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“Austrian tourism got off to a promising start to the winter season with 5,15 million overnight stays. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of 5,4 percent. The precise snowfall at the start of the season boosted bookings many times over. The federal states report a very good booking situation during the Christmas holidays. We hope to be able to maintain this atmosphere throughout the entire winter season. In any case, the winter sports regions are well prepared again for this winter,” said Tourism State Secretary Susanne Kraus-Winkler.
The booking situation is currently developing similarly positively to last year 2022. What is particularly noticeable is the promising booking figures at the turn of the year, when city tourism traditionally has the highest occupancy rate. “People are still longing for winter holidays. In our main markets of origin there is time, desire and money for this, which is confirmed by the current winter potential study by Austria Advertising. Austria is and remains one of the top winter destinations in Europe for both domestic and foreign guests, and in international comparison, Austria is already one of the most sustainable winter destinations,” says Kraus-Winkler.
Winter tourism is a significant source of prosperity
With a turnover of 12,6 billion euros, winter tourism is an important value creation factor for rural areas and contributes significantly to Austria's prosperity. In order to secure this in the future, winter tourism has invested heavily in sustainability in recent years. It only uses 0,9 percent of Austria's total energy consumption and relies on 90 percent renewable energy for both snowmaking and cable cars. If you look at the number of overnight stays over the decades, there were 1974 million overnight stays in the 75/31,1 winter season, which have more than doubled to 69,3 million today. An important confirmation of how much Austria is in demand as a winter holiday destination and is becoming an increasingly strong economic factor.
International markets are increasing – holiday apartments are becoming increasingly popular
With a share of around 77 percent, winter tourism in Austria depends on foreign guests. This season there is increasing demand among international guests compared to previous years, for example in Styria from the Netherlands, Denmark or the United Kingdom. The international markets are also picking up again in Vorarlberg.
With 53,2 million overnight stays throughout 2023, Germany remains the strongest source market, followed by Austria (37,4 million overnight stays), the Netherlands (10,2 million overnight stays), Switzerland and Liechtenstein (4,1 million overnight stays), Czech Republic (3,4 million overnight stays) and the United Kingdom (2,9 million overnight stays).
The accommodation statistics from January to November 2023 show an increase of 19,9 percent in overnight stays for holiday apartments compared to 2022. Whereas the 1- and 2-star establishments have 16,3 percent more overnight stays and the 3-star establishments have 10,3 percent more.
“Despite a challenging year with short-term bookings and an ever-increasing need for employees, we are currently anticipating a good annual balance. We expect that with around 150 million overnight stays we will only be slightly below the good year 2019 with 152,7 million overnight stays,” said Kraus-Winkler.
