The run on hotels in Austria‘s summer tourism has rapidly accelerated in July when compared to the previous months. During the current summer season’s “half-time“, the increase in overnight stays expanded to 4.6 %, while it previously only accounted for 2.1% in June. With 33.02 million overnight stays between May and July, Statistik Austria reported the best results since 1994.
Especially foreign guests arrived to Austria in increased numbers - their overnight stays between May and July grew by 6.8% to 22.61 million as compared to the previous year. Domestic tourism, on the other hand, only saw a slight increase of 0.2% to 10.41 million, as reported by Statistik Austria.
The number of overnight stays in 4 and 5 star hotels increased by 5.7 % to 11.76 million and in commercial holiday flats by 10.4 % to a total of 1.84 million. Private holiday homes also saw significant increases with 8.5%. Private quarters, on the other hand, experienced losses (-2.8%).
Among foreign tourists, especially the number of German visitors increased during the first half of the current summer season with a six percent increase to a new total of 11.24 million. Tourists from the Netherlands, who usually make up the second-strongest part of Austrian tourism, made 2.7% more overnight stays, bringing their total up to 1.97 million. Guests from Switzerland and Liechtenstein saw an increase of six percent (1.27 million), guests from the United Kingdom a plus of five percent (0.67 million).
The strongest decreases in terms of overnight stays between May and July were, just as in previous periods, seen among Russian guests (-28.9 %). The main reason for that is the Ruble’s rapid decline, which makes international holidays increasingly expensive. Other nations with decreases in Austrian visits were Hungary (-1.7 %), France (-4.1 %) and Belgium (-1.8 %).
In July, the overall increase in overnight stays amounted to 7.2 %, which was mostly caused by international (+9.7 %), but also by domestic (+1.3 %) tourists. The overnight stays of German guests experienced an especially strong increase compared to last year, with a plus of half a million, or 9.5% to a total of 5.34 million stays.
During the first seven months, the number of overnight stays increased by 3.3 % to 83.71 million - a new record. The number of tourist arrivals also reached an all time high with a plus of 5.5 % and a total of 23.3 million. During the first half of this year’s summer season (May to July), the number of arrivals increased by 7.3% to a new record of 10.69 million; this included domestic (+2.3 %) as well as international (+10.1 %) tourism.