📋 Tender Overview
All parliamentary groups in the National Council today spoke out in favour of making tourism research in Austria visible and networking. In the debate, however, the opposition parties SPÖ, NEOS and FPÖ criticised the governing parties for not tackling other necessary fields of action.
The joint initiative of the ÖVP, the Greens and the SPÖ on research aims, among other things, at a project roadmap for a possible competence centre for tourism research. So far, tourism research has focused either on global phenomena or on very specific regions. This sometimes gives the impression that initiatives are running in parallel and that synergy potentials are not sufficiently identified or exploited. In addition to a "research map", however, a holistic view would include an overview of current research trends and an exchange of ideas and knowledge.
The tourism industry is in a transformation phase, tourism must become more sustainable and digital, Rebecca Kirchbaumer (ÖVP) explained to the plenary. In order to be able to maintain the 6 percent gross domestic product in the future, or even increase it, Austria would also have to remain the market leader, which it currently is in an international comparison, but this requires research. There is a lot of research in Austria, but through different institutions. Therefore, it would be good "if there were an interface," the MP said. Her party colleagues Gertraud Salzmann and Bettina Zopf also pointed to the avoidance of two-pronged approaches.
