1998). Here, however, tourism displays great variations in intensity. Whereas in almost all of the
western half it is an essential or even dominant element of the economic structure, this branch of the
economy is only worthy of mention in a few small areas of the eastern half (Schindegger et al. 1997).
Tourism in Austria is based on the generally high quality of the cultural landscape as rural amenity.
The Austrian tourist industry is characterised by a predominantly small-business structure. Its
development in its time was consciously promoted through a wide distribution of tourist income in
economically disadvantaged areas and the maintenance of the economic independence of the
resident population, particularly in the interests of keeping the population and agriculture in peripheral
areas of the mountain regions.
However, the image of the Alps as a unique tourist area often leads to an overestimation of the
economic role of tourism. Recently the inter-relation of mountain agriculture, landscape and tourism
is used to be recalled as the specific feature of land use in these mountain areas. Whereas in some
places, as has been shown, the tourist population might exceed the number of inhabitants and
particularly acute forms of utilisation conflicts arise, other areas remain threatened by economic
decline and population exodus. The concentration of tourist activities can be assessed through the
share and tendencies of employment in accommodation and catering employment branches (Table
4).
The mono-structure of the employment structure in communities, where more than 50% of the labour
force is engaged in accommodation and catering, causes a serious dependence on an economic
branch with a doubtful future. The early half of the 1990s has been marked by considerable
difficulties for tourism in mountain areas. Moreover, the sub-urbanisation processes of the main
valleys and sub-alpine regions has induced a retreat of tourism to more peripheral locations which
are characterised by extremely sensitive environmental conditions (Schindegger et al. 1997, p. 97).
This is why many development concepts and strategies emphasise the need to preserve the natural
and cultural landscapes, conceiving them as the basic potential for a wide scope of development
options for mountain areas (OECD 1998a). Sectoral shifts are therefore more and more assessed
not just in their quantitative terms but evaluated due to their interconnectedness to other uses of the
area and to demands from beyond the region as well.