Economy Of Bad Kleinkirchheim

Table Of Contents

1 Development of tourism since 1954
2 Agriculture and forestry
3 Related Articles
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Development of tourism since 1954

Bad Kleinkirchheim has been a spa and climatic health resort since the first thermal spring was found there in the eleventh century. Since the Gurk bishops held the land, the name of the municipality comes from the Latin term clericus, meaning priest. The first ski lift was established in 1935 and the first spa hotel was constructed in 1895.

But the real development of the alpine winter sports infrastructure started in the 1960s, when the township gained popularity as a ski and snowboarding destination. In Bad Kleinkirchheim, 143 of the 263 resident enterprises and 694 of the 1,156 local workers (60%) worked in the lodging and restaurant sector; 38 companies or 106 workers worked in the retail sector, according to the employment census from May 15, 2001. Conversely, there are, for instance, just eight material products production firms employing 56 people in all.

Apart from the thermal spas at Römerbad and St. Kathrein, Bad Kleinkirchheim is dominated by a large number of hotels and guesthouses with 26 lifts. There are two ski areas: St. Oswald/Nockalm and Kaiserburg/Maibrunn region, which is immediately part of Kleinkirchheim and has two valley stations in the town. The mountain railway firm is the biggest employment; it runs the two hot baths and a few recreational facilities in addition to the cable cars and lifts.

The following cable cars have been built since 1977:

Kaiserburgbahn I and II (Kleinkirchheim, built in 1986/87, 1070 m – 1363 m – 2043 m above sea level)
Brunnach Biosphere Park Railway (St. Oswald, built in 2001, 1333 m – 1912 m above sea level)
Nockalmbahn (dam roof, built in 1977, 1278 m – 1870 m above sea level)

The Nockalmbahn has just been running during the winter for a few years, whereas the first two mountain trains are open year-round.

With almost 900,000 overnight stays a year, Bad Kleinkirchheim was ranked 18th in summer and 19th in winter in Austria in 2000. One of the most well-liked vacation spots in Carinthia is also one of the towns with the highest tax income per person.

From 1954 to 1997, Bad Kleinkirchheim’s tourist industry employed the following number of beds, overnight stays, and employees:

Year	beds	Overnight stays	employees
1954	400	16,000	45
1961	600	70,000	150
1968	1,829	326,000
1971	2,973	597,000	502
1981	6,565	929,000	1,033
1991	7,582	1,057,000	1,400
1997	7,808	928,000

Agriculture and forestry

Though the percentage of cultivated areas, particularly fields and meadows, has been sharply declining for decades due to the decline in agriculture in favor of building land, only a small portion of the municipal area is used for agriculture due to the climate and the soil that is poor in lime and phosphorus. Mostly engaging in so-called agricultural farming, the farmers use their fields for three years at a period, alternating between grassland and arable land. Generally speaking, winter rye is cultivated in the third year after oats and barley or potatoes. The bulk of farmers have moved to growing cattle because of the poor agricultural yields. Above all, there is breeding of Pinzgauer cattle, together with pigs and chicken. The tendency of land management is followed by the progressively dwindling practice of Alpine farming.

Conversely, the totally private forest supply is growing. In Bad Kleinkirchheim, there develops a mixed forest of spruce and larch, with the latter taking front stage as the height of the vegetation rises. About 1900 metres above sea level, in the Kaiserburg, is the tree line. As is typical in so-called plenter woods, the farmers typically down the trees themselves, either for their personal use or for sale.