World Champion Austria Tourism & sustainability
Enjoying your holiday responsibly in Austria Sustainable tourism is a win-win situation all around with a pleasant side effect: Your relaxation is also sustained.
T
Photo: Österreich Werbung/Jungwirth
he first use of the term “Nachhaltigkeit” (sustainability) in the German language in the sense of a long-term responsible treatment of a resource dates back to the year 1713. Hans Carl von Carlowitz used it in his work “Silivicultura oeconomica”, wondering how to plant and conserve trees for a steady and sustainable use to ensure that the land does not suffer. Thus, the concept of sustainability actually comes from forestry and means to never use up more wood than there is to grow back. Today, the term goes far beyond pure resource supply and describes the usage of a regenerating system overall, divided into ecological, economic and social aspects. And these are all aspects you will find in tourism.
Petra Stolba, Managing Director of Austria Tourism
Valuable contributions “Responsible tourism makes a significant contribution to our living environment with all its inhabitants and guests,” says Petra Stolba, Managing Director of Austria Tourism. “It is all about holiday experiences that meet the needs of people and the nature.” And the trend shows that sustainable tourism is becoming more and more important for Austria and also to Austrians. The tourism boards of all nine provinces and Austria Tourism ordered a study at polling institute Karmasin on domestic holidays in the period after the Covid crisis. One of the study’s questions was “How did the crisis change values among the population?” And the changes were in part quite remarkable, the answers showed. More than 50 percent considered freedom, nature, togetherness and safety more important than before the pandemic. Home, familiarity and serenity also gained importance, as did slowing down and sustainability. “The new social climate is optimistic overall. The new situation is used as an opportunity to reconsider your principles and values. We can see a new lifestyle emerging: Being more thoughtful, more considerate, having nature, home sustainability and serenity more in mind,” Managing Director Sophie Karmasin says. Sustainable journey and sustainable mobility According to the Tourism Monitor Austria T-Mona, a survey of tourists developed and launched in 2004 by Austria Tourism, the Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism, the Austrian Economic Chamber, the polling institute Manova and the nine provincial tourism boards, only 12 percent of domestic tourists travelled to their holiday destination by train in the tourism season 2017/18. The following season 2018/19 this figure had risen to 16 percent, showing that railway travel had already gained in importance before the Covid crisis. Guests from Germany and Switzerland,
