The number of overnight stays in Austria presented yesterday – with a strong increase in February – immediately provoked dissatisfied murmurs in the Vienna city hotel industry. “You can’t lump all the federal states together,” says Markus Grießler, head of the tourism division at the Vienna Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, although the figures for February are pleasing across Austria, there is still a lot of room for improvement in Vienna. While nationwide overnight stays have reached more than 76 percent of the 2019 level, many hotel beds in Vienna are still empty, according to the Economic Chamber’s broadcast.
Aids expire
Only 43 percent of the number of overnight stays in February 2019 was achieved in Vienna. The comeback in the federal government can be explained by the winter season – February is traditionally the busiest month of the winter season – and therefore well-booked ski resorts. Something that Vienna naturally cannot come up with.
Grießler took this as an opportunity to demand another relief package for all companies in the tourism industry. “Every empty hotel bed also means an empty table in a restaurant, fewer tickets sold at the sights and fewer trips in taxis and coaches,” says Grießler. What would be desired would be easing of the fees – for example for the sidewalk cafés or the air tax – as well as an extension of the federal aid, which expires at the end of March.
