WIFO Remembers Egon Smeral

Egon Smeral worked at WIFO from 1974 to 2015 and devoted a significant part of his academic career to the economic analysis of tourism. In doing so, he had a lasting impact on tourism economics at the institute and played a key role in establishing tourism as an important subject of empirical economic research. Throughout his long career, he combined academic expertise with a keen understanding of the practical and economic policy challenges facing an industry of particular importance to Austria.

"His analyses forecasting and explaining international tourism demand were of particular significance. In doing so, Egon Smeral laid important foundations for assessing economic developments in tourism and for strategic decisions in politics and business. His research was always driven by the aim not only to capture economic relationships with scientific precision, but also to make them useful for practical tourism policy," said WIFO tourism economist Oliver Fritz.

Egon Smeral held leading positions and was active in academic networks in the field of tourism research, both nationally and internationally, and held numerous visiting professorships in tourism economics around the world.

Upon reaching retirement age in 2015, Egon Smeral brought his long-standing career at WIFO to a close. He continued his academic work as a professor at MODUL Private University in Vienna. He continued to publish and remain committed to the field of tourism economics right up until the final years of his life.

Our thoughts are with his family, his loved ones, his friends and all his colleagues who were close to him.