Almost half of the trips of the Austrian population went abroad

Vienna, Austria – In the first half of this year, the number of holiday trips with at least one overnight stay (including visiting family and friends) rose to 9.77 million according to preliminary data from Statistics Austria and is thus back at the pre-pandemic level (H1 2019: 9.76 million). Compared to the previous years, the number of trips increased significantly (+126.5 % compared to H1 2021; +89.7 % compared to H1 2020).

While the travel activity of the Austrian resident population was still below the pre-pandemic level in Q1 2022 – 14.1% fewer holiday trips were taken compared to Q1 2019 (Q1 2022: 3.53 million holiday trips; Q1 2019: 4.11 million) – travel activity increased significantly in Q2 2022. The number of holiday trips in- creased by 10.4 % to 6.23 million compared to Q2 2019 (5.65 million).

The number of business trips in the first half of 2022 doubled compared to the same period last year to

1.71 million (+106.2 %), but was still 10.1 % below the pre-crisis level in 2019 (1.90 million business trips).

Almost half of the trips the Austrian population went abroad again

In the first half of 2022, people living in Austria spent almost half of their holiday trips (46.9 % or 4.58 million) abroad, whereas in the first half of 2021 just under one in four-holiday trips (24.6 % or 1.06 million) was taken abroad. The proportion of domestic and international holiday trips is broadly in line with the first half of 2019 when 44.3 % (4.32 million) of holiday trips were taken abroad. The most popular destinations abroad in the first half of 2022 were Italy (24.6 % of trips abroad), followed by Germany (22.1 %) and Croatia (9.0 %). Long-distance trips were also more in demand again, accounting for 6.0 % of all trips in the first half of 2022 (H1 2021: 2.1 %; H1 2019: 9.8 %).

The number of domestic holiday trips increased by 59.6 % to 5.19 million in the first half of 2022 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year but was still 4.5 % below the comparable figures for the first half of 2019 (5.43 million).

More than half of holiday trips taken with private cars

61.9 % of holiday trips in the first half of 2022 were made by private car. This means that the car was the most frequently used means of transport for travelling, whereby it was used more frequently for domestic trips (73.8 % of domestic holiday trips) than for trips abroad (48.4 % of holiday trips abroad) (2021: 83.1 % of domestic holiday trips, 67.0 % of holiday trips abroad; 2019: 77.7 % of domestic holiday trips, 43.7 % of holiday trips abroad). Compared to the first half of the previous year and the first half of 2019, rail travel gained a share as a means of travel for both domestic and holiday trips abroad (2022: 17.1 % of all holiday trips; 2021: 11.7 %; 2019: 12.4 %). The share of air travel abroad was 29.3 % (2021: 20.6 %; 2019: 37.6 %).