National Tourism Funding
The Ministry Economy, Energy and Tourism is responsible for the strategic use of budget funds to support activities in the Austrian tourism and leisure industry.
In 2025, the national tourism administration’s budget amounted to EUR 68.4 million. Of this total, EUR 29.2 million were allocated to the financial support for SMEs, administered by the Austrian Bank for Tourism Development (OeHT), a specialised bank acting in a public-private partnership with the Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism (see below). EUR 32.6 million were directed to the budget of Austria Tourism. The remaining funds were disbursed by the Ministry through individual subsidies, co-financing EU-funded tourism projects, support of alpine infrastructure, and service contracts. In addition to the national budget, all nine federal states have their own tourism budgets to support specific programmes.
Tourism Funding via the Austrian Bank for Tourism Development
Since 1947, the OeHT has been a key funding partner for the Austrian tourism industry. It is a specialised funding bank owned by two private banks: the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) and the Raiffeisen Group. Acting on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism and in cooperation with the corresponding principal banks, OeHT supports businesses through subsidised financing, guarantees, grants, and expert knowledge (more than 75 years of experience). It also coordinates tourism funding with other funding institutions, Austria´s federal states, and the European Union.
OeHT acts as a key instrument for national tourism policy. Targeted funding incentives support the development of future-oriented tourism products and services, contributing to the achievement of the targets of the national tourism strategy Vision T. In 2025, the OeHT leveraged an investment volume of around EUR 540 million and supported 337 businesses.
The Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism and the OeHT presented new funding guidelines in 2023 to support investments by family-run and owner-managed tourism SMEs to strengthen sustainability and financial resilience. The scheme includes subsidised loans and guarantees as well as a 7% “sustainability bonus” – 3.5% as of 1 July 2025 – for investment costs up to a maximum of EUR 350 000. The investment costs can be related to ecological, staff and regional as well as digitalisation investments. This includes, for example, thermal renovation, new heating systems with renewable energy, energy-efficient machines, building of employee housing, and investment in digitalisation.
Furthermore, the funding can assist young entrepreneurs, e.g. in taking over a tourism business. To address issues of tourism intensity and land use, the new scheme excludes funding for new buildings in already tourism-intensive municipalities and investments that lead to more than an additional 25% ground sealing.
A new funding scheme to support succession processes for tourism SMEs was launched in June 2025. The scheme aims to create business plans addressing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a recent or impending succession process. The goal is to prevent small, often family-led hotels and restaurants in rural regions from closing when the current owner or operator retires. This subsidy aims to make it more attractive for potential successors – often the children of the current owners – to carry on with the business. Guidance for succession processes is provided by the Ministry through brochures, magazines and dedicated websites. A tourism-specific questionnaire on ESG performance indicators (environment, social, governance) can be used by banks to assess the sustainability performance of the financed tourism businesses (“ESG Data Hub”). In addition, the OeHT requires businesses at the time of application as well as during the funding period to report these ESG performance indicators. The OeHT publishes aggregated ESG business data at regular intervals.
