Economy warns

Peripheral shopping is causing city centers to die out

Carinthia's city centers are struggling with more and more vacancies.(Bild: Kerstin Wassermann)

Retail in the cities is shrinking, while shopping on the outskirts continues to grow. Why this is the case, what opportunities are nevertheless arising for the cities of Klagenfurt and Villach and how district towns are looking for solutions.

The Carinthian capital of Klagenfurt is one of the seven shopping cities in Austria with an annual turnover of more than one billion euros. But if you walk around the city center, you get a completely different impression: one empty store after another, even in so-called good areas such as the Alter Platz.