Tourism direct GDP (2025) | Tourism direct employment (2024) | Travel exports (2025) |
|---|---|---|
4.4% of total GDP (preliminary data) (equal to share in 2024) | 4.3% of total employment (up 0.2 percentage points since 2023) | 27.7% of total service exports (preliminary data) (up 0.5 percentage points since 2024) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: Vision T
National tourism administration: Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism
National tourism budget: EUR 68.4 million (2025)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Fostering balanced tourism development 365 days a year – Raising awareness for and taking steps to develop a sustainably successful tourism industry with high acceptance within the population, guided by sustainability indicators.
Strengthening resilience of tourism SMEs – Supporting SMEs to become more sustainable and facilitating succession processes for the next generation of business operators.
Promoting Austria as a sustainable tourism destination – Focusing on innovation, diversification of markets and year-round tourism.
Tourism is an important driver of the Austrian economy. The sector is estimated to have directly contributed EUR 23 billion in 2025, up 5% since 2024, or 4.4% of total GDP. Tourism is also a key employer in Austria, with the sector directly contributing 177 000 jobs (full-time equivalents) in 2024, accounting for 4.3% of total employment in the country, up by 0.2 percentage points from 2023. International travel receipts reached EUR 25.9 billion in 2025, or 27.7% of total service exports, a 6.6% increase compared to 2024 (EUR 24.3 billion).
The number of international tourist arrivals recorded in all accommodation establishments (commercial and private) reached a record 33.5 million in 2025, 4.1% higher than 2024 levels. Germany remains the top international source market, accounting for 46% of inbound arrivals at accommodation establishments, followed by the Netherlands (7%) and Switzerland (incl. Liechtenstein) (4%).
Domestic tourist arrivals in paid accommodation totalled 14.7 million in 2025, up 1.0% compared to 2024, with 40.5 million bednights registered (0.5% higher than 2024).
At the national level, the Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism is responsible for tourism policy, which is overseen by a Parliamentary Committee for Tourism. Legislative and executive responsibility for tourism affairs resides with the nine federal states (Länder). Co-ordination between the Ministry and the federal states is supported through a Steering Group for Tourism. The Ministry works with other ministries, departments, institutions, and the private sector on specific topics (e.g. new funding schemes, new legislation affecting tourism) either via permanent groups, round tables or on a case-by-case basis.
Austria Tourism, the national tourism organisation, is responsible for market research, brand management, marketing, tourism networking, innovation, and information provision. The Austrian Bank for Tourism Development is a specialised tourism bank acting in a public-private partnership with the Ministry. Statistics Austria collects and disseminates tourism data.
The national tourism administration had a total budget of EUR 68.4 million in 2025. Of this, EUR 29.2 million was dedicated to financial support for SMEs administered by Austrian Bank for Tourism Development with a further EUR 32.6 million allocated to Austria Tourism. The Ministry disbursed EUR 4.7 million through individual subsidies for co-financed tourism projects and service contracts. In addition, SMEs in the tourism sector received EUR 58 million from the European Recovery Programme. In addition to the national budget, all nine federal states have tourism budgets to support specific tourism development programmes.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, 2026.
Austria’s national tourism strategy “Vision T” was published mid-2026. It is the result of a collaborative process that began with a broad survey of people working in the tourism sector, Austrian residents, tourists and enterprises. This was followed by expert and stakeholder workshops. The Strategy’s focus is on a tourism sector that creates value 365 days a year – for businesses, employees, regions, visitors and locals alike. Vision T’s compass of strategic values is oriented towards creating, appreciating and preserving value and addresses five fields of action: economic strength and resilience, labour market and skilled workers, innovation and digitalisation, resources and responsibility, added value and participation. To measure its success, specific targets along nine indicators will be used: real added value through tourism, international travel receipts, equity ratio of quality hotels, tourism acceptance score, year-round employees in accommodation and gastronomy, guest satisfaction, share of tourist nights outside the top four months, number of Austrian Eco-labels for tourism businesses, CO2-emissions in accommodation and gastronomy.
Recent key achievements of national tourism policy include a new strategic approach for Austria Tourism, new funding guidelines for tourism SMEs with a focus on resilience and sustainability and continuous development of a set of tourism indicators to measure success across all dimensions of sustainability including tourism acceptance. Other achievements include a new strategic approach to certification, and an increasing number of businesses and destinations awarded the Austrian Ecolabel, as well as the implementation of the regional RESY-Dashboard, which includes data on the municipal level for various (tourism) indicators, as well as the Austrian National Tourism Data Space. The nine federal states also have their own individual tourism strategies.
