Football fans gather in front of the City Hall of Vienna, Austria
© AFP/DDP/File Philipp Guelland VIENNA (AFP) - While stays at hotels across Austria dropped from the 8.46 million overnight stays recorded in June 2007, the four Austrian cities actually hosting the football matches all reported increases.
In Klagenfurt, overnight stays increased by 55.3 percent in June 2008 over June 2007 to 48,200; in Innsbruck this grew 15.6 percent to 128,900; in Salzburg the figure nudged 2.5 percent to 200,300; and Vienna saw a 1.2 percent rise to 864,7000.
The hotel industry blamed the drop in overnight stays in other parts of the country on regulatory restrictions.
"We were negatively affected by the ban on offering packages combining hotel stays and tickets for football matches," said Hans Schenner, a spokesman for the tourist industry.
Nonetheless, overall tourism in the country saw positive figures for the first half of this year -- the Statistik Austria agency said -- with the number of overnight stays between January and June 2008 growing 5.5 percent over the same six-month period of the previous year.
In the long term, the hotel industry hopes the international spotlight that was on Austria for Euro 2008 will draw tourists to the country.
"For three weeks Austria was able to showcase itself as a tourist and sport destination and as a perfect host in front of millions of television viewers. That's an invaluable gain for the country and our businesses," said Schenner.
Austria co-hosted the European football championship along with Switzerland.
©AFP