Tourism in Vienna Reports Partial Success

Tourism in Vienna recorded more guests, overnight stays and sales in 2022. However, it is still below the level seen before the Corona crisis. Vienna’s City Councilor for Economic Affairs Hanke nevertheless sees a trend reversal.

“We are back,” said Vienna’s city councilor at a press briefing last week. With 13.2 million overnight stays, however, the city of Vienna in the previous year has reached only three-quarters of the revenue of 2019.

In terms of guest numbers (arrivals), Vienna was also only at 71 percent of the 2019 figure, with 5.6 million. From January to November 2022, businesses generated net overnight revenues of around 759 million euros – 84 percent of the comparable figure for 2019.

Number of Beds on the Rise

The number of beds in the federal capital is rising steadily – from around 71,000 in 2022, it is expected to increase to 75,000 by the end of 2023. Last year, the city counted almost 400 hotel establishments. Vienna’s tourism director Norbert Kettner thinks room rates are too cheap compared with other cities. It is time for “self-confident pricing”, i.e. price increases, says Kettner.

More Meetings in Vienna Again

Tourism representatives also see the MICE tourism in Vienna increase, which is a key economic factor for Viennese tourism. In the previous year, 47 major conferences (with 1,000 or more participants) were held in Vienna. Before the pandemic, there were 70. However, the Convention Bureau currently has 160 applications for congresses and corporate meetings in progress, says Kettner.

Tourism in Vienna Recovers

Last year, Vienna attracted mainly European visitors, although American tourists returned with a “bang” and the U.S. was Vienna’s third-strongest source market after Austria and Germany, said Vienna’s tourism director Norbert Kettner. Growth from Great Britain was also particularly strong, he added. The Chinese market, on the other hand, hardly recovered: with 56,000 overnight stays, barely a tenth of the previous volume was recorded. In addition to guests with purchasing power from Asia, tourism in Vienna is also lacking tourists from these countries due to the war in Ukraine.

16 M Euros for Tourism in Vienna 2023

For 2023, Vienna Tourism has more than 16 million euros at its disposal to promote the city. This is to be used to target the 13 most important markets. In addition to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, France and Italy, these are the USA, Canada, the Arab countries, China, Japan and South Korea. One focus is to be on the USA, the overseas market with the highest volume and sales.

More Arrivals by Train

In the future, guests from the surrounding countries should travel even more often by train instead of by car, according to the goal of Vienna Tourism. Whereas in 2018, 26 percent arrived by car and 21 percent by train, in the previous year it was 29 percent by car and 30 percent by train. By 2025, the train is expected to have overtaken the car, Kettner said.