Austria Center Vienna completes exterior renovation as revenues from congresses return to pre-crisis levels

With the official opening of the new main entrance, Austria’s largest congress centre has now completed the last major phase of its multi-year, €7m exterior refurbishment. The modernisation work at Austria Center Vienna is clearly having a positive effect, with the centre’s management reporting €13m in revenue generated by events and over 61,000 international participants welcomed to the venue in 2022. The figures were close to the totals reported in pre-crisis 2019. “We are very happy that we were able to showcase the new main entrance, complete with giant LED wall, for the very first time at the radiology congress in March. And the living green walls were ready in time for the Geosciences Congress in May,” said MD congress management Susanne Baumann-Söllner. “Extensive modernisations have been going on at the venue since 2019. We were able to carry out all the work without interrupting operations. And with the completion of the main entrance, we have now successfully completed all of the exterior remodelling,” added Michael Rotter, MD responsible for construction services, property and project management. Besides completion of the new main entrance that connects the square in front of the main building with the entrance hall (completed in 2022), the stairways leading to the parking decks have also been renewed and four new elevators installed to facilitate smooth and barrier-free arrival and departure. The entrance area’s new trademark is a 90-square-meter LED wall, which can be used to display bespoke content. “A glance at the new facade sums up our focus for the years to come: digitalisation is opening up completely new possibilities in the event sector, while offering sustainable events is at least as important. In the long term, our goal is to make sure that all of the events held at the Austria Center Vienna take place as green meetings,” Baumann-Söllner said. After very few international events – each with low in-person attendance rates – in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, things quickly picked up pace last year at the centre. In 2022, a total of 61,700 international participants visited the Austria Center Vienna, mainly due to a very strong summer and autumn season which saw totals recover to around two-thirds of the 2019 total (91,500 international participants). And at €13m, revenue from events only just fell short of the 2019 result (€13.2m). “There is a very clear desire for in-person events that offer a genuine event experience and opportunities for personal exchange after two years shaped by the crisis. For this year, we expect fresh increases both in terms of participant numbers and revenue, and we’re optimistic about our chances of actually surpassing the figures for 2019,” Baumann-Söllner concluded. The Austria Center Vienna is Austria’s largest conference centre, offering19 halls, 180 meeting rooms and some 26,000sqm of exhibition space.