October 1, 2020 – The interest and demand for Croatia from Germans, Austrians, and Swiss tourists in 2020 is at least 50 percent higher than the year before, said the director of the Croatian National Tourist Board in Austria, Branimir Tončinić.
HRTurizam reports that these are the results of a survey by the online booking platform Travelcircus on changes in tourists’ travel habits due to the coronavirus pandemic from the DACH region, i.e., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
According to the results of this research, in 2020, interest in travel to Croatia, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland increased, while some countries competing with Croatia also performed worse. Namely, in the entire DACH region, interest in Spain and Italy fell by 10 percent. Only in Austria did the demand for Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway fall by more than 30 percent compared to 2019.
“Data from the research reveal that Austrians showed the greatest demand for domestic travel, which put Austria in first place in terms of demand. The great news is that Croatia took second place in terms of demand, which is an excellent result in these circumstances, while Germany took third place. It is also important to note that no other country outside the DACH region has recorded positive growth in demand for holidays like Croatia,” Branimir Tončinić pointed out, adding that this year the demand for hotels in the Austrian market has fallen. The demand for accommodation in holiday homes has increased.
The volume of hotel searches decreased among Austrians (-18.07%), while accommodation such as holiday homes, apartments, and houseboats increased by 13-26%. Holiday homes are the absolute winners, both in this research and in the Croatian market this year.
Guests from Austria this year looked mostly for an active holiday. According to the survey, in June and July 2019, Austrians searched an average of 13,835 times for a combination of an “amusement park” and a tourist destination. In the summer of 2020, there were 23,040 searches of the same search. This corresponds to a growth of 66.53%, and compared to 2017, an increase of an impressive 185.68% can be seen. The data clearly speaks of a trend that has been growing over the years. Now, at the time of the coronavirus pandemic, it has further jumped out and accelerated development for quality facilities, not just the sun and the sea.
Austrians also love to relax. With a growth of 30.68% since the summer of 2019, wellness holidays are the number 2 most popular types of holidays in Austria. Third place went to travel to cultural and other attractions, with a growth of 14.5%.
Interestingly, the data show that this year, those who like to travel mostly avoid last-minute vacations. Compared to the previous year, this type of vacation lost an average of 89.93% of searches. City or city break trips also suffer from a drop in interest due to the pandemic and record a search loss of 77.85%.
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