Austria achieves record visitor figures as UK arrivals top 800,000
Annual visitor arrivals to Austria topped 30 million for the first time in 2006, a 2.7% increase over the previous year.
Travellers to the country from the UK grew by 5.9% to 802,000 visitors. Irish visitor overnights saw a dramatic increase of 30% from 2005 with overnight stays reaching 330,000.
Regional and city numbers were also on the upswing last year due to a number of year-long celebrations such as the 2006 Mozart anniversary year which boosted arrival numbers to Vienna by 6.9%.
Despite the unusually warm temperatures that saw a slow start to winter across much of Europe, UK arrivals to Austria up to the end of January 2007 rose by 10% from last winter.
Austrian ski resorts are now reporting very good to excellent real snow conditions it appears that the 2007 winter numbers forecast will remain strong, according to the Austrian National Tourist Office.
New scheduled flights by British Airways, Ryanair and Thomsonfly to Salzburg and Klagenfurt should provide much needed capacity to increase summer as well as weekend break business.
ANTO UK & Ireland director Oskar Hinteregger said: “We are currently managing to outperform the market and have attracted an extra 100.000 visitors from the UK over the last three years. Arrivals from the Irish Republic have almost doubled in this period.
“Whilst the winter sport and city break segments are traditionally strong, it is particularly pleasing for us to see that the diversification of our summer product is paying dividends.
“The marketing push of outdoor, spa and golf breaks as well as last year’s UK launch of ‘Kinderhotels’ is widening Austria’s appeal and attracting new holiday makers.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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