The Austrian capital reported around five million overnight stays in 2021. While a year-on-year increase of 9% seems impressive – after all, growth was still buoyant in January and February 2020, and the city’s hotel industry was closed to leisure travelers for almost half a year in 2021 – it was still 72% short of the previous record, which was set in 2019. But there is a ray of light among all the clouds: there were clear signs of a recovery in the second half of 2021. Occupancy rates for August, September and October were as high as around 60% of pre-pandemic levels. Bookings for November and December looked healthier still, until a new lockdown, forced by the situation nationwide, scuppered what could otherwise have been a good end to the year.
We owe the Vienna hotel industry a great debt of gratitude. Despite incredibly challenging conditions, the city’s hoteliers withstood the pressures they were under. Compared with several other European destinations, room prices held firm. While cities such as London, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Frankfurt were confronted with a drop of more than a quarter in some cases, the average daily rate (ADR) in Vienna “only” declined by just under 9% to EUR 98 in 2021. In November, the ADR reached EUR 103.99, surpassing the level for 2019 for the first time. One gratifying general development was that revenue increased at a faster pace than the number of overnight stays. Overall, revenue growth – benchmarked against crisis-hit 2020 – outpaced that of bednights, a dynamic that was a highly significant factor behind the price stability mentioned above. The five-star segment proved to be a particularly strong driver, not only reporting a considerable improvement in the number of overnights, but also achieving a rise in net revenue that was twice as high as the average for all accommodation categories.
A look at the official occupancy statistics published by the Municipal Department for Economy, Labor and Statistics reveals how hotel and bed capacity have changed over a long-term observation period. In fall 2021, Vienna had 347 hotels and pensions with a combined total of more than 63,000 beds. Year on year, the number of beds dropped by 8% – down by 5,100 in absolute terms – and the number of hotels declined by 16%, or 64 establishments. Primarily, the declines affected smaller four and three-star hotels and pensions. At the same time, eleven new accommodations with a total of 3,400 beds opened during the year, while the number of five-star hotels remained unchanged by the end of 2021. As things currently stand, by 2023 new openings will mean that there are more beds than before the start of the pandemic. As painful as it is for individual operations when they are obliged to close, we can still look ahead to the future with optimism: investments and new arrivals confirm sustained belief in the location and also represent another step up in quality.
It is by no means an exaggeration to say that travelers are hungry after more than two years of the pandemic. Nearby markets are our bread and butter, as the saying goes. That said, we are full of anticipation ahead for the return of our first major long-haul market – the USA – in 2022. In fact, it never really went away completely. Although the US – Vienna’s largest long-distance market – slid to fifth place in 2021, it remained in third spot as far as hotel revenue is concerned. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Americans have put aside around USD 2.6tn in savings – potential that we want to unlock as we look to restart our long-distance markets. And Vienna is ideally placed internationally to accomplish this: at the turn of 2021/2022, a pair of respected media outlets – US news portal Bloomberg and UK daily newspaper The Independent – profiled Vienna in their top travel destinations for 2022.
We believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that city tourism will bounce back quickly for Vienna once the world is freed from the grips of the pandemic. Until then – and beyond – solidarity is the order of the day. The past two years have illustrated that it is only possible to overcome challenges of this magnitude if we all work together. And we will need to continue pulling together in the same direction to achieve the strategic goals that we have set ourselves for the period to 2025. Due to Covid-19, we have had to adjust some of our quantitative targets, further details of which are contained in this report. But at this point, we should once again reaffirm that going forward, the tourism sector – seen as a visitor economy – needs to focus even more clearly on sustainable development that does not undermine the foundations of its success, but is aligned with the city's targets and the needs of the people who live here. Our belief in promoting quality tourism remains unchanged.
Through new formats such as the regular Visitor Economy Series and offerings that open the door to free, straightforward access to its marketing activities, the Vienna Tourist Board is steadily expanding the services it provides for the city’s visitor economy. And the City of Vienna is standing by the industry, too: through various measures such as extending the availability of support designed to help accommodation providers get back on their feet, the EUR 4 million Vienna Meeting Fund, job initiatives and related infrastructure projects such as the Wien Holding Arena development, the city is laying the foundations for a return to the successes seen before the pandemic. Let’s get down to work – together.
