Austria's Hallstatt is hugely popular with fans of Disney's 'Frozen', who believe it was the inspiration for the village of Arendelle in the film. AFP / JOE KLAMAR
Austria's Hallstatt is hugely popular with fans of Disney's 'Frozen', who believe it was the inspiration for the village of Arendelle in the film. AFP / JOE KLAMAR
The Unesco-listed town on Lake Hallstatt's western shore in Austria's mountainous Salzkammergut region is eerily quiet now that tourism has halted. AFP
The Unesco-listed town on Lake Hallstatt's western shore in Austria's mountainous Salzkammergut region is eerily quiet now that tourism has halted. AFP
Covid-19 has changed everything for the 780 locals of this Austrian village who are weighing up a return to calm with the loss of tourism income. AFP
Covid-19 has changed everything for the 780 locals of this Austrian village who are weighing up a return to calm with the loss of tourism income. AFP
Only a few months ago residents of the impossibly picturesque Austrian village of Hallstatt were debating how to stem the influx of tourists thronging its narrow streets, nestled between soaring mountains and a sparkling lake. AFP
Only a few months ago residents of the impossibly picturesque Austrian village of Hallstatt were debating how to stem the influx of tourists thronging its narrow streets, nestled between soaring mountains and a sparkling lake. AFP
The collapse in international travel brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has left Hallstatt's streets empty. AFP
The collapse in international travel brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has left Hallstatt's streets empty. AFP
View of a street in the Hallstatt village. AFP
View of a street in the Hallstatt village. AFP
A lonely passenger rides the river ship connecting the train station to the village. AFP
A lonely passenger rides the river ship connecting the train station to the village. AFP
Let it go - Frozen fans have done exactly that in Hallstatt as fans stay away from the Austrian alpine region thanks to travel restrictions in place due to Covid-19. AFP
Let it go - Frozen fans have done exactly that in Hallstatt as fans stay away from the Austrian alpine region thanks to travel restrictions in place due to Covid-19. AFP
Archaeology suggests the region has been settled for about 3,000 years, but it only shot to popularity when Disney's 'Frozen' was released in 2013. AFP
Archaeology suggests the region has been settled for about 3,000 years, but it only shot to popularity when Disney's 'Frozen' was released in 2013. AFP
A very peaceful night in Hallstatt as tourists stay away due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. AFP
A very peaceful night in Hallstatt as tourists stay away due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. AFP
At its peak, the tiny village was receiving more than 10,000 tourists per day. AFP
At its peak, the tiny village was receiving more than 10,000 tourists per day. AFP
A woman cleans river boats at lake Hallstatt in Hallstatt. AFP
A woman cleans river boats at lake Hallstatt in Hallstatt. AFP
A river ship captain steers his ship towards the village of Hallstatt. AFP
A river ship captain steers his ship towards the village of Hallstatt. AFP
Tour groups used to jam the streets - with up to 100 coaches arriving daily in the high season - but now the village is quiet, Covid-19 has changed everything. AFP
Tour groups used to jam the streets - with up to 100 coaches arriving daily in the high season - but now the village is quiet, Covid-19 has changed everything. AFP

Let Hallstatt go: Arendelle-like Austrian village eerily quiet as 'Frozen' fans stay away

Travel restrictions in place because of the coronavirus have left the streets of this alpine village deserted

Hayley Skirka
Hayley Skirka

June 23, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

Be careful what you wish for.

Earlier this year, the mayor of Hallstatt –  a tiny village in Austria's mountainous Salzkammergut region – was pleading with tourists not to visit.

With daily numbers of about 10,000 people per day piling into the narrow streets of the Unesco World Heritage Site, tourists outnumbered the local population at a rate of more than 12 to 1.

Congestion, traffic jams and overcrowding in restaurants, shops and on the lake had become part of everyday life in the village thought to be the inspiration behind Arendelle, in Disney's popular Frozen.

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In China, an exact replica of the town was built in Guangdong, inspiring thousands more people to go seek out the real thing. Hallstatt recorded more than a million visitors in one year.

Today, the tiny region which sits at an altitude of 511 metres under the slopes of the Dachstein range, is facing the opposite problem.

Travel restrictions put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19 coupled with the worldwide collapse of tourism has left Hallstatt empty of tourists. And with no travellers in town, there's no tourism income for locals.

Located about an hour from Salzburg, Hallstatt attracted atleast 100 visitors a day before it found Disney fame. Now, as Frozen fans are forced to "let it go", visitor numbers are even lower than that.

Authorities in Austria have restricted who can enter the country and are advising that any travel should be for essential purposes only. The measures are in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Hajj 2019
Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

On Women's Day
While you're here
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On Women's Day
Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Power: 510hp at 9,000rpm
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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While you're here
The Good Liar

Starring: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen

Directed by: Bill Condon

Three out of five stars

While you're here
'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra

Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa

Rating: 4/5

Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica

Best Agent: Jorge Mendes

Best Club : Liverpool   

 Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)  

 Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker

 Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo

 Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP

 Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart

Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)

Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)

Best Women's Player:  Lucy Bronze

Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi

 Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)

 Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)

 Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs

MATCH INFO

Tottenham Hotspur 0 Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 55')

Man of the Match Allan (Everton)

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