It’s January 2020. Austria experiences the strongest month for overnight stays from the Asia-Pacific region in its history. And this, on the back of a huge year for Australian travel to Austria, in which more than 150,000 Aussies visited the country for some 400,000 combined overnights. We know what came next…
But three years later, the optimism has returned for Austrian tourism authorities – and it’s in no small part due to Australian travellers.
Sitting down with Karryon, Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) Asia-Pacific Head of Markets Emanuel Lehner-Telic says Australia is now the largest tourism source market in the Asia-Pacific region.
And while that will likely change when China returns to international travel en masse, it’s still a testament to the affection that Australians have for the small European nation.
Even prior to the pandemic, Australia was on a similar level to Japan and Korea, so the equal second-biggest source market after China in the APAC region.
Lehner-Telic adds that Australians are also staying longer than before, and going “deeper”, meaning exploring beyond the usual Austrian bounds.
But the majority of Australians are still staying on-piste (to use a skiing expression) when travelling to Austria and heading for its high mountains.
With some of the world’s best skiing on offer, you can hardly blame us. In a way, it’s like telling visitors to Australia, that there’s more to the country than our beaches.
But just like in Australia, there is much more to Austria than its natural attributes.
More than mountains
Most importantly, there are the cultural destinations, led by capital Vienna and the city of Salzburg (most well-known for Mozart and the Sound of Music).
For instance, in Vienna, Lehner-Telic says there are concerts virtually every night. Music and culture is part of our national identity, he explains.
“After the evening news on TV, there’s a special section about what’s going on in culture.”
Austria is also a small country, so “you can pack a lot of different styles of your holiday into one itinerary”.
In summer, after experiencing some culture in the capital, “you can go to one of the wine regions just outside of Vienna; so you’ve got a wine and food holiday. And then you continue on to the mountains and go hiking”.
The ANTO APAC boss also talks up Austria’s location at the “heart of Europe”. With so many neighbouring countries, he says Austria was a great starting point to explore much of the region, especially by rail.
Yet despite all of this, it is still Austria’s slopes that lure the lion’s share of visitors.
Europe’s top spot for winter holidays
According to Lehner-Telic, Austria owns a whopping 50 per cent of the share of “winter tourism” in Europe.
Key to this is a product called the Ski Plus City Pass, which combines 13 ski resorts with sightseeing around the city of Innsbruck, arguably Austria’s most famous ski town.
“So you can stay in Innsbruck, let’s say two or three days, in different skiing resorts because the weather’s beautiful; but then you get tired or it snows and visibility’s not good. So you stay in the city and do some sightseeing,” the Bangkok-based Austrian said.
On top of this, visitors can also experience “very unique” Austrian hospitality.
“Pretty much all the hotels in the skiing resorts are family-owned”, even in the bigger centres, he adds.
Outlook and trade focus
Lehner-Telic said by the end of 2022, international visitor numbers on the year were down just 10 per cent on pre-pandemic numbers. And he expects 2019 levels to be reached again after a “great fourth quarter” (October to December 2022) hopefully by the end of 2023.
As part of its renewed tourism drive, Austria will focus on the Australian travel trade. An important element of this is the Austria Resource Hub, which focuses on winter in Austria including skiing, snowboarding, white Christmas and Christmas markets.
ANTO will also be hosting a series of travel industry roadshow events in Sydney and Melbourne in the week commencing 23 October 2023.
So expect even more travel advisors and Australian travellers to be hitting the Austrian slopes (and much more) next season.
For more information on ANTO, visit its website.
Late last year, six lucky Australian travel advisors jetted off for a six-night, all-inclusive Austria famil as winners of the Austria Resource Hub promotion.
