Mikrozensus surveys on the holiday habits of the Austrian population have been conducted every three years since 1969. The main focus of these surveys is to compare the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the tourists (age, sex, social situation, etc.) with the characteristics of the holiday (travel destination, accommodation, etc.). The survey catalogue, fixed by the OECD, has changed only slightly over the years. It was adapted to the European guideline for tourism statistics (1) and is now conducted annually in December (2), starting with the year 1996. The questions are mostly concerned with the Austrians main holidays (a vacation with at minimum number of 4 overnight stays outside the residential area, according to international agreements). The exception are holidays (minimum duration 1 week) at a health resort paid by the health insurance or stays at a clinic to recover from severe illnesses or surgery. Business trips are also excluded. An important index is the so called travel-intensity (Reiseintensität) or nett-travel-intensity (Netto-Reiseintensität). This is the percentage of persons who had gone on a main holiday at least once within the surveyed year. (1) see Council Directive 95/57/EG from 23rd November 1995 on the collecting of statistical data in the field of tourism, OJ. Nr. L 291/32 from 6th December 1995. Starting with the year 1998, annual surveys on holidays with a minimum number of 4 overnight stays are conducted according to the Councils Directive. They are preformed as a Mikrozensus special survey each December. (2) The survey program has been extended to include detail-questions for 4 main holidays since the survey in 1998. In addition, there are estimations on more than 4 (max. 18) main holidays the tourist might have gone on. Moreover, missing data is supplemented with an imputation program.
Probability: Stratified: Disproportional
Face-to-face interview
