Summer Season Figures:

- Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Tirol was having in average 12,3 million tourists and 50 million overnights staying somehow equally distributed between winter and summer seasons. 

- Tirol started to re-open borders and hotels by May. Compared to March when the lock down has started in Austria and all the tourists have been invited to leave the country - and it was still the high-season for skiing in Tirol – the situation in the summer season was not as dramatic as expected.

- From May until July there was a constant improvement and in August there was a drop of only -7,29% compared to the previous year. This was led mainly by the high performance of rural areas and the presence of domestic and European (mainly German) visitors who were not allowed or confident to travel to other sea destinations.

- The sectors suffering the most were the city and MICE Tourism. The major loss was from outbound markets – and especially the leading ones from Tirol, of US and China.

- Figures about sustainable tourism along the summer are antithetical: less arrivals, longer average staying, reduced use of public transports.

Main challenges for the future winter season

Winter season is considered as a big challenge. Cases are raising and that is affecting already:

- The planning and booking for the season (especially from UK and Scandinavian markets) with a trend for last-minute bookings
- Loss in customer confidence

Measures to revert situation

To face those challenges, Tirol is currently:

- Implementing safety and healthy guidelines for the winter season 2020/2021
- Communication of those health and safety measurements
- Focusing on safety and leaving aside marketing for the moment

Regional expectations from the EU Recovery Measures

Tirol is asking two kinds of requests to the EU Level:

Covid-19 related:

- Uniform and transparent approach on a EU level for criterias and implementing travel warnings
- Regional breakdown concerning travel warnings (not on a state or county level)
- General safety and health guidelines on a EU not state level
- Helping to secure customer confidence

Generally

- Acknowledge tourism as a vital economic as well cultural exchange sector
- Support sustainable tourism, such as public transport, nature reserves and parcs, sustainable accommodation providers and leisure facilities

Check the full Power point presented at the NECSTouR Extraordinary AGM 2020
Check the full Report