Tourism in Tyrol

The Tourism is a key economic factor in the Austrian province Tyrol , the beginnings go back to the 18th century, the first educational travelers. In recent years, tourism has proven to be a crisis-proof industry despite difficult socio-political and economic framework conditions, as the arrival and overnight stay statistics (see below) show. In many valleys in Tyrol, tourism forms the livelihood of the population, it also secures income and jobs in trade, industry and agriculture.

history

Economical meaning

In 2015, around 135 million overnight stays were registered in Austria, a third of all holiday overnight stays (45.6 million) were in Tyrol. The three districts with the highest number of overnight stays in Tyrol are Schwaz , Landeck and Kitzbühel . The municipality in Tyrol with the highest number of overnight stays is by far Sölden .

Almost 70% of the pre-delivery and pre-service requirements necessary for the production of accommodation and catering services come from Tyrol itself, approx. 18% from the other Austrian federal states. Tourism generates around 8.4 billion euros in sales in Tyrol, 6.7 billion euros result from overnight tourism, 1.7 billion euros from day tourism. The direct tourism gross value added in Tyrol is around 4.5 billion euros; this is 17.5% of the total gross value added in Tyrol (cf. for Austria, the share of direct value added effects of tourism in GDP is 5.3%).

In Tyrol, every third euro is earned in tourism, in Austria it is every sixth. Tyrolean tourism employs around 60,000 people; almost every fourth full-time job in Tyrol is created by the tourism and leisure industry.

statistics

In the tourism year 2015 (November 1, 2014 to October 31, 2015) 10.9 million guest arrivals and 45.6 million overnight stays were registered in Tyrol. Winter is the stronger season with 5.6 million arrivals and 26 million overnight stays. The average length of stay of guests in Tyrol fell from 5.0 to 4.2 days in the last ten tourism years. This is due to the international trend towards shorter and shorter vacations. In winter, guests spend an average of one day (4.7 days) longer in Tyrol than in summer (3.7 days). With half of all overnight stays, Germany is by far the most important source market for Tyrolean tourism, followed by the Netherlands and Austria. These top 3 markets of origin are responsible for 70% of all overnight stays.

Structure and organizations in the Tyrolean tourism system

There are 34 tourism associations, which were established as independent bodies under public law by ordinance of the state government and are subject to the supervision of the same. Their main tasks are in the area of marketing, the creation and maintenance of tourist infrastructures, guest services and association administration. The budget is mainly based on the revenue from the compulsory contributions from the entrepreneurs and from the residence tax (overnight stay tax) from the guests. The annual entrepreneur's contribution is determined according to the following four criteria: internal Tyrolean turnover, proximity of the company to the tourism industry, tourism intensity of the destination or region and the amount of the so-called per thousand rate (multiplier set independently by the association). The amount of the tourist tax is in the range of EUR 0.55 to EUR 3.00 per night. The mandatory tourism tax for all Tyrolean businesses goes back to the State Foreign Traffic Act of March 24, 1927. The organs of a tourism association are the general assembly, the supervisory board, the executive board and the chairman. Each tourism association is headed by a managing director and a chairman. All entrepreneurs who have their headquarters or a permanent establishment in the association's territory and who directly or indirectly generate economic benefits from tourism in Tyrol are members of the tourism association.

Most of the hotels and restaurants in Tyrolean tourism (22,000 businesses) are owner-managed or family-run businesses. In total, Tyrol has around 340,000 guest beds, of which every second bed is used in the hotel industry. The other categories are holiday apartments, private accommodation and other accommodation. The highest occupancy is in the upscale hotel industry in winter.