Tourism remains in deep crises – oesterreich.ORF.at
ECONOMY
First the pandemic, now also the Ukraine war – this is shattering burgeoning hopes of a speedy return to normality, including in domestic tourism.
Due to the pandemic situation alone, bookings in the previous winter season 2021/22 (November to February) with 33.2 million overnight stays are almost 40 percent well below the pre-crisis level in winter 2019/20, according to preliminary data from Statistics Austria on Friday.
compared to the same period in 2020/21, this year’s overnight stays with a plus of 29.7 million bookings almost doubled, but from a historically low level.
Because as a result of the rapid official entry bans for holidaymakers in the accommodation facilities, last winter was almost a total failure – only gainful employment and spa stays were allowed. The number of guest arrivals has increased by 7.3 million to 8 million this winter.
“Tourism is slow to recover”
“Austria’s tourism is only slowly recovering from the corona crisis,” said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas. February in particular initially showed strong signs of a comeback. The traditional month of the winter season accounted for 13.6 million nights, which was almost half of the previous winter bookings and “only” almost a quarter (24 percent) less than in February 2019, before the crisis. On February 24, 2022, the Russians invaded Ukraine, and since then there has been war not far from Austria.
In the previous calendar year 2022 (January and February) there had been clear signs of recovery, with overnight stays of only 27.9 percent compared to the period before the pandemic. In the two-Monday period, 23.8 million overnight stays were booked by 5.53 million guests.