Despite The Challenging Winter, Tyrol Tourism Is Positive
Holidays in Tyrol remain in demand. Even difficult weather conditions and inflation have not changed this. After five out of six months of the current winter season, domestic tourism reported an increase in arrivals and overnight stays. According to an initial calculation, the value added has also increased. There is confidence for the coming summer: This is shown by both a survey of accommodation companies and the new price and booking monitoring by Tirolwerbung. This enables daily utilization forecasts.
The current winter season ends on April 30th. An initial balance for the months November to March, which on average represents more than 90 percent of the total winter overnight stays, provides a positive result: 24.4 million overnight stays represent an increase of 4.8 percent compared to the previous year. Arrivals increased by 7.6 percent to 5.5 million compared to 2023. However, the postponement of Easter, which fell in March this year after an April date last year, as well as the leap day in February must be taken into account in this balance.
“The good result in terms of arrivals and overnight stays is encouraging, but for me the main indicator is economic development. “I am therefore pleased that, according to an initial calculation by MCI Tourism, the added value in the winter season amounts to 3.76 billion euros,” sums up Tyrol’s Tourism Provincial Councilor Mario Gerber. Adjusted for inflation, that is 1.5 percent more than last winter. This result is also reflected in the seasonal tourism barometer, a representative survey of Tyrolean accommodation providers: 53 percent are satisfied with the economic success of the current winter season, 37 percent are even very satisfied. “The only downside is the average length of stay, which has decreased slightly,” says Gerber. After 4.5 days last year, winter guests stayed in Tyrol for around 4.4 days in the current season.
German guests drive growth
The positive result of the winter so far is primarily driven by strong developments in the German market. 12.6 million overnight stays mean an increase of 7.4 percent or 860,000 overnight stays. This means that around every second winter overnight stay comes from a German guest. Overnight stays by Dutch guests rose slightly by 0.4 percent to 3.6 million. Overnight stays from Austria grew by 3.8 percent to 1.5 million. On the Swiss market, Tyrol's tourism recorded an increase of 3.2 percent to 930,000 overnight stays, closely followed by the British market with an increase of 0.5 percent and 920,000 overnight stays.
“The positive development of our winter tourism is, on the one hand, proof of the outstanding quality of the offering and, on the other hand, the well-deserved result of the good work of Tyrol’s tourism experts,” is Gerber’s conclusion. This is also shown by a current evaluation by Tirol Advertising, for which more than 28,000 guest reviews on online platforms were analyzed with the support of artificial intelligence. 84 percent of them were positive, 13 percent negative, the rest neutral.
Challenges for companies, focus on year-round tourism
“The challenging weather conditions in the current winter season have once again shown how important it is that we continue to consistently develop towards balanced year-round tourism,” says Tirol Advertising managing director Karin Seiler. “The rigid structures of winter and summer are increasingly dissolving, seasons and activities are becoming more and more blurred.” Particularly the phases with above-average temperatures have shown how important the additional offer to the slopes is. “For example, it's ideal for skiing in the morning and cycling in the afternoon,” says Seiler.
As far as the companies are concerned, according to Alois Rainer, chairman of the tourism and leisure sector in the Tyrol Chamber of Commerce, they have mastered the diverse challenges of this winter season well. “In addition to energy and increasingly short-term bookings, the issue of workforce is a constant issue. In order to solve the shortage of personnel in tourism, we need to open up the labor market. Quotas are no longer appropriate,” says Rainer.
Good booking situation for the summer
Tyrol's tourism industry is looking forward to the summer season, which begins on May 1st, with confidence. According to the tourism barometer, around three quarters of accommodation businesses are satisfied or very satisfied with the booking situation. Demand from Germany, the most important source market, is particularly positive: nine out of ten companies are satisfied or very satisfied with the booking situation from German guests.
New forecasting option for utilization and prices
The assessment for the coming summer is also confirmed by the so-called price and booking monitoring. With this new Tyrol advertising tool, demand for Tyrolean tourism can be forecast on a daily basis. The preview shows largely similar occupancy to last summer, which was the best since 1992 in terms of overnight stays.
The good demand is also linked to a positive price development, as monitoring shows. In the hotel industry, there is almost universal growth in average prices across the various categories. This is particularly evident in holiday apartments, which are also in high demand.
Price and booking monitoring will subsequently also be made available to Tyrolean tourism associations and businesses in order to support efficient price management and achieve greater added value. The confident financial assessment of the coming summer season is also reflected in the tourism barometer. Almost half of the accommodation companies surveyed assume that they will be able to maintain the sales results from last year's summer. A third expect to be able to end the 2024 summer season with an increase in sales. Only about one in ten expects a loss in sales.
