Vienna continues record trend for hotel stays in 2015

The Austrian capital city has seen a 5.9-percent increase in the number of overnight stays at hotels in 2015 to 14,238,000, marking six consecutive years a new record has been set.

The figures were presented by Vienna tourism director Norbert Kettner and city councillor for economy Renate Brauner on Thursday.

They mark the first time the 14-million mark has been surpassed in the city in a year.

Kettner said of the 40 largest source countries of visitors who stay overnight, 36 saw an increase and 20 even a double-digit percentage increase in hotel stays, while only four saw a decline.

A total of 82 percent of the visitors were from foreign countries, with those from China in particular seeing a large 21-percent boost to 285,000 overnight stays, now the 11th largest source country, just a few hundred overnight stays behind Japan, from whose visitors a decline in hotel stays was recorded.

The largest source country was once again Germany, followed by domestic visitors, while other positive boosts were seen from visitors from the United States, Italy, Britain, Spain, Switzerland, and France.

Russia, however, continues to be of concern to the tourism heads, with a 32-percent drop in the number of overnight stays recorded, maintaining a trend to which Kettner said no change is yet observable. Endit