Activities 2018

The Vienna Tourist Board is the only agency of the City of Vienna with ongoing activities in 19 markets around the world. It is active in the 19 source markets that generate around 80% of bednights and sales. On average, it organizes an event for the international media, the travel industry or the meeting industry every other day.

THE 19 MARKETS CULTIVATED BY THE VIENNA TOURIST BOARD

Bednights, room revenues and market shares, 01-12 2018 compared to 2017, all types of accommodation

Vienna Convention Bureau

In 2018, the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau represented Vienna as a convention destination at 66 networking events, trade fairs and congresses. In Vienna it stewarded inspection trips by a total of some 230 congress and incentive decision-makers from 15 countries. At IMEX America in Las Vegas, in 2018 the Vienna Convention Bureau again received in the Prevue Visionary Award in silver as the second best international convention bureau. Also in 2018, cooperation with Maritz Global Events was extended into 2019 and 2020. Maritz Global Events is one of the world's leading companies in the convention industry and is headquartered in the USA.

Vienna in the international travel market

In 2018, the Vienna Tourist Board team represented Vienna at ten trade fairs and events, at 47 workshops for overseas travel agencies, and at 61 special presentations in a total of 30 countries. They also organized participation by the Viennese industry in many of these events. On-site in Vienna, they hosted some 1,150 travel industry representatives from 27 countries.

International headlines

In 2018, the Vienna Tourist Board organized 56 press events in 19 countries and helped 1,200 journalists and influencers from 48 different countries with their research in Vienna. The Vienna Tourist Board’s activities in connection with the 2018 theme of Viennese Modernism alone generated more than 500 media reports in the second half of 2017 and all of 2018. In total, the media work of the Vienna Tourist Board in 2018 generated around 3,000 documented reports.

The Vienna Tourist Board in the media

Austrian print and online media, TV and radio broadcasts presented around 1,300 reports on the work of the Vienna Tourist Board and tourism development in the city. These stemmed from 55 press releases, six press conferences and numerous interviews and commentaries.

Website & Digital Marketing

The thirteen-language B2C website www.vienna.info includes around 1,900 editorial articles, as well as 3,000 locations in Vienna. On average, it recorded 736,000 unique users a month in 2018. On the Vienna Tourist Board’s digital B2B channels – b2b.vienna.info, vec.vienna.info, vienna.convention.at and www.wien-bild.at/english/ – some 27,700 unique users were recorded each month. The agency’s four Facebook presences had a total of approximately 615,000 likes at the end of the year, the two Twitter accounts had around 20,800. The number of followers on Instagram increased to more than 111,000 (+ 78%), YouTube subscribers to around 22,000. With these numbers, the Vienna Tourist Board ranks second in Europe, behind only London. The YouTube videos have been viewed a total of more than 8.5 million times.

Highlights in digital marketing include the YouTube series VIENNA/NOW, to which new formats were added in 2018. For example, in “Top Picks“ the host Adia Trischler points out the city’s most unusual museums or most beautiful vantage points. In the new format of “VIENNA/NOW Tours” she takes you on themed tours of the city, from “Art Nouveau” and “Jewish Vienna” to “Street Art.” Users of the interactive online Advent calendar can find new, typically Viennese items every day, this time in a so-called wimmel picture of the Christmas market on Rathausplatz, and also win a trip to Vienna.

Marketing Cooperations

The Vienna Tourist Board and its strategic partner Austrian Airlines work closely together on marketing in order to take advantage of synergies. The two organizations signed another comprehensive cooperation agreement in 2018. This cooperation extends to digital marketing activities and classical advertising as well as campaigns and joint ventures in the area of flight booking and travel portals. Joint online initiatives generated a total of more than 397 million impressions and 566,000 clicks. Out-of-home advertising was recorded in China and Japan, and print ads were placed in China, Hong Kong and Japan in a total of 12 million newspaper copies. Marketing partnerships on a smaller scale were executed with partners such as the Austrian National Tourist Office and organizers of major events in Vienna.

Print advertising materials and give-aways

In 2018, some 200 advertising materials (brochures, leaflets, posters) defining Vienna’s presence in world markets were issued in 17 languages. These included the 24-page Vienna Journal in six languages, with a total print run of of 210,000 copies. A total of 3.8 million copies of the city plan incorporating a list of museums was published in 13 languages. In addition, various promotional gifts were produced and used during campaigns abroad.

Services for Visitors

Approximately 900,000 visitors took advantage of the services offered by the Tourist Info on Albertinaplatz (personal advice, self-service, ticket office); about half of them received services in person. A further 100,000 guests visited the Tourist Info at Central Station. In April 2019, another Welcome Point opened at Vienna International Airport. These information offices give visitors information in person in ten languages and printed information in 17 languages. In the summer months two Tourist Infos – delivery bicycles bearing the Vienna design – were on the road outside the first district. They supplied 10,000 visitors and residents of Vienna with neighborhood information at a variety of locations. The Vienna Hotels & Info team processed around 27,000 inquiries by phone, email or letter.

Vienna City Card

The mobility card for visitors to Vienna was relaunched; from April 2019 on, it now offers not only free travel on Vienna Transport Authority lines but also airport transfers and Hop-On Hop-Off tours. The module for transfer to the airport can be redeemed on the City Airport Train, Austrian Railways’ Railjet, the S7 commuter train and Vienna Airport Lines. The Vienna City Card also includes more than 200 discounts for sights and museums, and also for the first time for LGBT offerings – just in time for EuroPride 2019.

Vienna Experts Club (International)

The “Vienna Experts Club International” is a customer loyalty program for the global travel industry. The Club currently counts more than 19,500 members in about 80 different countries. In 2018, some 1,700 of them took advantage of their club benefits during a trip to Vienna, seeing at first hand the many and varied tourism offerings in the city, which they can now describe persuasively to their customers. In addition to this, the “Vienna Experts Club” is a free training program for employees of Vienna hotels and incoming travel agencies, allowing them to constantly expand their knowledge of Vienna as a tourism product. In 2018 the club office organized not only mandatory entry and follow-up training for its more than 900 members, but also at least one exclusive event per month (except July).

Vienna Tourism Conference

At the Tourism Conference on October 23, 2018 in Liechtenstein Garden Palace, the ethics of change were discussed, both within the framework of tourism and beyond. Philosopher Richard David Precht and IT expert Massimo Marchiori presented talks to the approximately 500 guests about the value of people in a thoroughly digitized information society. Tourism Director Norbert Kettner reported on current tourism developments in the city.