Austrian citizens took a total of 9.45 million holiday trips in the third quarter of this year, a 0.8% increase on the corresponding period last year, according to new data from Statistics Austria.
According to the data, which covers the period from July to September 2024, more than half of the trips taken by Austrians were abroad, with Italy, Croatia, and Germany being the top destinations.
Desire to travel
“This summer, the desire to travel was higher than ever,” commented Statistics Austria director general Tobias Thomas. “64.5% of the total population aged 15 and over, i.e. almost five million people in Austria, took at least one holiday trip between July and September 2024. This means that travel intensity has risen to its highest level since quarterly records of travel behaviour began in 2000.”
The data also indicated a propensity towards longer holidays, with 58.2% of all trips being of four nights or more, a 3.8% increase from the previous year. Short-term trips – in other words, those between one and three nights – decreased by 3.0%.
Holiday destinations
Italy accounted for 21.7% of all trips, followed by Croatia (15.7%) and Germany (11.6%), while long-distance travel also saw an increase, accounting for 5.0% of all trips, the highest level since the pandemic, but below the pre-pandemic high of 6.4% recorded in the third quarter of 2019.
Some 3.98 million holiday trips were spent in Austria in the third quarter, of which a fifth (20.0%) were spent in Styria.
The preferred mode of transport was by car, although the share of car journeys fell to its lowest level since 2006 (60.5%). Rail travel saw a notable increase, with 11.8% of all trips being taken by train, the second-highest share on record. Domestic rail travel saw a particularly strong increase, with 18.8% of domestic trips taken by train.
As Statistics Austria noted, there is no indication that the ‘coolcation’ trend, where people travel to cooler climates to escape increased summer heat, has emerged as a serious trend in Austria, with the share of coolcation destinations in trips abroad accounting for 6.9% in the quarter. Read more here.
