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09. 03. 12. - 15:00

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09. 03. 12. - 15:00

Tourism industry forced to reconsider strategy

The Austrian Tourism Marketing Agency (ÖW) spends seven million Euros in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) this year.

ÖW chairwoman Petra Stolba said at the ITB, the world’s biggest tourism fair, in German capital Berlin that her organisation would focus on the CEE region due to its enormous potential. Stolba added that China and India were considered as promising markets as well.

The number of overnight stays in Austria by vacationers from most CEE countries rose strongly in the past months. Hotels recorded 35.1 per cent more overnight stays by guests from the Czech Republic in November 2011 than in the same month of the year before. Russians’ booked 28.5 per cent more overnight stays in Austria at the same time. Especially Tyrol and Vienna are popular destinations for people from the Eurasian country.

Stolba revealed already last year that ÖW planned to become more active in Brazil, India but also Croatia and Slovakia. "Our new internationalisation campaign features 12 countries," she said. Austrian tourism businesspeople hope to benefit from the positive economic development of Brazil and India while Croatia and Slovakia were identified as important future markets due to a rising interest in skiing.

Austrian hotels and guesthouses feature 1.1 million beds. More than 62 million overnight stays were registered between May and September of last year – more than ever since 1995 when around 65.6 million overnight stays were recorded across the country. Austrian hoteliers are forced to come up with a new strategy as more and more Germans opt for holidays in their home country.

Germans have been represented more strongly than any other people among tourists in Austria since the end of the war. Austrian hotel bosses registered two-digit declines for overnight stays by Germans in several months of the past three years. "One in three of all holidays booked by Germans lead them to destinations within Germany," Stolba said yesterday (Thurs).

Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner suggested that focusing on making aware of attractive holidays along the Danube River in Austria and the country’s cities would help in attracting Germans. Mitterlehner, who attended the ITB too, admitted that Austria had a "slightly dusted and dull" reputation in Germany.

Statistics show that Germans were responsible for 47 million overnight stays in Austria last year, down sharply from 2000 when 52 million overnight stays by Germans were registered. Mitterlehner said tourism businesses must accept that Germans would no longer come to Austria with the whole family for a three-week vacation. "The average period declined to four to five days. People are considering more carefully than ever before how to spend their holiday budget," the economy minister said.

Mitterlehner encouraged winter sport destinations to come with more new marketing initiatives such as a recent one called "learn to ski in three days". Experts are convinced that the project could help to increase the number of overnight stays by people from non-mountainous countries. At the same time, Austrian skiing destination managers and consumer price watchdogs are feuding about rising ski lift pass prices.

A recent check showed that comparably small winter sport regions charge less than 300 Euros for weekly passes for a whole family while their world famous rivals ask for more than twice this sum for the same type of tickets. "It seems no one takes into account that we have invested 5.6 billion Euros in the past 10 years," the Austrian Association of Ropeway Industries said when being asked to comment the price gaps.

Vienna Times

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