Austria’s Winter Tourism 2023/24 Exceeds Previous Year’s Season With 71 Million Overnight Stays

According to preliminary results from Statistics Austria, 71.12 million overnight stays and 19.99 million arrivals were registered in Austrian accommodation establishments in the 2023/24 tourist winter season - from November 2023 to April 2024. Compared to winter 2022/23, the number of overnight stays increased by 2.6% and the number of guests by 5.5%.

"The balance of tourism in winter 2023/24 is even more positive than in the previous season. With 71 million overnight stays in domestic hotels, guest houses and holiday apartments, the previous season, which was already strong at 69 million, was exceeded by 2.6%. The demand from guests from abroad was particularly decisive for the result: 77% of overnight stays were by tourists from abroad, especially from Germany. The majority of bookings in the 2023/24 season were once again made in the most popular federal states in winter, Tyrol and Salzburg, which recorded more than half of all overnight stays between November 2023 and April 2024," said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.

The number of overnight stays in the 2023/24 tourism winter season - from November 2023 to April 2024 - was 71.12 million, 2.6% higher than the same period last year and 2.5% lower than the level of the last full winter season before the pandemic in 2018/19 with 72.92 million overnight stays. Overnight stays by guests from Austria in the past winter season were 1.6% lower than the level of the 2018/19 winter season, and overnight stays by guests from abroad were 2.7% lower. The number of overnight stays by guests from abroad reached 54.86 million in 2023/24, an increase of 2.6% compared to the previous year's winter season. 16.26 million overnight stays by guests from Austria were recorded in 2023/24, which is 2.7% more than in the previous season.

A total of 19.99 million arrivals were registered between November 2023 and April 2024, an increase of 5.5% compared to the same period last year. This means that the number of arrivals was 2.1% below the level of the 2018/19 winter season with 20.41 million guests.

More than half of the overnight stays in winter in Tyrol and Salzburg

Compared to the winter of 2022/23, all federal states except Salzburg recorded an increase in overnight stays. The increase was particularly significant in Vienna (+12.4%) and Burgenland (+9.7%). In total, the two federal states of Tyrol and Salzburg recorded 41.57 million overnight stays, or 58.5% of the total overnight stays in the 2023/24 winter season. Four federal states also recorded more overnight stays than in the pre-pandemic winter of 2018/19: Vienna (+3.4%), Burgenland (+2.8%), Upper Austria (+1.5%) and Styria (+0.8%).

Two thirds of overnight stays by guests from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands The most important foreign source market, Germany, accounted for almost half of the overnight stays by guests from abroad (47.8%) in winter 2023/24 with 26.21 million overnight stays (+1.8% compared to winter 2022/23). The second most important source market, the Netherlands, stagnated at 6.67 million overnight stays (−0.5% compared to the previous year's season). Overnight stays by German guests were 2.6% below the level of the pre-pandemic winter 2028/19, while overnight stays by guests from the Netherlands were 2.5% fewer overnight stays than in the pre-pandemic winter season 2018/19 and 6.5% higher. The three major source markets of Germany, Austria and the Netherlands covered more than two thirds of the total overnight stays in Austria with 49.13 million overnight stays.

Half of the winter overnight stays in January and February

As in the previous year, almost half of the overnight stays in the winter season (33.99 million; 47.8%) took place in January and February. However, due to this year's leap day in February, comparisons with February of the previous year are only possible to a limited extent.

April 2024: Early Easter resulted in a 19.4% drop in overnight stays compared to April 2023
Since Easter fell in March this year, there was a significant decline in April 2024 compared to April of the previous year, with 6.62 million overnight stays (−19.4%) and 2.34 million arrivals (−12.5%). Guests from abroad accounted for 4.32 million overnight stays (−25.5%), while guests from Austria stayed a total of 2.30 million overnight stays (−4.9%).

Calendar year 2024 so far: more than 54 million overnight stays up to April

Between January and April 2024, 54.53 million overnight stays were reported, 1.7% more than in the first four months of the previous year. Overnight stays by guests from abroad rose by 1.6% to 42.90 million, and overnight stays by guests from Austria rose by 1.9% to 11.63 million.