The corona-related closure of tourist facilities from mid-March onwards caused the number of overnight stays in Austria in the winter season 2019/20 (November to April) to fall by 18.1% to 59.72 million overnight stays. This year's number of overnight stays roughly corresponds to that of the winter season 2006/07.
From November to April, the strongest percentage decreases regarding Austria’s tourism were recorded in Burgenland (-29.7 %), Vienna (-27.6 %), Lower Austria (-25.5 %) and Upper Austria (-23.9 %). The drop in the number of overnight stays was somewhat lower in Vorarlberg (-18.6 %), Styria (-16.8 %), Tyrol (-16.5 %) as well as Salzburg and Carinthia (-14.2 % each), according to the preliminary figures from Statistik Austria.
In absolute figures, there were 13.2 million fewer overnight stays than in the winter season 2018/19, the majority of which were in Tyrol (-4.5 million), Salzburg (-2.3 million) and Vienna (-2.2 million). Styria recorded a minus of 1 million overnight stays, Vorarlberg (-0.9 million), Upper Austria and Lower Austria (-0.8 million each), Carinthia (-0.5 million) and Burgenland (-0.3 million).
Broken down according to source markets, the decline in overnight stays during the winter season varied for Germany (-17 %), the Netherlands (-8.8 %), the United Kingdom (-23.3 %), Switzerland and Liechtenstein (-21.1 %) and the Czech Republic (-15 %).
Due to the border closurу, the number of overnight stays by tourists in April fell by 96.5% year-on-year to around 287,000 overnight stays.
From Friday, 29 May, hotels and guesthouses in Austria were allowed to open again. Until further notice, however, hygiene regulations and distance rules must be observed here as well. However, only about half of the hotels opened their doors, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber estimated.
