Image: OÖN graphic
In 2022, Austrians undertook 25.29 million holiday and business trips, more than in the pre-crisis year 2019, according to data from Statistics Austria. More and more people started their journey by train: The proportion of train journeys rose to 15.1 percent, which is the highest value since records began in 2006.
“During the pandemic years, many gave up traveling or had to severely limit it. Now, despite inflation, Austrians are again keen to travel: in 2022, almost 5% more vacation trips were taken than before Corona, more than half of them within Austria”, Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas commented on the current development in a broadcast on Thursday.
Italy, Germany, Croatia
3.06 million of the 25.29 million trips were made for business reasons, which is 43.5 percent more than in 2021, but 15.6 percent less than in 2019. Despite an increase in vacations abroad compared to the previous year, 52.4 percent were of all trips spent domestically. Most of them went to Styria (19.9 percent), followed by Salzburg (14.9 percent) and Lower Austria (13.9 percent).
In 2022, 34.2 percent of all trips were primarily for recreational vacations, with visiting relatives and acquaintances also remaining an important reason for more than a quarter of trips (27.6 percent). Compared to the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, vacations for the purpose of culture, sightseeing and shopping, city trips or round trips also became more popular: their share was 14.4 percent in 2022, compared to 9.1 percent in 2021 and 6.8 percent in 2020. However, the value was still slightly behind the pre-Corona year 2019 (16 percent).
The statisticians named Italy, Germany and Croatia as the most popular destinations for vacations abroad. For getting there and in the direction of domestic destinations, the car remained the most frequently used means of transport at 64 percent, despite the increase in rail travel.
A total of 5.78 million Austrians aged 15 and over went on holiday last year. Of those who did not travel, more than half said they had no reason to travel. Almost every third person stated “health reasons or restricted mobility” as the reason for not traveling.
Source: Nachrichten
