Sotour Austria
The Sotour Austria Hotelbetriebs GmbH , as Sotour Austria operates, is a tourist enterprises of the Austrian Trade Union Federation .
history
Foundation and expansion
Sotour was founded in 1953 as an association for social tourism . The aim was to provide workers, especially low-income families with large families, with affordable summer retreat.
In addition to the ÖGB, the Chamber of Labor and other organizations were also founding members . The first president was the then Federal Minister for Social Administration, Karl Maisel . The association offered vouchers through the company's works councils, which guaranteed a discount on accommodation and transport for the aforementioned group of people.
In 1958, the ÖGB established its first holiday village on Ossiacher See and transferred the operation to the association. Further plants followed. In 1959 a bungalow settlement on Maltschacher See , in 1968 a campsite on Hafnersee and later other properties were acquired.
International travel
The idea of social tourism (albeit burdened by the strength of the joyful experiences of National Socialism) was also popular outside of Austria. In the 1950s, the Bureau international du tourisme social (BITS) was founded as an international umbrella organization. The Austrian Association for Social Tourism was a founding member and for a long time provided the President and Vice-President of BITS.
As a result of international cooperation, air travel and self-drive trips abroad were offered from the end of the 1950s. To this end, the association founded its own travel agency.
Conversion into a travel company
With the crisis of the public service enterprises of the 80s, the conviction prevailed that the subsidiaries of the trade unions had to be run in a market-oriented manner. With the election of Günter Weninger, the head of the ÖGB Finance and Asset Management as the new President in 1987, the association was restructured into a commercial enterprise and the name was changed to Sotour Austria. In 2002 the name was changed to a Hotelbetriebs GmbH.
offer
Sotour's offer developed with the increasing purchasing power of its clientele and the needs of the owner, so that today, as a union-owned limited company , it not only has campsites but also apartment complexes and hotels as well as conference rooms . In addition, Sotour operates today as a travel agency with a comprehensive range. The two former holiday villages at Maltschacher See and Ossiacher See as well as the Seehotel at Hafnersee are now operated by Sonnenhotels Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG .
In 2015, the Sotour Austria Hotelbetriebs GmbH and the Maximilian Group formed the Sotour Maximilian Group , which operates four hotels as of March 2016:
- Hotel Tirolerhof (25 rooms)
- Hotel Maximilian (38 rooms)
- Hotel Mozart
- Hotel & Palais Strudlhof Vienna (81 rooms)