Numerous hoteliers and tourism professionals met today, Thursday, at the invitation of the hotel association for a hoteliers' meeting at the "At the Park" hotel in Baden. Together with the state governor responsible for business and tourism, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, and the managing director of Niederösterreich Werbung, Michael Duscher, they discussed the new tourism law, future tourism projects and the development of Lower Austria in this area. The clear goal is "to develop Lower Austria from a destination for excursions into a destination for short breaks and vacations," said the state governor. Lower Austria has the most excursion destinations, "but we still have too few beds in our region, which means that too much added value is still being lost." Therefore, over the next four years, a variety of measures will be taken to create 4.000 additional beds in the state. To this end, the local hotel and restaurant industry will be supported financially, said Mikl-Leitner, "with our 'host package', where we are investing a total of four million euros." This is made up of three points: "From the host subsidy, where investments of 20 percent or up to a maximum of 400.000 euros are subsidized," explained the governor. Secondly, with the start-up and takeover subsidy, where a grant of up to 50.000 euros is granted, "and the third point is our inn premium, where up to 10.000 euros can be collected." A local business can thus receive up to 100.000 euros in subsidies with this package alone. In addition, the interested party contribution has been completely abolished as of January 1, 2024 and the overnight tax will be raised to the nationally and internationally usual level, including for festival guests, to 2,50 euros in health resorts.