Arrivals, overnight stays

The highest drop in nights spent in absolute figures was recorded among guests from Germany (-18.17 million), the most important market of origin for Austrian tourism, followed by the Netherlands (-2.94 million), Switzerland and Liechtenstein (-1.79 million), the Czech Republic (-1.18 million), Belgium (-1.16 million) and the United Kingdom (-2.20 million).

By types of accommodation, in hotels and similar accommodations the decrease was over 40%. In commercial holiday dwellings and private holiday dwellings the decrease was 22.6% or 23.6%.

The decrease by federal states varied. With -73.9%, Vienna was hit hardest, while Carinthia (-17.0%), Burgenland (-27.3%) and Styria (-24.6%) closed the calendar year 2020 with significantly lower declines. While nights spent by non-resident guests decreased in all federal states, there was an increase in resident guests in Carinthia (+5.4%).

In the summer season 2020 54 million nights spent were reported, a decrease of 31.8% compared to summer 2019. Due to the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of nights spent by non-resident guests fell by 43.2% to 31.63 million, and that of residents by 4.7% to 22.20 million. The number of arrivals (= number of guests) reflects the negative trend in nights spent in the summer season 2020 even more clearly and also decreased significantly by 42.6% compared to the previous season to 14.70 million. Non-resident arrivals in particular decreased by 7.55 million. (-56.1%) but also the resident ones with 7.14 million (-14.9%).

Around 70% of nights spent by non-resident guests were attributable to Germany, the most important market of origin (summer 2019: 53%), with nights spent by German guests in summer 2020 falling by around a quarter (25.6%) to 21.94 million. Many other important markets of origin developed negatively as a result of the measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic: Nights spent by guests from the Netherlands (-30.3%), Switzerland and Liechtenstein (-31.5%) or the Czech Republic (-36.4%) significantly declined.

Due to the closings of the gastronomy and hotel industry beginning mid of March 2020, the hotels and similar establishments recorded a drop in nights spent by 38.9% in summer season 2020 compared to the respective period in 2019. Broken down by type of accommodation, the following picture emerged: 5-4-star establishments: -38.3%; 3-star hotels: -39.3%; 2-/1-star businesses: -41.0% and commercial holiday apartments/houses: -12.3%. Private accommodations also recorded a drop in nights spent in the 2020 summer season (-15.5%). The average length of stay in the current season was 3.7 nights.

The winter season 2020/2021 ended with a total of 5.56 million nights spent due to the measures taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the closings, almost no nights spent were registered between November 2020 and April 2021. Accordingly, the number of nights spent decreased by 90.7% compared to the previous season.

Nights spent by non-residents reached 1.59 million, 96.6% below that of winter 2019/2020. Nights spent by residents fell by 69.3% (3.97 million). Guests from Germany accounted around 7.3% (0.41 million) of all nights spent. But other important markets of origin such as the Netherlands (-99.59%), the United Kingdom (-98.5%), Switzerland and Liechtenstein (-97.3%) and the Czech Republic (-96.0%) also recorded significant losses in nights spent.

Looking at accommodation establishments, hotels and similar establishments (share of nights spent: 52.3%) recorded a fall in nights spent of 92.1% compared to the 2019/20 winter season, with the highest reported in 5-/4-star hotels (-93.8%). Sanatoriums showed the lowest losses (-8.2%) due to the exception regulations in the entry ban.