Balanced tourism and tourism acceptance remain key priorities for Austria, with several initiatives at the national level. Austria created the guide “Find the Right Balance” to support regional decision makers in dealing with imbalances in tourism. The guide was accompanied by a funding call to develop tailor-made concepts to address the challenges of impacted regions. Seventeen selected projects seek to enhance tourism balance through, for example, the use of mobile phone data, weather data and AI for visitor flow management, sustainable modes of transport and instruments to measure the sustainable development of tourism destinations, as well as organising participatory processes.
The new Austrian Ecolabel for Tourism Destinations, introduced in 2022, remains a key initiative to encourage tourism destinations to accelerate the green transition, improve regional value chains and respond to the increased demand for sustainable holidays. Aimed at regional tourism destinations, it requires close co-operation between tourism policymakers, destinations and businesses, as well as sufficient financial and human resources. The label includes 63 mandatory and 56 optional criteria covering management, socio-economic impact, environmental protection, mobility and culture. As of May 2026, 16 Austrian destinations had been awarded the Ecolabel for Tourism Destinations.
To promote the need for sustainable tourism, a dialogue series was introduced in 2023. This dialogue has covered key topics of sustainability certification, energy efficiency, future of winter tourism, culinary art, the Regional Information and Monitoring dashboard RESY, digital accessibility, succession processes for SMEs and balanced tourism. An annual Sustainable Tourism in Austria Summit (STiAS) was introduced in 2024 as a partnership between Austria Tourism and the Ministry.
A new funding scheme to support succession processes for tourism SMEs was launched in June 2025 to provide opportunities to build resilience in tourism businesses. The scheme aims to create business plans addressing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a recent or impending succession process. The goal is to prevent small, often family led hotels and restaurants in rural regions from closing when the current owner or operator retires. This subsidy aims to make it more attractive for potential successors - often the children of the current owners - to carry on with the business. Guidance for succession processes is provided through brochures, magazines and dedicated websites.
A national Tourism Data Space was developed to support the digital transition, innovation and value creation by facilitating secure and efficient data sharing across the tourism value chain and related sectors such as energy, mobility, culture, construction, and agriculture, both nationally and internationally. It was established through a Memorandum of Understanding between Austria Tourism, the Data Intelligence Offensive, MODUL University, Standortagentur Tirol and Tirol Werbung, and is planned to be integrated into the European Tourism Data Space once it becomes operational. Several use cases have been developed, including visitor management, tourism infrastructure and AI, with a long-term objective to create data and app marketplaces, allowing interested parties to work with tourism data and develop new applications and products. Tourism SMEs can also benefit from the KMU.DIGITAL programme, a whole of economy programme providing advice on business model, resource optimisation, e-commerce and online marketing, IT and cybersecurity, as well as digital administration.
To address labour shortages in the tourism sector, Austria launched an online platform and social media campaign under the title “Team Tourism – strong branch, your chance!” in 2023. The ongoing campaign aims to strengthen the image and attractiveness of the sector and to demonstrate the versatility of tourism as an employer, specifically for young people. Other initiatives to address labour shortages include:
Incrementally increasing the yearly contingency for seasonal workers in tourism from 1 000 to 2 989 in 2022; 3 398 in 2023; 4 495 in 2024; and 8 000 in 2025.
Loosening criteria for core seasonal workers, allowing some long-standing seasonal workers to receive permanent access to the labour market (red-white-red-card for core seasonal workers).
Enabling skilled workers from third countries to work in professions with a declared lack of skilled workers (e.g. waiter, restaurant chef).
Qualification and support measures for staff.
Tourism acceptance in Austria was surveyed by an external market research institute as part of a pilot project from 2020 to 2023, which demonstrated the importance of measuring and continuously monitoring tourism acceptance in order to recognise trends and changes in the perception of tourism at an early stage and to react to them in a targeted manner by evidence-based tourism policy.
In 2024, the survey methodology was simplified and integrated into the existing Tourism Demand Statistics carried out by Statistics Austria, alongside the survey on the travel behaviour of the Austrian population. This integration legally secures the annual survey, ensures continuous monitoring of tourism acceptance, and allows significantly more people to be surveyed (13 000 interviews in 2025).
The new Tourism Acceptance Score (TAS), developed from the survey, shows the difference between positive and negative perceptions. In 2025, the key figure was clearly positive at +37 percentage points, with a positive TAS meaning the proportion of the population with a positive attitude outweighs that with a negative association. “Neutral” and “don't know” responses are not taken into account in the calculation of the TAS, but are important when interpreting the TAS as they have a significant influence on the possible level of the TAS.
The survey also asks for the importance of tourism for one’s own professional and financial situation, as well as the perceived volume of tourists at one’s own place of residence and for Austria as a whole. For example, 71% of respondents consider tourism to be very important for Austria's economy, labour market, and leisure activities, while 48% indicated that there is the right number of tourists in the country.