Salzburgerland Starts The Summer With A Major Railway Campaign
In SalzburgerLand, however, the course for the summer was set on Wednesday: Governor Wilfried Haslauer gave an initial insight into the new Salzburg tourism strategy. In line with this, the SalzburgerLand Tourismus Gesellschaft (SLTG) presented the largest rail travel campaign in domestic tourism to date.
The first "whole winter" without restrictions since the start of the pandemic three years ago is coming to an end - and the figures so far suggest a successful "comeback" for ski holidaymakers*: From November 2022 up to and including February 2023, 11, 2 million overnight stays are booked. This means the fourth-best winter result in an all-time comparison at the current time (with the balance sheet for the months of March and April still outstanding). The current season with the years 2017/18 and 2018/19 is almost on par, in second place (2018/19) there is only a minimum of 40,000 overnight stays or around 0.04% missing. The previous high comes from the winter of 2019/20 (a leap year) with around 12,
The outlook for the upcoming summer is just as promising, as the summer season also showed itself from its best side during the pandemic years, when local destinations and activities in the alpine nature became all the more important and valuable. "The rapid recovery of our tourism industry is extremely gratifying," says Salzburg's governor Wilfried Haslauer. "As great as the challenges of the past few years have been, the predominantly family-run businesses have used the time and even improved the quality of the offer during the crisis. This will benefit us now and in the future.”
Tourism creates added value, quality of life and jobs
SalzburgerLand is also going into the future with renewed strength with the new tourism strategy, into which the governor gave an initial insight on Wednesday. "Tourism is a strong pillar of our economy. With added value of around 4.5 billion euros, it contributes a quarter to the gross regional product, creates quality of life in town and country and, with over 40,000 jobs that depend directly on tourism, is decisive for the Austria’s lowest unemployment rate in Salzburg is partly responsible,” affirms Haslauer.
New tourism strategy: Committed to people and nature
"We want tourism of the highest quality in our federal state, which is committed to people and nature - and thus further expand our image as a premium destination in the Alps," says Haslauer. In order to achieve this goal, these four central areas of impetus were defined in the state's new tourism strategy:
- Impulse field 1: Tourist working world
- Impulse field 2: Quality, regionality & authenticity
- Impulse field 3: Innovation & Digitization
- Impulse area 4: sustainability & mobility
Last but not least, the developments of the past few years with a literally sustainable change in understanding of values (see below) and made it necessary to revise the tourism strategy. With its special combination of large natural areas and world-class cultural offerings, the SalzburgerLand has the best prerequisites for fulfilling these increased expectations of a high-quality holiday close to nature.
Sustainability and regionality is Salzburg's core competence
"A lot of what is often described as sustainable is something we take for granted and is not born out of a trend, which means that we can demonstrate real core competence and priceless credibility here," says Leo Bauernberger, Managing Director of the SalzburgerLand Tourismus Gesellschaft (SLTG). . In no other region in the world is there such a high proportion of organic farming as in SalzburgerLand. “With the BioArt Campus in Seeham, we also recently have an organic competence center that is second to none internationally. And we have a healthy relationship between farms and tourism businesses (around 10,000 each in the federal state), which has a significant influence on the quality of the products of our Alpine cuisine and thus also the regionality in the gastronomy and hotel industry," says Bauernberger.
Excellent accessibility for guests by train
Sustainable tourism in SalzburgerLand that is close to nature – of course, this also includes travel to and from the destination as well as local mobility. And here, too, the conditions are excellent: The central location in the heart of the European railway network and direct accessibility from important nearby markets such as the eastern Austrian metropolitan area and Germany - from which around two thirds of all guests in SalzburgerLand come - make SalzburgerLand an attractive one Destination for guests who also want an environmentally and climate-conscious lifestyle on vacation.
Study: Travel like before Corona - but with a clear conscience
And these guests are increasing in number, as a current study in Germany, the most important source of tourism in SalzburgerLand, with more than 40 percent of all overnight stays, shows. In its outlook for the travel year 2023, the German travel analysis of the Research Association for Holidays and Travel (FUR) found that Germans' desire to travel is almost back to the level of 2019, i.e. before the corona pandemic.
"Austria remains one of the most popular foreign destinations for Germans and ranks fourth behind Spain, Italy and Turkey - even ahead of Croatia," reports SLTG Managing Director Bauernberger. The conditions for the summer are very promising in this crucial market, because: “Eight percent and thus around seven million Germans have already planned Austria as a travel destination this year. And even a quarter of those surveyed stated that they have not yet decided where they are going, but are considering our country when planning their trip.”
According to the study, sustainability is playing an increasingly important role in holiday planning. On the one hand, ecological considerations have been at a very high level for several years, but on the other hand, thoughts about social sustainability at the holiday destination - for example with regard to the fair treatment and payment of employees in tourism - are increasing more and more.
Bahn in the fast lane – with continued great potential
As far as the choice of means of travel for holidays in SalzburgerLand is concerned, the guest survey by Tourismus Monitor Austria shows that rail is still on the rise in SalzburgerLand - meanwhile 13% is even the best value of all Austrian federal states. Compared to the car, with which 75% of all guests arrive, there is still a lot of potential. According to a study by the World Tourism Organization UNWTO, three quarters of the CO2 balance of a holiday is due to travel to and from the destination.
SalzburgerLand: Largest railway campaign in domestic tourism
For this reason, and also against the background of the new tourism strategy, the SLTG is starting an extensive campaign for the upcoming summer season together with its mobility partners Deutsche Bahn (DB) and ÖBB as well as the regional partners Gastein, St. Johann, Zell am See-Kaprun and the city of Salzburg. "We are investing a total of 800,000 euros, which makes this project the largest rail campaign in domestic tourism to date," says SLTG Managing Director Bauernberger happily. All campaign partners as well as the state of Salzburg with a special subsidy of 100,000 euros contribute to the overall budget.
For Christine Schönhuber, Managing Director of Tourismus Salzburg GmbH (TSG) and thus the top tourism expert in the city of Salzburg, taking part in the campaign is both a matter of the heart and a logical step: "TSG is very clearly committed to quality tourism and will in future place a strong emphasis on sustainability . Crucial in this regard is mobility, which the entire travel industry has to deal with in all its facets. In addition to creating convincing offers, communication with travelers is also important. Together with strong partners such as SLTG, Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB, we can bundle the effects of our individual efforts.”
Advertising offensive at train stations and TV spot in Germany
The inexpensive direct connections to SalzburgerLand from the German metropolitan regions such as Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne or Munich as well as from Vienna and Lower Austria are advertised exactly where the target group can be found: with an extensive out-of-home offensive directly to the big ones train stations and with targeted online and social media measures. In Germany, DB will also have its own TV spot, which will make German guests want to spend a holiday in the city and state of Salzburg. In Austria, ÖBB also places print advertisements in high-circulation newspapers and magazines.
DB: Demand for holidays in SalzburgerLand is growing at double-digit rates
“With the joint campaign we are reaching a new level in communication. In this way, we can inspire even more guests to take a holiday by train in SalzburgerLand,” says Hans-Joachim Luhm, Head of Price and Revenue Management at DB. The timing for the offensive is perfect – because: “We are currently seeing a strong increase in demand here. For this year we have already sold more tickets to SalzburgerLand than in the comparable period of the record year 2019, and in the double-digit range.”
Attractive holiday packages for rail travelers
Together with the regional partners and in cooperation with selected tour operators, attractive holiday packages have been put together for the coming summer, which can be perfectly combined with a train journey to SalzburgerLand.
