Possible Effects of the Financial and Economic Crisis on Tourism in Austria

This estimate of the effects of the economic and financial crisis on the international and Austrian tourism industry takes into account that demand for tourism services (being "non-necessary" consumer goods contrasting to "necessary" ones such as food, heating, lighting, rent) is disproportionately affected whenever a serious economic crisis erupts. While international demand will go into a tailspin in 2009, the decline of Austrian demand for foreign travel (tourism exports in real terms reduced by 3.5 percent) appears to be less precipitous than the average of the euro zone. In 2010 tourism exports are expected to shrink only slightly (–0.5 percent).