Austria On The Way To More Sustainability In Tourism
“Austria should be one of the most sustainable destinations in the world. This involves a lot of effort, but one thing is clear: sustainability is here to stay. Businesses and destinations that are sustainable in the ecological, social and economic dimensions will have a clear competitive advantage in the future,” said State Secretary for Tourism Susanne Kraus-Winkler in the run-up to the sustainability tour.
Many tourism companies have already successfully embarked on the path to sustainability. For example, 275 accommodation establishments are now certified with the Austrian Ecolabel, 128 with the EU Ecolabel and seven with the Green Key. In addition, there are also a large number of restaurants, tour operators, event locations, museums, etc. that are certified with the Austrian eco-label. So far, two tourism destinations have the Austrian Ecolabel, one of which has also received the Green Destinations award and another has been certified cross-border according to the GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) criteria for destinations. "The aim of the sustainability tour is to bring these best practice examples to the fore and show how intense tourism is in the transformation process. This is the only way we can learn from the best of the best and continue on the path of Austrian tourism towards sustainability,” added Kraus-Winkler.
Austria has been a pioneer in sustainable tourism for many years. Since 2019, the tourism policy of the federal government (Plan T - Master Plan for Tourism) has placed a special focus on sustainability. The topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly important for process optimization in companies (e.g. energy management), for booking decisions by guests, for regional cooperation and also in the area of credit and funding.
Tourism policy supports the transformation to sustainable tourism on many levels: In April 2023, the realignment of the federal government's commercial tourism promotion was successfully completed. Since then, sustainable investments by tourism companies have been promoted in an even more targeted manner (e.g. through a "sustainability bonus"). With the national recommendations for sustainability certificates for Austrian tourism, the use of sustainability seals is being promoted, which makes the achievements of the industry visible and strengthens the trust of guests. With the dialogue series "Sustainability in Tourism", companies and destinations are informed about different aspects of sustainability and innovative solutions are shown. The collection of additional non-financial industry indicators (e.g
“As tourism policy, we support the industry in its sustainable transformation. We can only continue the success story of Austrian tourism if everyone involved - from politics to companies to the destinations - pulls together," concluded Kraus-Winkler.
