The beginnings of tourism

Kitzbühel around 1900

First efforts to properly organize tourism were made in Tyrol during the first half of the nineteenth century. In order to achieve this, the first facilities for leisure travellers were created. The amount of visitors and the existing lodging capacity prompted this development. In addition, driven and dynamic individuals in politics and business were an important factor. Bus transportation played an important role until the train system started operating, which ushered in a new era in tourism. In 1875, Josef Pirchl of Kitzbühel was a strong advocate for connecting his town to the train system, and thus laid the foundation for the Kitzbühel tourism industry.  

The train made it significantly easier to reach Tyrol, which led to an increasing amount of visiting mountaineers to Tyrol year after year. Starting in 1870, organizations dedicated to promoting the town’s tourism industry were established. These organizations were to be the first formal entities of the Tyrolean travel industry. Their goal was to create amenities and facilities for visitors, including hiking trails and benches, and to organize events to ensure a pleasant stay. The Kitzbühel Tourism Bureau was eventually founded in 1887. Today, Kitzbühel Tourismus is in charge of promoting not only Kitzbühel, but also the neighbouring towns of Reith, Aurach and Jochberg – an area that includes 12,982 inhabitants. The region features a total of 8,875 hotel beds in 505 lodging facilities. Of these, five hotels are in the five-star category, while 23 lodging facilities have been awarded four stars.

Franz Reisch and other pioneers of tourisms gave the decisive impulses:

with the foundation of the winter sports association they founded the precursor of the Ski Club. The first public ski races took place and in 1902 the first big hotel was built. In 1909 the moor bath was built at exactly the same spot where today the Aquarena swimming baths are located.

The building of the Hahnenkamm lift from 1926 to 1928 was the first important step to make ski races at this local mountain accessible to the public.