People’s desire to travel is back after the Corona crisis, but high inflation is dampening their willingness to spend money.
While the number of guests (plus one percent) and overnight stays (plus two percent) in the first half of the summer exceeded pre-pandemic times, real turnover remained almost twelve percent below the comparable figure from 2019. Nominally, turnover increased from May until July 2023, however, by 14.5 percent.
In 2023 as a whole, the balance sheet could lag slightly behind expectations. “In contrast to arrivals and overnight stays, price-adjusted turnover in the tourism sector has not yet reached pre-crisis levels,” Wifo writes.
“Often no second bottle of wine”
A survey by the Hotel Industry Association of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) among around 600 hotels and restaurants recently concluded that guests’ wallets are significantly less loose than before the wave of inflation. “Guests limit visits to hotels and restaurants, holidays are often postponed to the early or late season and people forego the second bottle of wine,” says hotel industry chairman Johann Spreitzhofer.
The Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV) is alarmed and calls for political intervention. Energy costs must be reduced and investments encouraged rather than inhibited, ÖHV Chairman Walter Veit said in a press release. In addition, measures are needed to strengthen equity, reduce additional wage costs and maintain the possibility of tax-free bonus payments to employees.
“Overtourism” in the Alpine regions
This year, from May to July, things went particularly well in the Alpine regions, where overnight stays were on average almost 4 percent higher than in the comparable period in 2019. “Due to climate change, these regions may experience greater demand in the summer season in the coming years. expect, which means that the problem of ‘overtourism’ will also affect destinations in the Alps,” says Wifo.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
