Austria sees 8.6% rise in Indian tourists in 2018

Seeing an upsurge in its inbound tourists in 2018, a representative of the Austrian National Tourist Office said it received over 1.9 lakh Indian tourists - an 8.6% rise over the last year. The Vienna Tourism Board added that it had also received 7.7% more Indians in 2018. Of its inbound tourism numbers, Vienna saw 7.5 million arrivals from across the globe, 6% over the year before. According to the board, about 63,000 Indians visited across its 428 hotels.

India is now among the fastest growing outbound tourist markets in the world, second only to China. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) estimates that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.

The Indian outbound tourism market, according to another report, is expected to surpass $ 42 billion by the end of the year 2024 according to one report. India is the second largest most populous country in the world with the tag of fastest-growing major economy globally, says researchandmarkets.com's India 'Outbound Tourism Market, Tourists Purpose of Visit, Countries & Forecast' report.

Austria's other top destination, Salzburg, received about 44,000 tourists in 2018, an 8% increase than the year before. Overall, it saw about 1.8 million visitors globally.

The report went on to add that due to economic growth and greater disposable income, is going to contribute to the rise. Air connectivity from India to foreign locations has also improved significantly over a period of time. Although, first time Indian visitors generally prefer to visit Asian countries due to their proximity to India and being less expensive compared to western destinations. In the case of long-haul travel Indians prefer going to United States (US), Australia, Europe, New Zealand etc., the report said.