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Salzburg is one of the smaller Austrian lands but it is one of the most important for the tourism industry. Only about six per cent of the Austrian population live in Salzburg but they contribute about 25 per cent of the net economic product of Austria: 5 million guests, more than 22 million overnight stays, with almost 189,000 beds available for tourists, 20,000 employees in the hotel and catering industry. These figures from the 2003/2004 tourism year clearly show the prime importance of tourism in the city and Land Salzburg. The Salzburg historian Dr. Hanns Haas assesses the significance of tourism in the land as follows: “Before tourism developed Salzburg was a poor land and the modest means of earning a livelihood could only provide most inhabitants with a minimum existence. Tourism brought prosperity and prestige to the land and at the same time radically changed its economic and social structures as well as its cultural orientation”. Nowadays Salzburg is one of the most prosperous European lands and for many years the land has had one of the lowest unemployment rates of all federal provinces. This is largely due to the development of tourism which has a multiplier effect in trade, commerce, transportation and banking. In domestic industries tourism also contributes about a third to the entire economic performance in the Land Salzburg. In the mountain valleys especially, there are hardly any alternatives to tourism. Its expansion stopped rural depopulation to the towns and cities and considerably reduced the gap in the living standard between the countryside and the cities. Salzburg‘s tourist centres offer a wide variety of recreational activities during summer and winter time.
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