Austria

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. Data for 2021 and 2022 was also impacted by COVID-19, more information can be found on the About IPS page.

Due to the above, the latest full year IPS data below is from 2019. You can access data detailed data from 2020 onwards on the latest annual page.

Visitor characteristics

  • Business visitors are about four 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)
  • 62% 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

Measure2022
International tourism expenditure (US$bn) (2019)11.6
Global rank for international tourism expenditure (2019)30
Number of outbound visits (m)14.0
Most visited destinationItaly

Key demographic and economic data

Measure2022
Population (m)9.0
GDP per capita PPP (US$)66,886
Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)1.3
Annual GDP growth (%)4.9

Inbound visits to Britain from Austria

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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

Measure2023
Weekly aircraft departures141
Weekly seat capacity25,905
Airports with direct routes in Austria4
Airports with direct routes in Britain16
  • Virtually all visits to Britain are by air
  • Seat capacity is highly seasonal due to outbound winter sports travel from Britain to Austria
  • 58% of seat capacity serves the Vienna to London corridor, in 2023
  • Following the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled seat capacity on non-stop flights from Austria to the UK has recovered to 95% of 2019 levels in 2023
  • Those who fly back to Austria from Britain pay £13 in Air Passenger Duty if flying economy