Suche
Mein Konto
Memories melt away: Braunlage's restaurant reduces offer!
The Harz is struggling with falling tourist numbers and closed restaurants, while the “Memory Hotel” is limiting its offerings.
Memories melt away: Braunlage's restaurant reduces offer!
In the Harz, current developments in gastronomy and tourism are a hotly debated topic. The “Memory Hotel and Restaurant” in Braunlage, a popular address in the region, has decided to significantly reduce its offerings. This measure is due to business reasons, which are not surprising in the current economic situation. From now on, the evening restaurant will only be available to in-house guests as a self-service restaurant, while the à la carte menu and served half-board for hotel guests will no longer be available. The many buffets that were planned this year are now cancelled. However, the public restaurant will continue to offer breakfast buffets, a bar and event space, with the bar open on Fridays, Saturdays and many public holidays and maintaining a small snack menu. The team hopes to improve the situation in the hospitality industry, which is so crucial to the region, and news of the changes has sparked both sadness and understanding among guests. As is well known, the catering industry is heavily dependent on the number of guests, and unfortunately the figures from the region show a worrying trend.
Falling visitor numbers
The crisis in the catering industry is also reflected in the number of visitors to the Harz. According to the report by Land und Forst, overnight stays in Lower Saxony have continuously fallen. In 2023, only more than 3.8 million overnight stays were counted - a decrease of 800,000 overnight stays compared to the year 2000. This unpleasant development is putting numerous hotels in trouble, and many restaurants are now empty. Pedestrian zones in places like Braunlage and St. Andreasberg seem almost deserted and give the destinations an outdated image.
A decisive factor in this decline is climate change, which is leading to milder winters in many places and thus to limited winter sports opportunities. Nature is also suffering: storms, drought and bark beetles have taken a toll on the spruce forest. Since 2018, the Harz National Park has lost over 11,600 hectares of forest, severely impacting the hiking experience for visitors. The bare mountain slopes and the unsightly changes in the landscape are not exactly inviting.
Lack of investment in the future
An additional problem is the outdated infrastructure, which has been neglected for decades. While other holiday regions have long since developed new concepts for sustainable mobility, digitalization and family-friendly offers, the Harz lags behind these developments. It takes a good hand to find the right strategy and get tourism back on its feet.
Overall, it looks as if the region now has to take a creative and innovative approach in order not to fall further behind in the highly competitive tourism industry. Despite the challenges, there is also hope that with the right measures and positive thinking, visitor numbers could increase again and catering establishments like the “Memory Hotel and Restaurant” in Braunlage can achieve their previous successes again.