“Some days are remembered for a lifetime. For us in tourism, March 13th, 2020 is one of them, "says ÖHV President Michaela Reitterer on the sad anniversary of the announcement of the first Covid-19 lockdown in Austria:" This Friday, the 13th, was a pitch-black day in the history of the Austrian tourism. "

In an initial reaction, Reitterer called for measures to ensure employee income. On March 16, hotels in Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg were closed according to the epidemic law. On March 15, even before the hotels closed, the National Council canceled the obligation for the federal government to compensate companies for Covid-19-related failures. 

The legislature never acted so quickly again in the coming year. All that was needed was a ban on entry instead of an official company closure, which followed on April 4 and replaced the official company closures in the four most tourism-intensive federal states. More than 90 percent of the companies affected have not received compensation for the closure by then. 

The end of public life

Even before that, with the premature end of the ski season, the flight connections, the ban on entering public places, border closings and landing bans, the elimination of festivals and cultural events, i.e. the desire to travel, the business basis for the hotel industry collapsed. With a few exceptions, city and seminar hotels have practically no longer generated any income. Nationwide, overnight stays have fallen from 153 million to 98 million - to the level of the early 70s.  

Relaxation for everyone, the hotel industry has to wait

At the beginning of April, the first easing will come into force, the opening for hairdressers and shopping centers will follow, the hotel industry will have to wait until May 29th. The number of unemployed is skyrocketing nationwide and across all sectors, tourism is particularly hard and lastingly affected. A month after the announcement of the lockdown, 590.000 people were unemployed, plus 1,2 million people on short-time work. On October 31, the hotel industry experiences a deja vu: overnight stays have to be canceled and businesses shut down within days; on November 3, businesses are closed for “four weeks”, which then turn out to be at least five months. 

Two learnings

Austria and the world are still in the middle of the Covid crisis, but some lessons are already emerging. Above all, that the previous debureaucratisation processes did not go far enough. The industry spokeswoman wishes that the decades-old promise of a de-bureaucratisation reform "will be implemented before the next pandemic comes!" At least as important: a noticeable and sustainable reduction in non-wage labor costs: "There is a reason why service providers have so few reserves can - the high employee costs. They are so high that many companies cannot build up reserves even during the boom. If we want holidays in Austria to remain affordable for families after the crisis, the ancillary wage costs have to be reduced significantly, ”says Reitterer.