The Middle East market is well on its way to achieve 2019 figures, says Michael Tauschmann, the newly appointed Head of Markets for the Middle East and India, Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO).
“The Middle East market has proven to be very resilient. The figures from all GCC countries are almost back to the 2019 level. The overnights from visitors from the UAE in 2022 have already exceeded the 2019 figures by 8 per cent.
Tauschmann, who joined the Dubai office in September last year, will be looking after the GCC, Israel and India markets. “My goal is to increase the awareness of Austria as a holiday destination and in order to achieve this goal I am trying to involve all relevant players and multipliers in the Middle East to support this goal,” he said.
During the first two month of our winter season (Nov+Dec 2022) Austria had 80,000 overnights from the GCC countries, which is 20 per cent more than 2019
– Michael Tauschmann
“We are already looking forward to meeting our friends from the local travel trade during our Austria GCC roadshow as well as during the Private Luxury Event which is going to take place in October.
“Moreover, we are also pleased to announce that our joint event Discover Europe Travel Summit, which is going to be organized together with the German National Tourist Office, Ireland Tourism and Switzerland Tourism Board, is going to take place at the end of April. Our partners from Austria, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland are looking already forward to meeting the travel trade from the Gulf states in Dubai.
The visitors from GCC predominately travel to Austria during the summer months. “The winter season has a share of approximately 10 per cent of all overnights from GCC. Nevertheless, this winter season, Austria is more popular than ever and tourists from GCC seem to enjoy Austria’s Christmas markets a lot.
“During the first two month of our winter season (Nov+Dec 2022) Austria had 80,000 overnights from the GCC countries which is 20 per cent more than 2019.”
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Tauschmann joins the Dubai office from the Tokyo and Seoul office of ANTO. “It’s the first time for me to be working in the Middle East. I have visited the area many times before and have always had a fascination for the people.
“I have been working in the tourism industry for 25 years and been living in 7 different countries. It’s not a surprise that traveling is my biggest hobby,” he tells us.