While Austrians undertook around 2019 million holiday trips in 21,2, activities in the previous year fell by 43,3 percent to 12 million trips. This is based on figures from Statistics Austria. The authority also announced that there has been a fallback to the level of 2000 in the area of ​​private holiday travel.

The decline in business travel was even more dramatic. While around 2019 million business trips were made abroad in 3,6, the figure was only 1,6 million in the previous year - a decrease of 55,7 percent.

“The corona pandemic slowed down the opportunities for the Austrian population to travel: In 2020, almost half fewer holiday trips were made than in the previous year. Holidays abroad have decreased by more than two thirds, while domestic holidays only decreased by a fifth, ”said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.

The number of holiday travelers (aged 15 and over) fell by more than a fifth (-22,1 percent) to 4,5 million (2019: 5,8 million). This corresponds to a travel intensity of 60,3 percent, in the previous year it was 77,8 percent (-17,5 percentage points). In terms of age groups, travel intensity decreased most in the 65+ age group (-24,7 percentage points to 35,9 percent).

The number of main holiday trips carried out with at least four overnight stays fell by half (-50,1 percent) to 4,9 million, which is roughly the same as in 1990 (5,2 million). The decline in short vacation trips (with up to three overnight stays) was less than a third (-37,4 percent) to 7,1 million.

Domestic decline as well

Due to the travel restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of international vacation trips fell by more than two thirds (-2020 percent) to 68,2 million (3,2: 2019 million). In contrast, the number of domestic holiday trips only decreased by a fifth (-10,1 percent) to 20,8 million (8,8: 2019 million). As a result, the proportion of domestic holiday trips carried out - measured against all holiday trips - increased to 11,1 percent (73,4: 2019 percent).

For the year 2020, 0,8 million vacation trips were registered to Germany, which is the first time that most foreign holidays went to Germany. 0,7 million vacation trips went to Italy and 0,2 million to Croatia. The share of trips to Germany in all trips abroad rose by 7,0 percentage points (share in 2020: 23,6 percent; 2019: 16,6 percent), while the share of trips to Italy increased by just 0,7 percentage points (share in all trips abroad in 2020: 21,6 percent, 2019: 20,9 percent) and the share of trips to Croatia decreased by 2,5 percentage points compared to the previous year (share 2020: 7,1 percent; 2019: 9,6 percent).

The summer of 2020 was also marked by travel restrictions: Overall, the number of holiday travelers in July, August and September 2020 fell by almost a quarter (-3 percent) to 2019 million (24,6: 3,2 million) people. While the travel intensity was 2019 percent in the same quarter of the previous year, it was only 4,2 percent in the summer months of July, August and September 57,6 (-2020 percentage points). Domestic vacation trips increased by 43,2 percent to 14,4 million, while the number of vacation trips abroad fell by 18,7 percent to 3,8 million (57,3: 1,6 million) more than halved.

Every third vacation trip to relatives and friends

The most important travel motive of the Austrian resident population in 2020 was visiting relatives and acquaintances (2020: 33,5 percent, 2019: 25,5 percent); in second and third place followed active vacation (+7,1 percentage points to 25,5 percent, 2019: 18,4 percent) and recreational vacation with 17,4 percent (2019: 16,1 percent). The share of cultural and city holidays decreased by 9,1 percentage points to 6,6 percent (2019: 15,7 percent).

Hotels and similar businesses were also chosen most frequently as the type of accommodation for vacation trips in 2020 (42,8 percent), but lost shares (2019: 54,2 percent) in favor of free accommodation with friends, relatives, acquaintances or at the second home (39,8 percent) Percent, 2019: 28,5 percent).

There were also significant changes in the modal split: more than three quarters of vacation trips were made by car (2020: 77,1 percent, 2019: 63,9 percent), the proportion of vacation trips by plane went to 6,5 percent - and thus back to the level of the 1980s (2019: 19,7 percent).

3,0 million non-travelers in 2020, safety concerns first

In 2020, the reasons for not traveling were again surveyed, whereby more than one reason could be named of the approximately 3,0 million non-travelers. For the first time, safety concerns (48,9 percent of responses; 2019: 6,6 percent) were mentioned most frequently by those surveyed. Almost half (44,3 percent) of the responses, as in previous years, were due to “no reasons to travel” (2019: 45,5 percent). A quarter (25,3 percent) of the reasons mentioned related to “health reasons or restricted mobility” (2019: 29,4 percent), 17,6 percent “lack of time due to work obligations” (2019: 24,4 percent), 15,2 percent Percent “lack of time due to family obligations” (2019: 26,6 percent) and only 12,1 percent “financial reasons” (2019: 23,4 percent).