The municipality of Maria Wörth will no longer host a GTI meeting. The Austrians rely on climate protection instead of major car events.
The first GTI meeting at Wörthersee was held in 1982. Back then with around 100 vehicles. Since then, Maria Wörth and the district of Reifnitz have been the venue for the GTI meeting. Now the community at Wörthersee has finally canceled the GTI meeting, which used to be attended by thousands of drivers.
Sustainability has no place for GTIs
The GTI meeting has already been canceled for the past three years due to corona. Nevertheless, thousands of fans made the pilgrimage to the lake with their cars. The unofficial meeting regularly caused trouble and required many police operations.
The GTI meeting brought Reinitz great fame, but at the same time the 1,600 soul community, with the enormous increase in participants over the years, also showed the limits of possible growth and the resilience of the community and the entire region more and more clearly.
In the meantime, they have committed themselves to sustainability at all levels and will no longer host any conventional major automotive events in the next few years, the municipality of Maria Wörth announced in a press release. As part of the implementation of the Reifnitz 2030 transformation process, some of the areas previously used for major events will be given a new purpose and new facilities will be created on them. The new motto is "Sustainable living by the lake", with climate protection taking precedence over economic interests.
Open to new formats
Markus Perdacher, Mayor of Maria Wörth, is open to future developments after the community withdrew from the GTI meeting: "We would be happy to continue to examine suggestions and ideas for events in our community in the future, However, we will weigh up the extent to which they correspond to our ideas of social and ecological compatibility and meet high sustainability standards." By the way: The granite GTI can remain at its location in Reifnitz, Perdacher confirmed on request from auto-motor-und-sport.de.
VW is considering alternatives
And what does VW say about the cancellation of the GTI meeting by the municipality of Maria Wörth?: "We regret that the legendary GTI meeting at Wörthersee will no longer take place in this form. The loyal GTI fans have been an integral part of our brand identity for decades and make VW a real love brand. We are currently investigating how we can support the GTI fan community in the future. Community maintenance is very important to us because we come into direct contact with our most loyal customers That's why we also support the ID. Drivers Club, for example, which organizes meetings for die-hard ID. customers from the very beginning."
Conclusion
The municipality of Maria Wörth am Wörthersee will no longer host any further GTI meetings. Such automotive events no longer fit into the community's sustainability-oriented transformation process. In general, however, Reifnitz does not want to close itself off to new formats. Sounds like the GTI meeting might be replaced by an ID meeting.
