An Investigation Into Seasonality – How to Increase Overnight Stays In the Shoulder Season: A Case Study In Austria

Seasonality has long been viewed as one of the most unique and worrisome facets of the tourism industry. This paper provides an overview and evaluates the issues of seasonality in an Austrian winter resort. The tourism and hospitality industry faces seasonal fluctuations of demand every where in the world. As a result diverse problems occur for hotels in the tourism regions, such as overuse of facilities, seasonal environmental congestion and off-season unemployment. This paper reviews these issues taking the case of an Austrian Hotel, and examines the seasonality problem and poses some solutions to increase overnight stays in the shoulder season and increase the turnover. This study is divided into five chapters. First of all an introduction of the subject area, the aim and objectives of the study are given. The literature review critically reviews previous papers and works. It includes the secondary research that is required for the purposes of the study. A range of theories and factors that have been previously discussed and studied by other researchers are presented. The methodology of the study and includes the methods that have been adopted in this research and for this specific study. It justifies and explains the survey development process, the questionnaire design and gives emphasis on the reliability of the results being taken from the research method. For the analysing of the 228 valid questionnaires, the researchers used the statistic program SPSS. The data is presented via tables and graphs. This analysis presents various tables and graphs in relation with the questions of the questionnaire distributed in the visitors of the hotel. The analyses and the recommendations of the author conclude this research. Bachelorarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Hotelfach / Gaststättengewerbe, Note: B-, University of Derby, 44 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis.