In all of Austria, the number of vacationers rises much faster than the number of overnight stays – the length of stay is trapped in a steady decline. These are the findings of a study of Styria, one of the Austrian states, by the hotel and tourism consultants Kohl & Partner.
The authors said that: “Today, hotels need roughly 30 percent more guests than 20 years ago to reach the same occupancy rate“. According to their data, Austria and Styria are to expect a further decrease in the length of stay. The accommodating businesses would have to adjust their marketing, supply and service offerings, said Daniel Orasche from Kohl & Partner: “Those who ignore the recent developments are bound to lose market shares”.
However there’s also good news: Short-time vacationers have a higher daily budget. According to the tourism consultants, the daily expenses of day-to-day tourists are roughly 20 Euros higher than those with longer vacations. These higher per-capita-expenses would open up chances for hoteliers to raise their revenue. But that requires “flexibility, quickness and individuality”.
Short-stay tourists don’t have much time and want to have a great experience. Accommodation providers should help their guests to use their time as efficiently as possible and offer individual programs for this purpose.
In 2014, Styria counted 11.4 million overnight stays (plus 0.9 percent) – a new record. However, this increase in stays fell – according to the overall trend – short of the guest increase of 2 percent (which increased to 3.6 million people). 20 years ago, the average tourist would stay 4.6 day in the state. Last year, the average was only 3.2 days.
In the past ten years, the supply of hotel beds in Styria increased by 13.3 percent – especially in the four and five star categories (plus 34.8 percent). According to Kohl & Partner, the local businesses also managed to increase their number of days on full load – from 81 to 84 days a year.
During the same time span, the number of guests put on 31.3 percent and the number of overnight stays 16.9 percent. The Styrian hotel industry even experienced an outstanding increase in stays of 40 percent. The biggest increase was recorded in Graz, due to the flourishing city tourism.