A further increase was expected for June. “We currently have an occupancy rate of around 70 percent,” said Alexander Ipp, state chairman of the Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV Vienna), to Radio Vienna. These are the numbers that are currently being reported.
For June, Ipp expected an occupancy rate of “about 72.73 percent”. The hotel industry is thus “on the right track back into the summer season”. In general, bookings are always being made at short notice, “because there is still a bit of unrest in the market as far as travel conditions are concerned”. This has “manifested itself a bit in people’s minds” over the past two years.
“First tips” for everything to do with congresses
The Vienna Tourist Board also reports “stable growth in bookings with the first peaks” for larger congresses such as that of the European Geoscientists (EGU) with over 7,000 participants at the end of May in the Austria Center. As early as April, for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, there were more than one million overnight stays, which is two thirds of the level of 2019, according to Vienna Tourism to Radio Vienna.
Three more congresses with more than 5,000 participants are expected in June – the congress of hematologists at Messe Wien, that of neurologists at the Austria Center and the congress “Critical Communications World 2022” at Messe Wien.
Significant increase compared to the previous year
While room occupancy in Vienna’s hotels was 18 percent in January, it was 40 percent in March and 60 percent in April, according to figures from the hoteliers’ association. Data for May will not be available until mid-June. In any case, hoteliers and Vienna Tourism are optimistic. According to Vienna Tourism, “an equally pleasing result is expected”.
For comparison: In 2019, according to ÖHV Vienna, the occupancy rates were between 84 and 88 percent from April to July, and then even 95 percent in August. In 2021, however, a completely different picture: it was almost 13 percent in May, 25 percent in June, 38 percent in July and 56 percent in August.
There are no guests from China and Japan
At the moment there is a lack of guests from China and also from Japan, because the flight routes from Japan had to be diverted due to the Ukraine war and were therefore significantly longer and more expensive. There are also fewer tourists from the USA and Australia, but not to the same extent. According to the ÖHV, there is an upward trend in US tourists in particular.
The number of guests from Israel has increased significantly and is already above the pre-pandemic level, according to Vienna Tourism. The reason: There are significantly more flight connections. The main travel season for guests from the Arab countries is summer, so it remains to be seen how the numbers will develop here, it was said.
Personnel situation remains “tense”
As far as the personnel situation in the tourism industry is concerned, according to Ipp it remains “tense”: “We are already seeing the massive impact of the pandemic on the employee market. In general, we are currently lacking around 30,000 employees in the hotel industry across Austria. Of course, that extends far into every company.”