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Overnights at Austrian hotels down in 2009

Austrian hotels suffered a drop in overnight stays last year, according to Eurostat research.

The European Commission�s statistics agency said today (Mon) there was a 2.9 per cent drop in overnights at hotels and pensions in the country.

The body added, however, that there were 1.6 per cent more overnights by Austrians at hotels and pensions in the country year on year in 2009. The number of overnights by foreigners declined by 4.6 per cent last year compared to 2008, Eurostat said.

Austrian hotels and pensions suffered the worst year-on-year decrease in the first four months of 2009, down 3.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2008, while the year-on-year decline between September and December 2009 was just 1.2 per cent.

People�s Party (�VP) Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner said ahead of the current winter season he would be satisfied if the industry suffered "just a minor decline" in turnover considering the effects the global economic downturn still had on people everywhere.

Eurostat meanwhile said Austrian hotels and pensions registered 80 million overnights in Austria, 57.7 million by foreigners.

The news comes on the same day as the announcement by Vienna�s Institute for Leisure Time and Tourism Research (IFT) that more Austrians were planning to take holidays this year.

The IFT said it interviewed 15,000 Austrians and found out that 40 per cent plan to take holidays, whether in Austria or abroad, this year. Early last year, 39 per cent of people interviewed said the same.

Viennese tourism industry officials said last week the city�s hotels had made a good start to the new year as overnight figures were up nine per cent year on year in January.

They said there were 604,000 overnights in Vienna last month, up by nine per cent compared to January 2009.

The most significant increase was recorded for guests from Serbia with an 80 per cent year-on-year increase. Vienna tourism authorities said 7,300 overnights by people from the country were registered last month, a development linked to the EU�s decision to lift the visa requirement for people from Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro last December.

Austrian Times

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