Heat fails to deter Carinthia’s summer visitors

Carinthia’s tourism sector is satisfied with the summer season so far, with bookings rising sharply after a strong June and a weaker first half of July, ORF reported. Visitors are booking later and staying for shorter periods, but many are returning several times a year.

Georg Overs, managing director of Region Villach Tourism GmbH, said the hot weather had brought many short-term enquiries and maintained strong advance bookings. “Now every bed is in demand,” he told ORF, adding that the outlook for the coming weeks was also very good.

Some visitors would prefer slightly cooler temperatures, but many value Carinthia’s cooler nights and combination of lakes and mountains, particularly when compared with rainy weather or higher temperatures at home.

Overs said international guests tended to book further in advance. Visitors from eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic and Poland, had rediscovered Carinthia as a destination. Germany and Austria remained the region’s most important markets, while the biggest increases were coming from Poland, the Czech Republic and the Benelux countries.

Klaus Ehrenbrandtner, head of Carinthia’s tourism marketing organisation, described the summer as good in an interview with ORF’s “Kärnten heute” programme. He said arrivals had risen by 6 percent in the first half of the year and overnight stays by 4 percent. More visitors from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg were expected after school holidays began in those German states at the end of July and beginning of August.

About one-third of summer visitors now book their trip one month or less before travelling, Ehrenbrandtner said. The average summer stay is around four nights and is declining as people take more holidays each year. The tourism sector wants to turn summer visitors into winter visitors and encourage them to return to Carinthia more often.

A tourism reform plans to consolidate 125 tourism associations into nine. Marketing for individual offers is to be transferred to Carinthia’s central tourism marketing organisation, which Ehrenbrandtner said would improve efficiency and make offers more visible and bookable across more sales channels.

The local overnight tax has also been adjusted and indexed, rising from the previous maximum of 2.70 euros to a standard 4.50 euros, according to Ehrenbrandtner.