A Tourism Satellite Account for Lower Austria. The Economics, Methodology and Main Results for 2006

Tourism is of considerable importance to the economy of Lower Austria: according to the regional Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) developed for Lower Austria by Statistics Austria and WIFO, total spending on holiday and business trips, visits to relatives and friends, and stays in weekend houses and second homes made up € 2.69 billion in 2006. Of this sum, 67.7 percent was spent by domestic travellers, 20.0 percent by foreign guests and 12.3 percent by Austrians in their weekend houses and second homes. Tourism created € 1.14 billion in direct value added, corresponding to a 2.9 percent share of the gross regional product in purely mathematical terms. Based on the input-output table for 2000, direct and indirect value added by tourism to the totality of the Lower Austrian economy was 6.7 percent in 2006 (unchanged vis-à-vis 2005).