Accommodation establishments in Austria have reported a significant rise in the number of overnight stays, between November last year and January, totalling 30.81 million.

This represents a 57.2% increase compared to the same period in 2021/22, according to the latest statistics.

General Director of Statistics of Austria, Tobias Thomas said this year has got off to a promising start, with a 48.1% rise in overnight stays compared to January 2021, Schengen Visa Info reports.

He added that the number of beds is considerably more than half above last year’s value, and just 8% under the pre-pandemic level from November 2019 to January 2020.

Indeed, additional statistics reveal that the total 30.81 million beds registered between 2022/23 indicates it remained 8.03% below the pre-pandemic level of 33.50 million in the winter of 2019/20.

“Both the overnight stays of non-resident and resident guests (23.6 million and 7.2 million, respectively) have not yet reached the level of the same period in 2019/20 by 8.4% and 6.9%, respectively,” according to the latest statistics report.

The 30.81 million overnight stays in Austria in the first half of the 2023 winter season signalled a rise of 57.2% compared to the first half of the 2022 winter period, when 19.60 million were registered.

According to the findings, a total of 23.36% of overnight stays – 7.20 million – were attributed to resident guests, a rise of 42.2%. Whereas there was also a substantial rise in non-resident guests, a 62.4% increase to reach 23.61 million.

In January this year, a total of 15.14 million beds were registered in accommodation establishments throughout Austria. When compared to January 2022, this is a 48.1% increase, representing 4.92 million.

In addition, over the same period, the number of arrivals rose by 56.5% to 3.62 million. Resident guests registered 2.78 million overnight stays in January, indicating an increase of a quarter over the same month last year.

Non-resident guests also rose significantly this January compared to January 2022, up 54.9% to 12.36 million, with the majority being visitors from Germany, the report adds.