Vienna announces United Cities of Tourism campaign

Vienna Tourist Board has launched a campaign to encourage the return of the city break. Running from the beginning of May until 30 June, ‘United Cities of Tourism,’ the new campaign, is born out of co-operation between six tourism authorities including London, Paris, Berlin, Milan and Barcelona. It has the support of Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB rail and Austrian Airlines. For every 100 tourists that visit Vienna, one Viennese tourist will win the opportunity to travel to another city. The campaign includes large-scale posters displayed in popular city destinations, such as at Milan’s Duomo, Paris’ Beaugrenelle shopping centre, on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm and projected at more than 50 locations on the London Underground. Each of the posters will communicate the central message that travelling to Vienna will support your ‘home’ city. A series of videos has also been created which focus on capturing a feeling, or characteristic unique to each destination involved. For example, supporting Vienna’s local coffee houses or Berlin’s club culture. Each of the participating tourism boards explains their motivation through a single campaign video, available here. In total, there are almost 2,200 round-trip tickets to be won with ÖBB or Austrian Airlines to one of the 17 cities where the ‘United Cities of Tourism’ campaign will be carried out. Full details and conditions of participation are available here. Pre-pandemic, the UK was a top five origin market for international tourism to Vienna, accounting for 736,000 bed nights in 2019. In total, net revenue for overnight stays in Vienna generated €1 billion to the economy with the UK specifically contributing €48 million – almost double the 2013 figures. “European metropolises are the most important benchmark for Vienna. Despite the competitive situation, we are united by a strong will to co-operate, a willingness to exchange knowledge and a common trust with regard to the high-quality further development of our visitor economy – in the direction of value creation, job creation and compatible tourism with which the population identifies,” said Norbert Kettner, CEO of Vienna Tourist Board. “We know from market research that about half of city travellers also live in big cities themselves.” Each of the participating tourism boards will also promote the campaign through their social channels. “We have learned from global crises in the past: city tourism is usually the first and hardest hit, but acts quickly in the recovery phase and returns sustainably, profitably, in higher quality and with higher growth rates. In the medium and long term, tourism growth can only be achieved with urban agglomerations,” according to Kettner. “With ‘United Cities of Tourism’ we want to set an unmistakable sign for city tourism,” he added. For more information on the Unitied Cities of Tourism, visit: unitedcities.vienna.info/en-gb/home  For more information on Vienna, visit: Vienna.info