resorts in the alps are well known throughout the world
and attract many tourists from about everywhere. Because the
austrian alps are inhabited very frequent, there was no reason
to build up new and unnatural skiing resorts but existing towns
shifted to skiing tourism. To keep the local atmosphere for
all foreigners, the small valleys were adapted very modestly
to modern mass tourism, still offering high tech equipped lifts
and tracks and accommodations for the small briefcase to luxury.
The skiing areas are organized very good,
offering all sorts of transportation and many valleys connect
to each other. There is not a rare chance that you start skiing
in one valley in the morning an end up in a total different
one at the end of the day. Some areas offer so many lifts
and tracks, that even after a week you have not seen them
all. Another very important fact is the snowboarding friendly
environment, allowing boarders the use of all lifts and tracks.
Many areas are host of big international skiing and snowboarding
competitions and Innsbruck is considered to be the "snowboarding
capital" of Europe.
Nowadays skiing holidays are not limited to skiing anymore.
More and more skiing resorts also offer a exciting nightlife,
parties and other fun stuff. Towns like Kitzbühel are meeting
points for the high society and kind of a party space. A very
positiv experience for tourists is also the very friendly
climate and the anticipating inhabitants.
