Fifty-year-olds are the new 35-year-olds: Austria tourism experts

Jul 31, 2007, 11:27 GMT

Vienna - The well-to-do generation aged over 50s are the tourists of the future, Austrian tourism experts said. Following demographic trends in Europe, the average age of a summer tourist in Austria is above 50, a recent survey showed.

According to Austria's trade chamber, 55 per cent of the tourists to Austria are older than 50. Eight per cent are younger than 30, 15 per cent are aged between 30 and 39, 22 per cent between 40 and 49.

Today's 50-year-olds however cannot be compared with the people the same age back in the 1980s, tourism researcher Peter Zellmann told the Austrian press agency on Tuesday. The lifestyle of today's 50-plus generation corresponded more to the habits of 35-year-olds, he said.

But that also means that the traditional summer holiday in Austria, focusing on recreation and maybe a little of hiking or swimming is not adequate for the needs of the new tourist generation. 'A renaissance of modern recreation holidays will only work with an event-oriented format,' Zellmann said.

He warned against attempts of luring prospective middle-aged guests into the country by propagating quiet hours of staring at a mountain meadow. Tourist 50-plus in 2007 pursued a much more active lifestyle.

'Wellness'-oriented offers have not lost their attraction, but mountaineering and biking holidays are increasing in importance, a survey of Germany, Austria's most important tourism market, conducted by the tourism research institute IFT said.

While there were some events for the younger generation, those remained a minority. There was no way Austria could compete with traditional party locations in Europe like Ibiza, experts said.

In the first half of 2007, Austria's tourism industry reported 62.4 overnight stays, minus 0.9 per cent compared with the same period in 2006.