Nature for an entrance fee: The Tyrolean parks beckon you away

The picturesque Lake Braies in the South Tyrolean Dolomites has become a popular excursion destination and photo opportunity since its crystal-clear, turquoise-green waters went viral on social media a few years ago. The result has been a veritable mass tourism. Anyone wanting to visit the place needs a ticket from now on, unless they are travelling on foot or by bike – more on this in Getting to the Pragser Wildsee (fees apply). Guests are said to be aware that this regulation is intended to counteract the rush.

Online advice instead of tickets

Anton Hofelder heads the Karwendel Nature Park, Austria’s largest nature park. He knows about the frequent discussions about how many visitors nature can handle and how they should be managed. However, he can’t imagine any kind of entrance fee. Especially since the park has employed its own “digital ranger” since this year, who ensures not only in nature but also online that future visitors abide by the rules and don’t post illegal tips – such as wild camping – on social media.

“We meet people where they are planning their trips and tours. When posts are shared on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, they make sure that everything is in line with the spirit of our protected area. “We educate visitors very early, we inform them and we try to guide them – it works very well,” he said with satisfaction. The nature park is also working on a counting system to show on maps in the future where many people are currently. This is intended to avoid hotspots – more on this in Ranger in Nature and online.

Collecting entrance fees and checking tickets is not practical in such a huge area anyway, especially since guests might then think, “If I pay the entrance fee, I can do whatever I want,” said the head of Karwendel Nature Park.

However, it happens time and again that foreign tourists in particular assume that they have to buy a ticket: “They know this from the American national parks and ask us if they have to pay an entrance fee and where. When we explained to them that our nature park is freely accessible, they were pleasantly surprised,” he said with a smile.

Limited parking space

Willi Seifert heads the Zillertal Alps Nature Park. He was convinced that entrance fees to the great outdoors in Tyrol or Austria were legally unenforceable. “I also think that if you have a problem, you have to look at what it is. Is it because of mobility, the way people get to the park, or are there too many people moving around at once? In our nature park, visitors are very well distributed across many hiking trails and shelters,” Seifert explained.

The most popular image is certainly of the Schleges Reservoir with its stunning suspension bridge. “This is our most frequented destination but here too the space can handle the number of visitors very well. Hardly anyone leaves the walkways so it is the simplest and most effective way to guide visitors.”

However, the number of parking spaces for private vehicles is limited. The park director stressed that the park is working to encourage more people to switch to public transport. Otherwise, like his colleague, Sievert relies on information, dialogue and raising awareness: In cooperation with alpine clubs and tourist associations, visitors are educated online and in the region on how to treat nature with care.

State Councillor for the Environment René Zumtobel has been following the problem in South Tyrol with interest: “The entry from Lake Pragser Wildsee is a traffic measure, a slot system, because so many people visit the narrow area on Saturdays and the streets are so full that the security services “can no longer guarantee the local population a supply,” he stressed. “If there is such a congestion, then entry tickets are certainly applicable, but ideally not to that extent.”

Zumtobel: “No mass rush in Tyrol”

The good thing about the South Tyrolean route is that it is free to travel on foot or by bike, public transport costs are low and cars with a larger CO2 footprint are taxed more heavily, says Zumtobel. In the Tyrolean nature parks, the management of visitor flows works very well. A lot of time and money is invested in education, for example through the internet ranger in Karwendel, who intervenes before certain places cause too much of a stir among visitors on social media, says Zumtobel. However, he does not currently see a mass rush towards Tyrol’s natural gems, although the pressure on nature has also increased significantly in Tyrol.