The Tourist Information offers regional products and leisure tips: Birgit Kuchenreiter (from left), Hubert Henselmann and Jutta Schless present some of them.
© Bastian Ludwig
Kassel – Kassel recorded more than one million hotel nights last year. A new record in a non-documenta year. Kassel Marketing also played its part in this success, attracting national and international guests. But Corona turns everything upside down.
With the pandemic, the growing tourist numbers in 2020 have been slowed down anyway. But since the second lockdown at the beginning of November only a handful of day-trippers get lost in the tourist information on Wilhelmsstrasse. No wonder: The employees there are currently not supposed to lure foreign guests to Kassel, says Birgit Kuchenreiter from Kassel Marketing. After all, tourist activities are not welcome.
Usually, the seven employees at Kassel Tourist have plenty to do at this time of the year. In the weeks leading up to the Christmas market in particular, many groups of guests traditionally register. Because there is no market or any cultural events taking place this year, it is noticeably quieter. Only one colleague is currently working at the information counter.
“We still get ten to 20 calls a day. Usually there are around 100. That has completely collapsed, ”says Hubert Henselmann, Head of Tourism at Kassel Marketing. Because hotels are also closed to tourists, only a few day visitors from outside strayed to the tourist advice center. The majority of the 60 to 100 visitors a day – usually four times as many – are locals. But what can you recommend them for excursions?
“Above all, we provide information about what you can experience in nature,” says Jutta Schless, team leader at Tourist Information. In demand are, for example, the newly printed maps of the bike path “Entdecker-Runde Kassel”, the brochure about the gardens and parks in Kassel, hiking maps to the Habichtswald Nature Park or cultural tours to the outdoor art works of the documenta or the walking guide “Beuys to go”. The latter is free and very popular.
Another mainstay of the Tourist Information is the range of regional products and specialties: The spectrum ranges from Witzenhausen mulled cherry to fabric raccoon. “There is really great interest in these products and we are offering them all here,” says Henselmann.
There are hardly any tourist inquiries for 2021 – everyone is waiting for the pandemic to develop. Nothing will happen before February. There is only lively demand for the campsite on the Fulda. This can already be booked for the summer months.
Due to Corona, the Tourist Information (Wilhelmsstr. 23) is open to a limited extent: Mon-Fri 10 am-4pm, Sat 10 am-3pm. (Bastian Ludwig)
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