EIB grants €150 m to support Austrian sustainable tourism investment

25 / 01 / 2023

By Marwa Nassar - -

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €150 million loan to Österreichische Hotel- und Tourismusbank (ÖHT) to support Austrian sustainable tourism investment.

It will be paid out in several tranches and go towards supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the leisure and tourism industry in Austria. The loan is designed to enable family-run hotels and restaurants to invest in sustainable projects.

The EIB and ÖHT have a successful long-standing partnership financing sustainable tourism in Austria, but this is the first financing operation specifically devoted to investments in sustainable projects.

Tourism is one of the most important sectors in Austria, where most businesses are family owned. This means that ÖHT’s customer base is almost exclusively made up of small and medium businesses. ÖHT will top up the EIB loan by at least the same amount, bringing the total available for additional long-term investment to €300 million. Thanks to these funds, the EIB and ÖHT will jointly help to develop the private sector and to create jobs and sustainable economic growth.

EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros, who is responsible for business in Austria, said “Tourism plays an important role in the Austrian economy and helps to create jobs and economic growth due to the huge number of small, family-run hotels and restaurants. We are pleased to be supporting the environmentally friendly transformation of this sector alongside ÖHT.”

Managing Director of ÖHT Matthias Matzer said “Actively shaping the green transformation of tourism through assisted financing solutions is one of our most important strategic objectives. ÖHT believes it has a responsibility to make sustainability more than just a buzzword by integrating it into its future priorities. Thanks to our partnership with the EIB, we can now step up our support for sustainable tourism investment.”