Many hotel bosses expect summer overnights increase

The Austrian tourism industry is in an optimistic mood as more than four in ten hotel managers expect more overnights this summer.Thomas Reisenzahn, general secretary of Austrian Hotel Industry Association (ÖHV), said today (Thurs) 41 per cent of hoteliers are braced for more guests this season compared to last summer.He stressed only 13 per cent of interviewed hotel bosses expected better year on year figures the same time last year.”These results confirm that the mood is a significantly more optimistic one this year around,” Reisenzahn said.The ÖHV official explained the industry did well in 2009, but many businesses saw themselves forced to slash prices to keep booking statistics up as crisis-stricken holidaymakers spent less.Thirty-eight per cent of questioned ÖHV members fear declining overnight figures this summer, down by 33 per cent year on year, while 25 per cent said figures will be the same as in 2009.Around 1,200 hotels across Austria are members of the ÖHV which conducted their survey last month.Reisenzahn stressed that warm weather was a key aspect in how hotels do in summer. But he added that thermal spa resorts benefited from cold temperatures.Forecasts say that temperatures across Austria will rise again over the next few days after the past few days were dominated by unusually cold weather. This period meanwhile preceded around some days of temperatures up to 37 degree centigrade.Austrian hotel bosses’ optimism might be justified as Europ Assistance said yesterday they found that the summer holiday budget of a vast majority of Austrians will not affected by the economic downturn.The internationally-operating travel emergency company announced just 18 per cent of Austrians told it the credit crunch will lead to a reduction of their holiday break spending.