Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
countries are developed, this may well help to
establish a very specific relationship between
Central and Eastern Europeans and Austria to
the long-term benefit of the Austrian tourism
industry, which is anyway over-dependent on
the German market. While attitudes towards
Central and Eastern Europeans at the personal
and local level vary in practice between a very
cultivated and personal treatment and contacts
not very different from those with guest workers,
the agencies responsible for federal as well as
provincial tourism marketing - fully aware of the
intrinsic importance of these new markets - have
already developed a lot of specific marketing
concepts. This may well contribute to expecta-
tions of doubling the share of Central and Eastern
European guests in Austrian international tourism
within 10 years, i.e. to 8-10% (Wolf, 2005).
occupying a more prominent position on
the tourists' mental map and getting rid of
negative images (as regards politics, envi-
ronment, security), e.g. by regional market-
ing and the development of regional
brands to avoid being discredited by Com-
munism and political crises and to empha-
size the variety of the offer;
spatial separation of tourism and environ-
mentally harmful industry. It was character-
istic for the Communist era to locate
smoking, stinking and noisy factories,
symbols of the 'working class', in a tourist
resort, in order to take the aura of luxury
from this activity, which was not in line
with the ideology of Communism;
reduction of state bureaucracy. A com-
plicated, time- and money-consuming
bureaucracy discourages and impedes
private initiatives also in tourism; many a
civil servant still displays a negative attitude
to private entrepreneurship associating it
with quick profit-making.
As regards Central and Eastern Europe's
role as a market of international tourism, the
development is supposed to be slow and
dependent on economic growth and further
European integration. For Austria it will not be
'natural' to receive the (relatively large) share of
the cake it had in pre-Communist times, since
tourism trends have changed.
Conclusion
For an 'old' member state, the Austrian per-
spective on Central and Eastern Europe is
currently neither as a major competitor in the
international tourism marke t 7 nor a major
generating region. It has, however, potential to
develop in both fields, however slowly, as a
stronger, dynamic market.
As regards its role as a destination of inter-
national tourism, where Central and Eastern
Europe meets the hard and professional com-
petition of well-established destinations in other
parts of Europe, success is estimated to depend
mainly on the following factors:
Notes
improving the quality of accommodation
and catering by intensifying competition,
for example, by the dissolution of
large tourism enterprises and holdings,
strengthening the position of small and
medium-sized enterprises with the help of
favourable credits and by establishing
associations to represent their common
interests, as well as by improving legal and
economic
1
Except in Croatia. However, Croatia was a
favourite destination of commercial tourism
also in the Communist era and only recovered
after the depression caused by the Yugoslav
crisis.
2
The decision of the German Reich in 1933 to
levy 1000 German Marks from each German
tourist crossing the Austrian frontier let Czecho-
slovakians account for the largest share among
foreign tourists also in the provinces of western
Austria.
conditions
for
domestic
and
foreign strategic investment;
3
According to the statistical sources quoted in
the appendix (mainly statistical yearbooks
and websites of statistical agencies and tourist
boards).
improving the quality of infrastructure in
transportation and public services espe-
cially in the rural space and also on the
micro-level to support regional and sea-
sonal diversification in tourism;
4
After Germany (53.1m or 64.4%), The Netherlands
(7.0m or 8.5%), the United Kingdom (2.8m or
 
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