Tourism was able to build on the record number of overnight stays from 2019. With 77.88 million overnight stays, according to preliminary results from Statistics Austria, the summer season was 1.4 percent below the pre-pandemic summer of 78.93 million. Compared to 2021, there was an increase of 17.3 percent. “Even after most of the corona-related travel restrictions were lifted, almost a third of the overnight stays this summer were due to guests from within Germany,” said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas on Monday, according to the press release.
More than two thirds of the guests came from abroad, there was a significant decline in holidaymakers from Asia. Growth was recorded from the two most important markets of origin, Germany and the Netherlands. There were also more guests from Germany.
According to Statistics Austria, 31.2 percent of the total number of overnight stays in the summer season (May to October 2022) was attributable to guests from Austria, in summer 2019 it was 1.7 percentage points less.
68.8 percent of all overnight stays were due to guests from abroad. Compared to the 2019 season, travelers from Germany, the most important country of origin, saw an increase of 5.6 percent with 31.15 million overnight stays, the second most important country of origin, the Netherlands, with 4.25 million overnight stays, had an increase of 7.1 percent. There was a slump in Chinese guests: In the summer of 2019, China was the largest Asian market of origin with almost 1 million overnight stays, this year it was only 60,500 (minus 93.7 percent). Overnight stays by guests from Japan also fell sharply by 85.3 percent to 45,400.
The demand for the different accommodation categories changed significantly compared to the 2019 season. Commercial holiday homes achieved 7.51 million overnight stays this year, which was an increase of 29.2 percent. In contrast, overnight stays in the 3-star and 2/1-star hotel categories fell by a total of 8.3 percent.
Tourism State Secretary Susanne Kraus-Winkler (ÖVP) speaks of a comeback of summer tourism: “These impressive figures show that domestic tourism has made a comeback. With the targeted winter campaign of the Austrian Tourist Board, our goal is to repeat the result of the summer “, so Kraus-Winkler in a press release. Short-term bookings and inflation make it difficult to make a reliable forecast for the coming months, but according to a current survey by the Austrian Tourist Board, there is a desire and time for a winter holiday in the main markets of origin.
According to Statistics Austria, overnight stays increased by 3.9 percent to 8.33 million in October 2022 compared to October 2021. The number of overnight stays by foreign guests rose by 9.5 percent to 5.37 million, while overnight stays by domestic guests fell by 4.8 percent to 2.96 million.
Source: Nachrichten
