Now it’s official: Since midnight, people in Austria who have not been vaccinated or recovered have been locked down. From now on, they are only allowed to leave the house or their apartment for important reasons. For the time being, this applies until November 24th – an extension cannot be ruled out. This brought forward the federal government’s fifth step-by-step plan. Since Sunday, Austria has also been a risk area for Germany.
This is of course bad news for tourism. If the current 38 percent occupancy in November is no reason to celebrate among the Viennese hoteliers, things will get even worse in the coming weeks and months, according to the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. As the Chamber of Commerce announced in a broadcast, a wave of cancellations is already rolling through the receptions for December. January is even at a record low. Currently, only eight percent of the rooms are booked for January.
“Autumn started well and we were slowly able to recover, but the new corona wave is now throwing us back completely. The Viennese hotel industry cannot survive with this number of guests, ”says Dominic Schmid, chairman of the hotel industry in the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, calling for urgently needed support for his branch. Schmid is pessimistic about the current situation: “In the last few weeks, seminars and conferences have again ensured better booking of hotel rooms in Vienna, but that is now over. Seminars are canceled, Christmas parties are not booked at all and tourist trips are canceled again. “
The winter went in the negative sense, recovery is expected in six months at the earliest – if there are still hotels in Vienna. ”Because the economic situation of the hotels is just as drastic as the booking situation:“ We all have our backs to the wall. ”Therefore, calls for support for tourism experts are now loud. “The reduction in sales tax that expires at the end of the year must be extended, and the tried-and-tested auxiliary instruments such as the expiring loss bonus, the earlier fixed cost subsidy and the compensation for losses must be reactivated or increased.”
