Tartu spas looking to save energy while avoiding ticket price increases
Faced with rising energy costs, Tartu's spas are doing what they can to avoid major ticket price increases. Instead, they are looking for ways to be more energy efficient.
According to Kairit Matto, manager of Aura aquatic center (Aura Veekeskus), the recent rise in energy prices has led to a significant increase in the center's running costs.
"If I'm talking purely about electricity, not including network charges and so on, the bill in 2020 was less than €7,000, whereas last December it was €37,000. Now it's October, and the current situation is similar to how it was last December. What it will be like by the end of the month, we can't say," Matto explained.
However, Matto said, that while ticket prices at Aura Veekeskus have gone up, the center has tried to ensure as little extra cost to its customers as possible.
"There have been some increases in the ticket prices for the water park and sauna center. It's like that now, for some times there is no increase and for other times, there is, especially on weekends. And if we look at the individual ticket prices (on weekends), it has gone up by €1, so the price increase has not been big," she said.
According to Gea Puidak, manager of Tartu V Spa, the last time ticket prices went up was in spring.
"After we completed renovations and refurbishment. Maybe our ticket prices - the increase is five to six percent - has more to do with the fact that we are offering more interesting and new services to our clients," Puidak explained.
According to Puidak, V Spa has changed some of its technical equipment as a means of saving money. "When we talk about bulbs, motors, pumps, we've already done that and we're going to continue to do it, which really shows that it was something we had to do. Even without the energy (price) hike, it would have been necessary to do it, but there just wasn't as much all together, so to speak," said Puidak.
As an additional measure to cut down on expenditure, Aura Veekeskus has also reduced its operating hours. "We now open our sauna center and water park two hours later between Monday and Thursday, and we also open the entire center an hour later on weekends," Matto said.
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Editor: Michael Cole
