The official opening of the National Garden Festival (BUGA) 2005 in Munich on 28 April 2005 also saw the start-up of the Doppelmayr aerial ropeway above the BUGA showground. Michael Doppelmayr was able to welcome amongst others Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber and his wife plus Munich's Lord Mayer Christian Ude for the maiden trip.

Skyglide Event Deutschland GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of the Doppelmayr Group, built and operates the 8-seater gondola lift. Doppelmayr adapted and reinstalled the ropeway for BUGA 2005 in just 4 ½ months after its use at the International Gardening & Horticulture Exhibition (IGA) 2003 in Rostock. Of the planned 4 million visitors to the National Garden Festival, around 1.6 million will have used the ropeway by the close of the event on 9 October 2005. The ropeway traces a triangular route above the BUGA showground and allows visitors to enjoy a bird's eye view of the National Garden Festival.

Covering a total length of almost three kilometres at a height of up to 28 m, the ropeway can transport up to 2,500 passengers an hour in each direction. A number of the gondolas have been equipped for wheelchair users and people with impaired mobility. When designing the ropeway, Doppelmayr's engineers placed special emphasis on local transit requirements and were able to contribute the company's many years of experience in this area.

The Doppelmayr Group - headquartered in Wolfurt, Vorarlberg - has installed over 13,000 ropeways to date on 5 continents. BUGA 2005 marked a first for extensive collaboration between the Vorarlberg Tourist Board and Doppelmayr. Some of the ropeway cabins were converted into "Vorarlberg gondolas". In addition, both the gondola lift tickets and the queuing and waiting areas of the stations have been used to present Vorarlberg as a holiday destination. The 1.6 million lift tickets also serve as "entry tickets" for an online competition run by the Vorarlberg Tourist Board.

Enquiries

Mag. Ekkehard Assmann
Leiter Marketing und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Rickenbacherstrasse 8-10, Postfach 20
A-6961 Wolfurt, Österreich
Tel. (+43) 05574/604-223, Fax (+43) 05574/75590
email: ekkehard.assmann@doppelmayr.com
Internet: doppelmayr.com