Austrian Tourism is Attracting More Visitors

In 2024, global tourism finally recovered from the pandemic-induced slump: with approximately 1.5 billion international arrivals (+12.4 percent compared to 2023), the 2019 level was restored. In Austria, arrivals and overnight stays in 2024 were slightly above pre-crisis levels for the first time (+1.1 percent), and the average length of stay per accommodation returned to the pre-crisis value of 3.3 nights after having increased against the long-term trend from 2020 to 2023. With the completion of the catch-up process, pronounced regional differences emerged: Vienna again acted as a growth engine with a 9.3 percent increase in overnight stays, while Carinthia and Lower Austria recorded slight declines and Salzburg stagnated. Post-pandemic recovery was also seasonally uneven and was markedly more dynamic in summer (summer 2024 +3.3 percent compared to summer 2019, provisional summer 2025 +2.2 percent compared to the previous year), whereas the 2024-25 winter season level still re-mained slightly below that of the 2018-19 winter (–0.7 percent). For 2025, WIFO expects a renewed increase in overnight stays, but a slowdown in growth.