At Lake Ossiach

Lake park for Carinthians: “Free access and bathhouse”

(Bild: Gert Perauer)

The future of 1.6 hectares in Steindorf is still open: Because the investment management is looking for a tenant - while a supervisory board, however, is appealing for free access and a bathhouse.

The purchase of the land was financed with taxpayers' money - so it should also benefit the citizens in the form of a unique "lake park", believes SP Club Chairman Herwig Seiser: "Free access to Lake Ossiach without the obligation to consume would also be an important signal against the concreting over of the region." If it turns out to be financially viable, there would also be no objection to a bathhouse.

For hotelier Bernd Hinteregger, however, such a facility is essential in addition to the free lake park: "Because we have to offer guests something here - what are they supposed to do when the weather is bad? Millstatt shows how this works." The fact that Hinteregger is commenting on the topic alongside SP veteran Seiser is piquant - after all, he is a member of the supervisory board of the responsible Carinthian investment administration.

We don't want to prevent a project at the last minute, but rather make a friendly offer to the K-BV to rethink.

so SP-Klubobmann Seiser und Hotelier Bernd Hinteregger

"But I'm here as a tourism expert and private individual." However, it is not that easy to separate his functions. K-BV has already put the lease for the "last free meadow" on Lake Ossiach out to tender, and the deadline for the first round of investors should end today. An "attractive tourist project" is planned, with a hotel and bathhouse, which should strengthen the region. However, Hinteregger is skeptical about another castle of beds.

"We have some catching up to do"
"The latest overnight stay figures show that we have some catching up to do. We need to do more than just talk about a seasonal revival." June in Carinthia, for example, saw a drop of ten percent, even in the wonderful month of July there was still a 1.3 percent drop. "And our bed occupancy rate in 2023 was 31.7 percent." In other words: two out of three beds remain empty - in Salzburg, by comparison, it is only one in two.