Austria Tourism Figures: First Summer Tourism Figures Almost At Pre-Corona Levels

Austrian State Secretary Kraus-Winkler: Despite the higher employment rate than before the crisis, many companies still have an acute need for employees

“The numbers speak for themselves: the overnight stays in the first third of the summer show that Austria as a holiday destination has almost reached the pre-crisis level again and, above all, the number of overnight stays by domestic guests has again risen sharply. While May was still a bit reserved as an early summer month, June shows that summer holidays in Austria are again among the most popular travel destinations for guests from home and abroad and the number of overnight stays in the first two summer months is only 4.5 percent behind the reference year 2019. The special budgets of the Austrian Tourist Board are having a great effect here and were important contributions to these first summer results," said State Secretary Kraus-Winkler.

"However, in order to ensure the quality and resilience of the tourism location in a future-oriented manner, the domestic industry urgently needs long-term solutions to cope with the ever-increasing need for employees," said Kraus-Winkler on the occasion of the new Statistics Austria figures for May and June 2022. At 12, 0 million overnight stays, domestic tourism increased by more than 60 percent in June 2022 compared to the previous year and almost reached the pre-crisis level of 2019 (12.61 million overnight stays). Thus, the overnight stay records of May/June 2019 and 2018 could almost be followed. "In order to be able to take this into the autumn and winter season, tourism understandably needs to be able to plan for the many question marks surrounding the energy crisis, Covid and inflation,

Overall, the Austrian tourism industry (May and June) with 19.17 million overnight stays was the third strongest after 2019 (20.08 million) and 2018 (19.30 million). 7.21 million overnight stays were attributable to domestic vacationers, that is 37.6 percent. Compared to 2019, this is an increase of 6.5 percent. Overnight stays by foreign guests, on the other hand, were 11.95 million, 10.1 percent below the level of 2019 (13.3 million), according to the preliminary results of Statistics Austria. At the federal state level, the results in all federal states except Lower Austria show an increase in domestic guests, while overnight stays by foreign guests were below the pre-crisis level everywhere except in Vorarlberg.

Kraus-Winkler: Making tourism professions more attractive

Despite the high number of guests, the constantly increasing need for employees and the rise in prices pose major challenges for the domestic tourism and leisure industry. In order to react appropriately to this sharply increasing need for employees, a bundle of different measures and solutions is needed. These are currently being worked on intensively over the summer together with the industry, the social partners and politicians. “We need a contemporary political framework in order to make the attractiveness of tourism as an employer noticeable. Many tourism companies are already pioneers when it comes to modern management and corporate culture, flexible working hours or in-house childcare facilities. Due to demographic change, it is becoming increasingly important for the industry both to meet the changing expectations of young people and to offer older people and people with care responsibilities a suitable working environment," concluded Kraus-Winkler. The next steps and future prospects are to be discussed at a social partner summit in autumn.