The airline Austrian Airlines and Wien Tourismus want to boost long-haul city tourism with a joint advertising campaign for which 500.000 euros will be spent. Vienna is to be advertised in particular in the United States of America and on digital channels.

"Around half of Vienna's guests - in the congress sector it's even three quarters - come to Vienna by plane. The contribution of our home carrier Austrian Airlines to the long-standing success of the tourist city of Vienna, which before Corona was the second strongest Austrian federal state in terms of value creation and expenditure, is a significant one. It is all the more important to the City of Vienna to support the long-standing cooperation between Austrian Airlines and the Vienna Tourist Board, especially during the restart. The city is therefore investing 500.000 euros to strengthen Vienna's international positioning," explains Vienna's City Councilor for Economic Affairs, Peter Hanke.

As part of their joint marketing activities, the Vienna Tourist Board and Austrian Airlines are cooperating this year on several European home markets, with a focus on Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, as well as on the long-distance US market - the joint effort is around 1,5 million euros. The budget increased by the City of Vienna with the special endowment of 500.000 euros is to be used primarily in the USA.

"Around 83 percent of Vienna's overnight stays came from abroad in 2019 - even in the exceptional year 2021, Vienna already managed to achieve a share of 72% in international overnight stays, even if these came increasingly from local markets. On the way out of the pandemic, we are now also focusing on the reactivation of the long-distance markets, above all the USA, which have not lost their key role even during Corona: In the previous year they were still the third most important source of sales in the Viennese hotel industry. I would like to thank Austrian Airlines for the many years of successful partnership, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and the City of Vienna for the additional funds that we intend to use in particular for the reactivation of the US market, and also in the area of digital communication and audience activation via social media," explains Tourism Director Norbert Kettner.

“A booking boom that has been unique since the beginning of the pandemic shows us that people want to travel again and rediscover the world! Vienna is an attractive travel destination for our international guests. Working together with our long-standing partner WienTourismus as a hub carrier at the Vienna hub, we want to boost the recurring travel dynamics - the generous special budget made available by the City of Vienna provides the necessary tailwind!", says Austrian Airlines Board Member for Sales Michael Trestl. “Austrian Airlines is ready for take-off and brings the whole world to Austria with Austrian charm on board. In addition to our dense European route network, our summer focus is on the North American market, where Vienna is particularly popular as a travel destination. We will once again be flying to Chicago, Washington and the two New York airports of JFK and Newark on a daily basis, and from 20 May the west coast will also be back in the Austrian Airlines route portfolio with Los Angeles. This means we can offer over 30 non-stop flights a week to the USA.”