From not wanting to open their borders to allow Austrian citizens to go on holiday to Croatia freely amid the coronavirus pandemic to Austrian travellers replacing Italy as their number one holiday destination all in a matter of weeks. Could Croatian tourism be in for a welcome boost?
As Barbara Ban/Novac writes on the 22nd of June, 2020, of the foreign destinations available to go on holiday to during this, entirely disturbed tourist season, Croatia is convincingly number one for Austrian nationals, followed by Italy, which is a traditional favourite of theirs.
This information is according to an analysis undertaken by the Gallup Institute, which was conducted per thousand respondents between June the 10th and June the 15th this year, and published in the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung. Admittedly, as many as 60 percent of Austrian citizens plan to stay at home this year and pump some money into their own economy despite the borders of their neighbouring countries having been opened.
Only 28 percent of Austrians want to go abroad, and most of them want to go to the coast and to nearby countries, according to the survey. As many as a third of these passengers, or more specifically 32 percent of them, want to or will travel to Croatia and give the Croatian tourism industry a much needed spring in its step.
Croatia is closely followed by Italy, which comes as no surprise as the Mediterranean country has been the favourite destination of Austrian tourists for many years now, but only 15 percent of Austrian citizens claim that they will travel to Italy, which has otherwise had some devastating results in regard to the coronavirus pandemic, this year.
Eight percent of tourists from Austria say they intend to travel to Greece, and seven percent of them will go to neighbouring countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). The same number of Austrians will go to Germany, Spain and the Canary Islands. The fewest Austrians opted for Turkey - a mere four percent of them, and even fewer will go to to other European countries such as Cyprus, Britain and France.
For more on Croatian tourism in the coronavirus age, follow our travel page.
