!!!Tourismus
Tourism is an important factor of the Austrian economy. Not only
Austria´s beautiful landscape but also its rich culture attract
visitors from Europe and overseas countries every year. In 1993
25 million visitors stayed in Austria (127 million overnight
stays); 18 million were foreign visitors (96.8 million
overnight stays).
\\
In Austria the winter season and the summer season have about the same
importance for tourism. In 1993 the foreign exchange earnings made by
the tourist trade amounted to 156.2 billion ATS, 33.4 %
of the total export revenue and 7.4 % of the country´s GDP.
Tourism is of essential importance to Austria and tourism is the most
important economic factor compared to other OECD countries. In 1992
earnings from tourism in Austria were 20,636 ATS per head,
Switzerland was second with 12,329 ATS per head. About 10 %
of all employed and self-employed Austrians work in tourism. Tourism
is important for equalising regional imbalances by bringing in more
people to live in the tourist regions and by increasing their quality
of life. Moreover, tourism makes a major contribution to offsetting
Austria´s trade deficit: in 1993 the adverse foreign trade
balance of 97.7 billion ATS was more than offset by earnings
from foreign tourist trade (by 159.9 %). Earnings from tourism
(61 billion ATS) today make up for 62,5 % of the
deficit in the Austrian trade balance. Tourism is also of great value
for the current account.
\\
In 1993 Austrian offered a great variety of leisure, sport and other
facilities: about 3,500 funicular railways and lifts, 400 skiing
schools, 22,000 km of ski slopes, 8,300 skiing instructors and
1,270 skiing huts and restaurants. There were also about 1,250 outdoor
swimming pools and bathing beaches on the lakes, 900 indoor swimming
pools, 60 sailing schools and 100 surf schools, about 5000 tennis
courts and 50 golf courses, about 600 villages and towns where
visitors can go fishing and 500 with riding establishments, and about
10,000 km of cycling paths and 50,000 km of marked hiking
paths. On August 31, 1993 (date of survey) Austria had
1.23 million beds for tourists: 680,000 in hotels and guest
houses, 270,000 in private quarters and 280,000 in other facilities.
24 % of the hotel beds were in luxury and first class
establishments (four and five star category), 35 % in good hotels
or guesthouses (three star category) and 41% in hotels and guesthouses
of average standard (two or one star category). Visitors to Austria
are mainly attracted by the country´s rich culture and
interesting history, by the scenic beauty of the various regions and
by abundant leisure and sports facilities.
\\
The first visitors to Austria came in the Middle Ages: there are
records of pilgrimages from the 14%%sup th/% century to Austrian
places of religious devotion; a pilgrimage to Baden (Coat of arms with
people bathing from 1480) and to Badgastein have been documented since
the 15%%sup th/% century. Visitors to the salt mine of
Duerrnberg and to Hohensalzburg fortress have been documented since
the 17%%sup th/% century and at the end of the 18%%sup th/%
century several thousand visitors came to see Hohensalzburg.
During the Enlightenment leading personalities of European cultural
life began to make educational journeys in the Salzkammergut (around
1890). The Congress of Vienna in 1814/1815 marked the beginning of
"Congress tourism" in Austria. The Romantic period with its
interest in nature gave rise to alpinism (from 1761) and brought the
first tourists to the Alps. When the first Alpine associations were
founded in the 50s and 60s of the 19%%sup th/% century (the
first was the "Alpine Club" in London), tourism in the Alps
began to become organised. A Regulation for Mountain Guides was issued
in 1871 and the first association of mountain guides was founded in
Kals in 1877. Day trips became popular in the Biedermeier period;
winter tourism (skiing) emerged and the first
"maehrisch-schlesischer Schneeschuhlauf-Verein"
(Moravian-Silesian skiing club) was founded in Olmuetz/Olomouc in
1893; the first book on skiing technique was published in 1896
("Alpine Lilienfelder Skifahrtechnik" - "Lilienfeld
Alpine Skiing Technique"). The first skiing course was held in
Stuben am Arlberg in 1905 and the first ski-lift in Central Europe was
built at Boedele near Dornbirn at the Lankschanze ski jump and began
to operate in 1908.
\\
In 1904 earnings from tourism led to a favourable trade balance for
the Austro-Hungarian economy and up to World War I tourism became
more and more important and earnings increased. Once the damage caused
by the war and the austerity of the post-war years had been repaired
in the First Republic, a rapid upswing ensued and continued until the
beginning of the Great Depression: in 1928/29 there were
19,9 million overnight stays (8.6 million were due to
visitors from abroad). The Depression, unstable political developments
and the German Tausend-Mark-Sperre ( Thousand Mark Ban) caused a
major setback and it was not until 1937 that the number of overnight
stays rose to previous levels (20.2 million overnight stays,
6.4 million due to visitors from abroad). The foreign exchange
income was 250 million ATS, which fully made up the Austrian
trade deficit of 231 million ATS.
\\
Reconstruction after World War II started from zero: while hotels
and other facilities had 218,000 beds at their disposal in 1937, there
were only 125,000 beds available for tourists in 1948. The situation
of Austrian tourism started to improve in the early fifties, and the
State Treaty signed on May 15, 1955, marked the beginning of
an unprecedented upswing.
\\
The Austrian authorities had already become aware of the importance of
tourism in the early 19%%sup th/% century: In 1807 a decree was
issued (Hofkanzleidekret) to promote spa activities at
Teplitz-Schoenau. When the Ministry for Transport (then called
Ministry for Railways) was established in 1896, it comprised a
separate department (Department 13) responsible for the promotion
of tourism. In 1923 the Federal Ministry for Trade and Transport was
entrusted with the promotion of tourism, while the regulation of
tourism remained within the competence of the provincial authorities.
Up to 1973 the various ministries that were responsible for areas
affected by tourism each had a tourism department. In 1973 a special
section was established within the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and
Industry that was not only responsible for the promotion of tourism
and trade but also dealt with general tourist policies.
\\
At the provincial level the first law on tourism
(1. Landesfremdenverkehrsgesetz) was passed in 1910 by the
Tirolean Landtag; in 1890 a provincial association for the promotion
of tourism was formed in Tirol. Today tourism is a provincial matter
and each Austrian province has its own laws on tourism; according to
Article 15 of the Austrian Constitutional Law the legislation and
execution of laws regarding tourism lie within the competence of the
individual provinces.
\\
The first regional associations were established in the last century:
The Verkehrsverein Bregenz was founded in 1871, in Styria an
association for the promotion of tourism was formed out of a committee
of the Steirischer Gebirgsverein in 1881; in 1884 representatives of
107 municipalities went to Graz to take part in the conference for the
promotion of Austrian tourism ("Delegiertentag zur Foerderung des
Fremdenverkehrs in den oesterreichischen Alpenlaendern"), in 1891
the Salzkammergut-Verkehrsverband touristic association was
established. Today both municipalities and holiday regions have their
own tourist associations (in spas and health resorts there is also a
spa commission).
!Literature
Oesterreichisches Institut fuer Raumplanung (ed.), Trends
im Tourismus, 1985; G. Bruckmann et al., Umwelt und Tourismus,
1992; U. Krobot, Von der Sommerfrische zum Fremdenverkehr, 1992; E.
Smeral, Tourismus 2000, 1994.
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