Austria’s tourism industry has been severely impacted by the coronavirus crisis, falling under levels from the 1970s, according to findings by the Austrian Statistics Institute.

The stats published on Thursday show that 79.6 million visitors stayed overnight in Austria last year, a 25% drop in the number of foreign bookings year-over-year. German citizens booked a total higher number of stays than Austrian nationals, says a Euractiv report.

“Corona-related business closures and international travel restrictions continued to hit tourism in Austria hard in 2021,” said Tobias Thomas, director of the Austrian statistics institute, in a report by broadcaster, ORF.

He went on to say that business lockdowns during the key months of January to May and also November were the predominant reason for these statistics.

As such, tourism industry businesses have issued fresh calls for support from the government.

“The fact that overnight stays in 2021 have continued to fall, even compared to the terrible year of 2020, clearly shows that we need targeted support more than ever,” said Susanne Kraus-Winkler on behalf of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.

She went on to add: “Businesses and employees are ready for a successful restart. For this to succeed, restrictions such as the earlier curfew must be dropped urgently.”

It was announced on Wednesday by Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer that the lockdown targeted at the unvaccinated will end next week. The decision was unveiled ahead of a Cabinet meeting of the conservative-green federal government. 

Despite the number of new Covid cases at an all-time high in Austria, the situation in the country’s hospitals is said to be stable.

According to Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein, experts had reached the conclusion that the lockdown on unvaccinated citizens was now unnecessary, despite surging case numbers.

"We came to the conclusion that the lockdown for unvaccinated people in Austria is only justifiable in the event of the threat of an imminent over-burdening of intensive-care capacity," Mückstein said.