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Tourism as a lifeline: Austria celebrates the World Tourism Day 2025!
On the World Tourism Day 2024, State Secretary Zehetner emphasizes the central role of tourism for Austria's economy and society.
Tourism as a lifeline: Austria celebrates the World Tourism Day 2025!
The World Tourism Day will be celebrated on September 27, 2025, a date that has been launched by the world tourism organization (UNGO) since 1980. The aim of this day is to raise awareness of the social, cultural, political and economic values of travel. The motto for 2024 is "Tourism and Sustainable Transformation", which underlines the relevance of sustainable practices in the tourism sector and focuses on future -oriented development. In 2024, Austria experienced a tourism boom with 46.7 million arrivals and 154.3 million overnight stays, which exceeds the key figures of the previous year and reached the highest level of 2019.
The expenses of the guests amounted to an impressive 35.9 billion euros, which corresponds to a share of 6.2 percent in the gross domestic product. The Tourism State Secretary Elisabeth Zehetner emphasizes the essential role of tourism for the economy and regional development. Despite the increasing number of visitors, the companies face challenges, such as increasing personnel, food and energy costs, which means that the earnings situation of the companies deteriorates.
Tourism acceptance in Austria
The tourism acceptance balance (TAS) shows a positive balance: According to statistics Austria, this is +38 percentage points. 45 percent of the population express themselves positively about tourism, while only a small minority is critical. Zehetner emphasizes the need to continuously develop confidence in the tourism sector. National differences in acceptance can be observed, with Vienna (+48), Carinthia (+43) and Styria (+41), which are perceived particularly positively. In contrast, Upper Austria (+32), Lower Austria (+30) and Tyrol (+36) are below the national average.
Another finding shows that 73 percent of the population attach great relevance to tourism for social and economic areas. 65 percent find the number of tourists appropriately, while 15 percent classify the amount of guest as "rather a lot" and think 6 percent that it is "too much". This data is part of the revision of the nationwide master plan for tourism, which is known as "Plan T" and is based on the current challenges.
Sustainability in tourism
The discussion about sustainability is becoming increasingly important in tourism. Travelers will be more conscious of the effects of their travel activities and tend to make their vacation more sustainably. Trend forecasts by 2030 show that topics such as "environment and climate" as well as "sustainable travel, slow tourism and deceleration" are becoming increasingly important. In 2022, a market volume in eco-tourism of $ 185 billion was predicted, which is due to increase to around $ 300 billion by 2026.
It is striking that 33 percent of German travelers are already planning travel from ecological perspective and classified 40 percent sustainability as increasingly important. Internationally, travelers are also ready to pay for sustainable options: Around 60 percent would like to stay in sustainable accommodation at least once a year. The pressure on the tourism industry is growing to introduce more sustainable practices in order to meet the requirements of travelers. These developments are linked to the need for a robust and future -oriented tourism strategy, which demands both economic resilience and ecological sustainability.