News & Stories

Every second Austrian hotel is now open longer than it was just a few years ago. Generous opening times generate more added value. More and more businesses are switching from seasonal to year-round operation. Austria is thus becoming an all-year destination.

Instead of family-run businesses, a billion-franc foreign investment has been driving the development of the Swiss village of Andermatt – for 20 years now. Growth looks different. There are still major obstacles and fears of "cold beds", given the growing skyline in the Alpine valley.

Tourism in Germany can look back on a successful year: turnover is 12% up on the previous year and the number of travellers rose by 8%. However, there are also pain points such as mass tourism, the planned amendment of the Package Travel Directive at European level and cuts to flight schedules at medium-sized airports in response to increased charges.

Does new work push the workation and bleisure boom? Universities as well as tourism organisations see a growing tourism market with respective demand for this. At the same time, there are already some workation providers, which see much more than a desk and a strong WiFi in this trend.

There is still no reason to celebrate, but the mood in the Alpine tourism industry is significantly better than last year. This was the result of a recent survey comparing Austria, Germany and South Tyrol. 

Austria's hotel industry believes that it now has the problem of Airbnb and similar platforms largely under control. The role of short-term rentals is still a legal grey zone. The current focus is on legal controls and penalties as a deterrent. The same applies outside the cities regarding the discussion about illegal holiday homes.

The Olympic flame has gone out - time to take stock. In Paris, the surrounding area and the other host cities, the Olympics ensured good turnover in the hotels. The hosts in the capital had to compensate for the lack of tourists before the event and in some cases had to adjust their prices.

170,000 Taylor Swift fans put Vienna's hotel industry in high spirits. But then, the cancellation of all three concerts hit hard. Threats of terrorism instead of Swift songs. And a fantastic reaction: the city and its inhabitants saved the mood and strengthened the sense of community.

The majority of Swiss people are positive towards tourism in their own country and consider it an important economic driver. Only a small group of Swiss people are concerned about the negative effects.

The Olympics seem to have thrown a monkey wrench into the Parisian hotel sector. Of course, it was anticipated that the weeks leading up to this summer's Olympics would see a drop in the normal level of tourist arrivals and hotel performance. But it dropped drastically.