Study shows: Linzers are the third largest group of shoppers in Wels

CATFISH. In the 80s and 90s, Wels was so popular as a shopping town that even people from Linz were drawn to the city on the Traun. This trend has since dropped, but now more and more people are coming from the state capital to do their errands in Wels.

This is shown by a study by the German Society for Market and Sales Research (GMA) on behalf of Wels City Marketing. The visitors’ mobile phone data was evaluated at four locations – in the city center, the West commercial area with the MaxCenter, the North commercial area with the Interspar and Welas Park.

These show that after Wels itself (44 percent) and Marchtrenk (7.8 percent), the people of Linz are the third largest group of shoppers with 6.1 percent. It is noteworthy that a similar survey in 2018 hardly recorded any guests from the state capital. “So this development has taken place over the past five years,” says Gino Meier from GMA, who led the study.

13 percent more companies

The Wels study also provides good evidence in other respects: annual retail sales are 1,055,400,000 euros, a fifth higher than in 2018. During the same period, the number of businesses increased by 13 percent to 680. In the city center there are 296 companies, three percent more, of which 108 are restaurants. According to a survey, restaurants replaced shopping as the most common reason for visiting Wels city center for the first time.

Mayor Andreas Rabl sees the strategy of relying on owner-managed shops and restaurants as confirmed: “In 2015 we had ten percent vacancies, now it is 2.3 percent. The figures show that the cooperation between politics, administration, city marketing and businesses has been successful. ” The effects of the corona pandemic were therefore well coped with. The number of visitors this year was partly higher than before the pandemic.

The Wels merchants are also satisfied with the situation: 85 percent identify strongly or very strongly with the Wels location. Almost three quarters of the companies surveyed would settle in Wels again if they had to start a new business again. Business owners rate city marketing measures such as Christmas lights and summer decorations positively, and there is potential for expansion in communication with existing businesses.

City Councilor for Economic Affairs Martin Oberndorfer (VP) also assesses the development of the past few years positively: “When I came back to Wels in 2012 after completing my studies, the mood was more of a decline. The people of Wels subjectively feel that there is now an upswing. Now confirmed so does the empiricism.” He also points out the positive development in tourism; the number of overnight stays in the 2022/2023 tourism year exceeded the 200,000 mark for the first time.

City marketing boss Peter Jungreithmair is already looking to the future: “At the moment it’s great that everyone is pulling together. Now the question for me is how we can improve even further and play to our strengths.”

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