Salzburg: Strongest Tourism January Since Records Began

The winter season so far has been very good for Salzburg's tourism. According to preliminary figures from the state statistics, more than 7.34 million overnight stays were recorded by businesses from November 2024 to January 2025. The strongest January in history, with almost four million overnight stays, contributed significantly to this result.

With almost four million overnight stays, January 2025 was particularly good for Salzburg's tourism businesses. "This is a top figure and exceeds the previous record in 2020 by around 13,200 overnight stays," emphasizes Christine Nagl from the state statistics office. The preliminary district figures for January at a glance:

• Pinzgau: 1,835,275 overnight stays (46.3 percent)
• Pongau: 1,482,256 overnight stays (37.4 percent)
• Lungau: 279,869 overnight stays (7.0 percent)
• City of Salzburg: 184,369 overnight stays (4.6 percent)
• Tennengau: 98,788 overnight stays (2.5 percent)
• Flachgau: 87,719 overnight stays (2.2 percent)

Schnöll: “Tourism is a guarantee of success.”

But January was not the only month that was very positive in terms of overnight stays, there were also 7.3 million overnight stays in the first three months of the winter season, from November to January. Deputy Governor Stefan Schnöll is certain: "The tourism engine in the state is running at full speed. This secures many jobs in the regions. In Pinzgau and Pongau in particular, the varied range of sports, events and culinary offerings attracts guests from all over the world. It is also positive that we can see an increase in overnight stays in all districts and that city tourism has picked up again. The so-called 'January gap' that used to exist after the Christmas holidays has also de facto disappeared."

Winter season started well

Districts south of the Lueg Pass were particularly popular with national and international winter guests between November and January. The leader in the district ranking is Pinzgau with around 3.1 million overnight stays (41.8 percent). Here is an overview of the preliminary figures from the state statistics:

• Pinzgau: 3,072,955 overnight stays (41.8 percent)
• Pongau: 2,562,617 overnight stays (34.9 percent)
• City of Salzburg: 690,698 overnight stays (9.4 percent)
• Lungau: 481,501 overnight stays (6.5 percent)
• Flachgau: 319,263 overnight stays (4.4 percent)
• Tennengau: 214,466 overnight stays (3.0 percent)

Of the approximately 7.34 million overnight stays between November 2024 and January 2025, around 2.95 million were by tourists from Germany. At 40.2 percent, guests from our neighboring country are the most important group. Around 1.54 million Austrians (21.1 percent) spent their holidays in Salzburg, around 805,000 came from the Netherlands (eleven percent). The remaining 27.7 percent are distributed among the Czech Republic (around 252,000 overnight stays) and the United Kingdom (around 244,000 overnight stays).