Serfaus - Tourism

Tourism

As Serfaus is close to the Via Claudia Augusta and the Reschen Pass people are thought to have traveled through the area for hundreds of years. Moreover the marian pilgrimage which has been taking place since the Middle Ages has caused some travel to and from the mountain village. The Theresian Cadasdre of 1776 lists Johannes Penz with the "right to operate a tavern". By 1812 the inhabitants of Serfaus were asked to pay an extra tax for the loging of foreigners in their taverns of private rooms. This shows that tourism was already present at these times, even if still only in its most basic form.

Shortly after 1900 Skiers started to discover the possibilities in the region and in 1912 plans were made to build a little ski hut on one of the high alpine meadows surrounding the village, the "Kölnerhaus" up at the "Komperdell". However during the First World War and the following 1920s the tourism developed very slowly. Tourism between the two world wars reached its peak in 1931/32 with 30,000 registered guests. As a result the three taverns could not provide enough accommodation anymore and farmers started to rent out private rooms to guests of the region. Thus Serfaus had 150 registered beds in 1930. 1940 cable car for transporting goods to the "Kölnerhaus" was installed and was turned into an aerial tramway seating five people, in 1951. This caused a new increase of tourism in Serfaus and through the constant renewal and expansion of the infrastructure and the connection to the lifts of Fiss-Ladis the ski area now covers 190 km of pistes through 70 lifts. Today the town is one of the most popular ski and holiday areas in Tyrol.