After the Corona crisis, there are signs that Vienna's accommodation market is slowly recovering. At least that is what the statistics suggest: it shows how the supply of hotels, rooms and beds has changed in a long-term comparison.
After the end of the Corona pandemic, the tourism industry in Vienna seems to be slowly recovering: this is shown by a look at the official accommodation statistics, which have now been published by the City of Vienna.
"The pandemic is not yet over, but Vienna's city tourism has shown very clear signs of recovery this year after the slump in overnight stays of the past two years," says Peter Hanke, the president of WienTourismus.
This year's October brought 1,332,000 overnight stays in Vienna and thus an arithmetical plus of 40% compared to the same month in 2021 - this corresponds to 85% of the overnight stays from October 2019. From the ten highest-volume markets of this year, Austria brought 283.000 (+19%) and Germany 280,000 overnight stays (+19%), followed by the USA (76,000, +122%), Italy (61,000, +59%), the UK (44,000, +114%), Spain (39,000, +13%), France (34,000, +35%), Israel (31,000, -9%), Poland (22,000, +48%) and Ukraine (23,000, +53%).
Almost 400 Hotels in Vienna
According to the latest statistics, there are now almost 398 hotels in Vienna with around 36,710 rooms and 71,345 beds - Vienna thus has around 2,500 rooms and 3,000 beds more than before the pandemic.
This is also a significant increase compared to 2021. Specifically, this is 13% more beds (7,982 absolute) and 15% more rooms (4,875 absolute) than in the previous year. The number of establishments has also increased again (+15%, 51 establishments in absolute terms).
Investments Pay off
Norbert Kettner, Director of the Vienna Tourist Board stated: "The extensive investments in the renovation of existing hotels as well as the construction of new ones, combined with a slight increase in the average size of establishments, are evidence that Vienna is emerging from the pandemic with an improved offer and a more economically viable Visitor Economy."
This is because there is a trend towards a slow increase in the size of Vienna’s accommodation establishments. While the average hotel establishment in 2015 still had 149 beds, the corresponding figure for 2019 is 162 beds, 179 beds in 2022 and will be 182 beds by the end of 2023 due to new openings that have already been announced.
Larger Farms Are More Resilient
For Kettner, this is a thoroughly positive development: "Larger businesses are more economically viable and therefore more resilient in the long term, but in the overall portfolio it is the mix of large and small that constitutes a particular strength of the destination."
More than half (59%) of Vienna's current hotel bed supply is in the four- or five-star range. In 2019, Vienna had 22 luxury hotels, while the 2022 inventory statistics show 23. "An asset for addressing target groups with high purchasing power, from which Vienna's entire Visitor Economy benefits," explains Kettner.