Due to the corona pandemic, Austrians traveled significantly less than usual between July and September. Vacation trips, including visits to relatives and acquaintances, slumped by 16.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
The number of vacation trips thus fell from 7 to 5.9 million and that of travelers by a fifth (-20.6 percent) to 3.4 million. Domestic travel, however, rose sharply, according to Statistics Austria.
Fewer vacation trips due to corona pandemic
The number of main vacation trips with at least four overnight stays slumped by 31.2 percent to 2.8 million. The trend toward short trips with one to three overnight stays, on the other hand, was strengthened during the Corona crisis. They increased by 4.6 percent to 3.1 million. The share of short-holiday trips has thus overtaken that of main vacation trips and stood at 51.7 percent in the third quarter (2019: 41.4 percent).
The travel motive of “active vacation” (2020: 28.6 percent, 2019: 17.4 percent) increased, pushing “recreational vacation” (2020: 21.3 percent, 2019: 19.5 percent) from first to third place in the ranking of the most popular summer travel purposes for the first time. This was followed, as in the previous summer in second place, by “visiting relatives and acquaintances” (+6.6 percentage points to 25.5 percent, 2019: 18.9 percent). The share of “cultural and city breaks” decreased by 8.3 percentage points to 6.8 percent (2019: 15.1 percent), and the motive “beach and seaside stays” also lost importance (-7.6 percentage points to 11.0 percent; 2019: 18.6 percent).
Domestic travel increased by a third
While domestic travel increased by almost a third (+31.6 percent) to 4.2 million vacation trips, the number of vacation trips abroad halved by 56.4 percent to 1.7 million (2019: 3.8 million). Italy, undisputedly the most popular foreign destination for the Austrian resident population, registered a decrease of 38.7 percent to 0.5 million vacation trips. The share of Italy trips in all foreign trips nevertheless increased by 9.1 percentage points compared to the same period last year (share in all foreign vacation trips in 2020: 31.3 percent, 2019: 22.2 percent). The Corona summer cost Croatia second place in the share of vacation trips from Austria. Germany also saw 5.3 percent fewer vacation trips compared to the same period last year, but Germany’s share of all foreign trips increased by 14.7 percentage points (2020 share: 27.3 percent; 2019: 12.6 percent). Croatia, which registered almost three quarters fewer vacation trips (-72.9 percent), lost 5.2 percentage points (2020 share: 13.9 percent; 2019: 8.7 percent).
- hp, Source: APA, picture: APA
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