City report
Waltzing Vienna
ALTHOUGH VIENNA’ S TOURISM FIGURES ARE BOUNCING BACK STRONGLY, THE DESTINATION HAS A NEW STRATEGY FOR ENSURING THE FUTURE MEANS QUALITY TOURISM NOT OVER-TOURISM.
V ienna’ s tourism sector
reported its strongest ever performance in 2024, with 18.9m bednights( up 9 % on 2023) and record revenue from overnight stays.
It is set to be a big year for events, too, in Vienna with 2025 being all about the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss.
Visitors from Germany were the national group accounting for the largest share of bednights last year, with 3,462,000 overnight stays( up 4 % on 2023), although, in terms of revenue from overnight stays, the USA took the top spot in the five-star hotel category.
Now Vienna Convention Bureau has shared an update to its Visitor Economy Strategy( VES) which, it says, has redefined travel and its impact on the city since its introduction in 2019.
Now, under the title‘ Optimum Tourism’ and led by Vienna Tourist Board, the new phase of VES will focus on good growth and balancing the needs of locals and visitors. The key points are:
• Three objectives to shape tourism effectively: a) Maintaining the‘ sweet spot’ between resident satisfaction and visitor satisfaction; b) Two-thirds of Vienna’ s visitors should match the‘ desired visitor’ profile and c) One-tenth of overnight stays should come from the meetings sector in the long term
• Support from residents and visitors as the core foundation
• Strong focus on cultural tourism, the meeting industry and luxury visitors
• Destination Stewardship: shared goals and shared responsibility
• Global standards and transparency through partnership with UN Tourism
• Action Programmes: flexible action, and stricter rules for public spaces.
Left: Vienna’ s Imperial Riding School hotel, part of Marriott’ s Autograph Collection
The CVB says:“ Vienna is a fast-growing international city, and city tourism has returned stronger than ever. Guided by the principle of‘ Do not destroy what your audience loves you for’, we want to ensure that tourism adds real value for visitors and residents alike. Vienna’ s strategy is a blueprint for sustainable tourism growth. The goal is to achieve the kind of growth that strengthens the city’ s qualities rather than exploiting them. But this calls for a united approach to the Visitor Economy with clear goals and measurable outcomes.”
Venue news Meanwhile, The Austria Center Vienna continues to modernise, reopening its Level 2 area in time to host the European Radiology Congress( the nation’ s largest medical congress) in March this year, with 20,000 attendees.
Another huge piece of conference business in the city recently was the European Heart Rhythm Association( EHRA) Congress which returned to Vienna 30 March to 1 April 2025. Hosted at VIECON- Vienna Congress & Convention Center, that congress saw a record-breaking attendance of over 6,000 delegates from 107 countries.
Vienna now has 433 hotels offering over 40,000 rooms, including a further ten hotels with 1,500 more rooms to the pipeline in 2025.
One standout hotel full of elegance and elan and doing strong events business is the Imperial Riding School hotel – part of Marriott’ s Autograph Collection and now completing its first year following an extensive 18-month, € 45m renovation. It offers 342 guest rooms, a 450sqm wellness area with pool and an outdoor terrace area suitable for events. There are 13 function rooms and the hotel sits in an artists’ quarter.
A 1,650sqm photovoltaic system on the roof ensures that future electricity requirements can be largely covered by the hotel itself, while sensors have been installed in all rooms to counter any unnecessary energy consumption. n
ISSUE 136 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 47