Austria is a land of mountains, so it is hardly surprising that for 94 % of the local population the mountains are an essential part of national identity and are of inestimable value, especially for tourism.
Unfortunately, the government does not seem to recognise this and, after three rounds of cuts, has currently scaled back the federal funding for the upkeep of the 475 mountain huts and around 50,000 km of mountain paths to the 1991 level.
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