Press
Summer, sun, Austria: The forecast for the summer season in Austria is more than promising. But a problem is likely to arise for the Alpine country.
Vienna – Austria is more popular than ever. With its mountainous landscape and beautiful lakes, the country is no longer an insider tip. This year, however, the capacity for tourism could reach its limits. Unchecked tourism threatens to cause chaos in the coming summer season.
As Austrian news agency APA reported, according to the forecast of the tourism marketing organization Austria Werbung (ÖW), 11 million people have already decided to spend their holidays in Austria, which is two million more than in the same period last year. But unchecked tourism could not only fill the coffers, but also lead to real problems.
Tourism in Austria is booming: Austria continues to be one of the top holiday destinations in Europe
“After a very good winter season and an extremely good summer season last year with 80.93 million overnight stays and 25.7 million arrivals, we see that Austria will also be among the top destinations in all of our core markets in 2024,” explains State Secretary for Tourism Susanne Kraus-Winkler in a press conference on the occasion of the Austrian Tourism Day 2024.
In all types of accommodation, Austria is already recording an increase of 96 percent in international overnight stays in 2022, according to the Austrian and international tourism and leisure data Although Austria is very popular with Germans, the most popular holiday destination is currently Scandinavia.
Tourism in the coming summer season is likely to focus more on camping and holiday apartments, reports Rober Seeber, Chairman of the Federal Tourism and Leisure Industry Division of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ). Although Bavaria is a popular holiday destination in Germany, many people apparently prefer to stay in the North and Baltic Seas.
Popular holiday destination: Austria will probably have to contend with massive staff shortages in the summer
As good as the tourism forecast for Austria is, the country is struggling with a shortage of staff. “In concrete terms, we are missing around 20,000 workers in tourism,” reports industry expert Seeber to the APAAccordingly, even the best tourism offers would come to nothing if no workers could be found.
In Austria, around 313,000 full-time employees work in tourism, supplemented by around 330,000 employees in the leisure industry. In total, 16 percent of the population works in this sector, which contributes 13 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP). Germany is also struggling with a massive shortage of skilled workers. The employment agency now wants to bring in 25,000 workers from abroad. (cg)
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