Until the early 1990s, tourism contributed substantially to securing income and employment in Austria and to balancing the country's current account. Austria's ability to make use of its tourist attractions disguised the structural weakness of its economy, which in turn delayed some of the...

Practicing sports as well as the organization of sports events generate considerable positive external effects which cause an inefficiently low provision of private funds and thus justify public interventions in the sports market. For instance, organising competitions and providing sports...

Overnight stays by travellers from abroad were up 6½ percent year-on-year in the last winter season. The good result, exceeding markedly the long-term trend rate of growth, is due to poor snow conditions in a number of foreign skiing areas and to the positive demand effects of the general...

The availability of an adequate pool of suitable labour is a key location factor for the labour-intensive hotel and restaurant business. Yet, in spite of high unemployment (jobless rate: 17.3 percent) and schemes to attract seasonal workers from abroad, the sector still encounters considerable...

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Austrian tourism industry suffered a series of setbacks, which were caused partly by special factors like German reunification, currency depreciations or the slump in air fares, and partly by substantial structural weaknesses. Many indications suggest that...