Tourist Season 1990: Recent Developments and Prospects

The lack of snow in the winter of 1989/90 has resulted in a disappointing performance of the tourism sector. The number of overnight stays dropped by more than 3 percent compared to the previous winter season; receipts from foreign tourists (adjusted for price changes) stagnated. Hungarian shoppers also stayed away from Austria after the introduction of stricter customs regulations. In the first half of the summer season the number of foreign tourists was about the same as in 1989, for August and the following months demand is expected to pick up as the economic boom in the most important countries of origin favours higher travel expenditures and some of the travel plans that were abandoned in the winter will now be realized.