Austria's summer tourist season has seen high demand, with bookings increasing sharply in May compared to last year. Statistics Austria reports that overnight stays rose 14.1 percent to 8.2 million. In addition, 3.1 million tourists checked into accommodation establishments, a 17 percent increase from the previous year. The majority of this increase can be attributed to Germany travelers.
The recent boost in holiday bookings can be attributed to the favorable timing of holidays this year. As reported by Statistics Austria, three long weekends for short breaks were available on May Day, Ascension Day, and Pentecost, compared to only one long weekend on Ascension Day last year.
Foreign tourists have significantly contributed to the increase in bookings. Their number of overnight stays in May rising by 25.8% to reach 5.1 million compared to last year. This figure also exceeded the number of overnight stays in May 2019 by 12.6% before the Corona pandemic outbreak. In contrast, the number of overnight stays by German holidaymakers decreased slightly by 1% to 3.1 million. In contrast, guests from Austria increased by 6.7% compared to May 2019.
During the beginning of the season, there was a significant increase in the number of German tourists staying overnight, with approximately 2.8 million people - a 34.6% rise from last year's May data before the pandemic. The second-largest source market, the Dutch, also showed a positive increase with a 14.6% increase to 197,800 overnight stays.
The pandemic impact is still evident as there are fewer tourists from Asia. The number of overnight stays from China is still 81.4 percent lower than in May 2019, with only 24,200 bookings. Similarly, Japan has seen a 71.7 percent decline in bookings, with only 13,100 overnight stays. These statistics show that Asian tourism is still recovering from the pandemic in terms of long-haul travel.
From January to May of this year, there has been a 22.4% increase in the number of overnight stays in Austrian lodging establishments, totaling 61.9 million. While there is still a 2.9% gap compared to the same period before the pandemic, the number of guest arrivals in May was up by 27.4% at 16.78 million compared to last year when the pandemic started to slow.