Austria

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) was suspended on 16 March 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic until the start of 2021. The ONS have made every effort to produce high-quality estimates for the periods when IPS data is not being collected but have not been able to produce a full set of results. See the 2020 inbound page for more information.

The 2021 data is ‘incomplete’ as Eurotunnel data was unavailable for the entire year. In addition, interviewing at Dover restarted from Q3 2021 and pseudo records for the Irish land border were also removed in 2021. More info can be found on the 2021 inbound page.

For 2022, Eurotunnel data was also unavailable for the first half of the year. Interviewing at Eurostar was not affected by Covid-19 restrictions in 2021 or the first half of 2022. The ONS restarted IPS interviews at all ports from July 2022. The latest data can be found on the monthly and quarterly pages.

Due to the above, the latest full year IPS data below is from 2019.

Visitor characteristics

Business visitors are more than three times more likely to be male than female
63% of holiday, 91% of visiting friends and relations (VFR) and virtually all business visitors are making a repeat visit to Britain (excluding British expats, within ten years)
77% visitors are Austrian nationals
93% of departing visitors (excluding British expats) say they are either ‘likely’ or ‘extremely likely' to recommend a visit to Britain

Popular activities

Dining in a restaurant

Visited a Pub

Went Shopping

Global context


Measure	2019
International tourism expenditure (US$bn)	11.6
Global rank for international tourism expenditure	30
Number of outbound visits (m)	17.4
Most visited destination	Italy

Key demographic and economic data


Measure	2022
Population (m)	9.0
GDP per capita PPP (US$)	65,439
Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)	1.2
Annual GDP growth (%)	4.3

Austria Market Snapshot (PDF, 490KB)

Austria Market Profile (PDF, 996KB)

Find out where visitors from Austria reside in their own country (Excel, 176KB, Published 2019)

Read about the preferences of Europeans towards tourism (PDF, 1.65MB, Published March 2015)

Exchange rate

1 GBP = 1.1345 EUR

As of 30 March 2023

Retrieved from the Bank of England

Inbound visits to Britain from Austria

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OVERVIEW OF UK VISITOR STATISTICS {{activeYear.name}}

Number of visits

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Total expenditure (GBP)

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Total nights spent

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Average length of stay (Nights)

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Average spend per visit (GBP)

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What Austrians think about Britain

Austrians strongly associate Britain with heritage and culture
Just over one-in-three associate Britain with scenic natural beauty, but twice this number associate the attribute with Australia and Ireland
Very few Austrians consider Britain as a 'relaxing' or 'romantic' destination
94% of Austrians feel either 'Very welcome' or 'welcome' in Britain (2017)
Britain is perceived to be only marginally more expensive for a week long holiday than is France

Caring for visitors

Austrians like to plan in advance and detailed information on all activities planned is very important
Especially when on a touring holiday Austrians are usually looking for accommodation with character rather than standard anonymous hotel rooms
The environment and sustainability issues are very important to many Austrians and this may influence their choice of accommodation
Austrians tend to eat breakfast early and are not used to having the option of a cooked breakfast
Organic food is very popular and Austrians appreciate having this option when on holiday

The leisure & travel trade

Austria still has a fairly traditional trade structure and travel agencies (either owned by the major tourism groups or independent) play a fairly strong role
The large tour operators research their main season programmes between April and June. Some may visit Britain during this time to contract accommodation and visit new attractions/regions/ products to be included
The vast majority of trade is based in Vienna

Access to Britain from Austria


Measure	2022
Weekly aircraft departures	117
Weekly seat capacity	21,467
Airports with direct routes in Austria	4
Airports with direct routes in Britain	17

Virtually all visits to Britain are by air
Seat capacity is highly seasonal due to outbound winter sports travel from Britain to Austria
59% of seat capacity served the Vienna to London corridor, in 2022
Following the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled seat capacity from Austria to the UK in 2022 recovered to 78% of 2019 levels
Those who fly back to Austria from Britain pay £13 in Air Passenger Duty if flying economy

Markets

Austria