Vienna - The alpine valley of Oetztal in the Austrian state of Tyrol is associated by most visitors with skiing and loud apres ski parties in the town of Soelden. But the valley has another side to itself during the cold winter months that is quite separate from the noise and excitement of the ski trails and nightclubs. The old pub Gasthof zum Stern in the town of Oetz is completely snowed in. Inside sit a few of the regular guests drinking beer while beside the green and white tiled stove Josef Griesser tunes his harp.
Griesser is a white-haired 70-year-old man and runs the pub which has been in his family for generations. He is single but is helped out by his sisters Maria and Margit. He used to be a Kapellmeister and he and his sisters often sing for their guests.
A few of the locals ask for some music and Maria and Margit are eager to sing. "Josef will have to play for us," says Maria and the pub owner begins to pluck the harp's strings. Immediately the two women begin to sing.
The Gasthof zum Stern has witnessed the full development of ski tourism in the valley. The first time the pub was mentioned in official documents was in 1611. Before that the building was a court under the jurisdiction of the nunnery at Chiemsee.
Today, most of the valley's residents earn their income from tourists of which 500 000 came last winter. One of the people who have taken a critical view of this development is the folklorist Hans Haid. Haid has spent years arguing against mass tourism and on this evening in the pub he is speaking about his political initiative to encourage environmental protection and more awareness for old traditions.
What Haid describes as "corrupted Oetztal" begins about 30 kilometres away in the winter resort of Soelden. The former small mountain village counts two million guest nights among its boasts and anyone who goes for a walk along its main street in the evening will know what Haid means by his phrase "alpine Ibiza" - a reference to the very popular European tourist destination in the Balearic Islands.
Enormous nondescript hotels tower above the street, blocking the view of the mountains. Countless bars and nightclubs advertise apres ski and non-stop parties with garish neon signs. "It's two kilometres of insulting architecture," says Haid angrily.
Haid is probably the biggest opponent of tourist development in Oetztal but he is not the only one. Some farmers have recently begun to band together in eco-friendly cooperatives and eco-friendly tourism is beginning to take hold. In the community of Niederthai, for example, horse riding through the landscape is a popular activity and there are remote trekking paths above the mountain village of Gries.
Locals are especially proud of their "eco-designer hotel," the Waldklause, in Laengenfeld. Beds have blankets made from local sheep's wool and rooms are decked out in Swiss pine wood in a bid to combine a spa hotel feeling with Oetztaler traditions.
Special attention is also placed on guests' needs and it is not uncommon after mass in winter for the local priest to invite strangers for a schnapps in his warm rectory rather than show them around his cold church. "I don't know much about art history anyway," says the Reverend Stefan Hauser and laughs.
Another cultural highlight can be found in the old centre of Oetz. In a building built in the Medieval Ages can be found antiques, religious art, popular printed images, classical photographs and many alpine landscape paintings dating from 1800 to the present day.
"All of the items on display are connected to the region in some way," says Hans Jaeger, who has put his private collection on show in the museum. Jaeger says his collection is not just of cultural interest but is also "the ideal antithesis to the forces of our age."
The only thing that is missing from Oetztal is its most famous son, "Oetzi the Iceman," the mummified remains of a man who lived during the Neolithic period and who was found on a glacier on the border between Austria and Italy. The exact location of his discovery became a matter of dispute and he is now on display in Bolzano in Italy.
Internet: www.oetztal.com.
