Vienna is the world’s number one congress destination

Vienna’s tourist industry is doing pretty well. Vienna was selected as the number one congress destination in the world for the sixth time in a row. Moreover, guest nights and the turnover of the restaurant and catering sector climbed to a record high.

After leading for half a dozen times, Vienna triumphed again in the latest city ranking for 2010 published by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA). With 154 international meetings, Vienna topped the international city ranking of ICCA for the sixth time. According to a press release of ICCA, Vienna defended its first rank even though it organised six congresses less compared to 2009. This implies, however, that other cities have been catching up with Vienna. Barcelona (148), Paris (147), Berlin (138) and Singapore (136) made it up to the top five. And other cities moved up the ranking as well: Madrid from place 13 to 6, Istanbul from 17 to 7 and Sydney from 27 to 10. In contrast, Copenhagen and Stockholm dropped out of the top ten.

Joint success of Vienna

Christian Mutschlechner of the Vienna Convention Bureau of the Vienna Tourist Association described this as a “special success” and “a tribute to all providers of the Vienna-based conference sector“. The first rank was a solid proof of the consistent commitment to quality and excellence of all players in Vienna – from the hotels to their suppliers.

USA holds leading position

In the ICCA’s country ranking the USA reaffirmed their leading position (ahead of Germany) held since 2004. In 2010 the USA attracted a total of 623 international congresses, followed by Germany (542) and Spain (451). Compared to 2009, the difference between Germany and the USA shrank from 137 to 81 meetings. Austria came in 14th in the country ranking of ICCA. Last year 73 per cent of all 212 congresses hosted by Austria were held in Vienna. Great Britain (399), France (371), Italy (341), Japan (305), China (282), Brazil (275) and Switzerland (244) also made it among the top ten.

Martin Sirk, CEO of the International Congress and Convention Association, commented on the success of congress tourism at the peak of the worldwide economic crisis. The fast upswing of new communication technologies such as the Internet had increased the need to discuss complex issues face-to-face, providing impetus to congress tourism.

Booming congress tourism

Based on an analysis, the number of events, of participants and congress days surged to record levels in the congress year 2010. However as far as the number of days spent by participants and of hotel nights is concerned, the record figures of the past years could not be achieved, let alone exceeded. With a total of 1,053,850 hotel nights of national and international attendees, the congress year 2010 ranked third in the long-term statistics, just behind 2009 with 1,128,901. 2007 remains uncontested with 1,145,730 hotel nights of congress participants.

In 2010 national and international congresses contributed 652.09 million euros  (at current prices) to the Austrian gross domestic product (GDP); 60.88 million euro were attributable to national congresses and 591.21 million euros to international meetings. Congresses generated a tax yield of 182.34 million euros Austria-wide, while Vienna benefited from 21.99 million euros. 12,204 jobs were safeguarded.

New large-scale congresses for Vienna

Vienna will remain the world’s most popular congress destination in the near future. For 2012 and 2013 the Vienna Convention Bureau has already announced two large-scale congresses. The Passenger Terminal EXPO & Conference at the trade fair centre “Reed Messe Wien” from 18 to 20 April 2012 expects 3,500 leading representatives of the airport industry. The International Congress of the World Psychiatric Association will take place at Austria Center Vienna from 27 to 30 October 2013 and attract about 5,000 specialists.

The recently published tourist statistics for April 2011 also show that the number of guest nights climbed to a record high of 1,005,000. This is the first time that guest nights exceeded the one-million-euro threshold, and Vienna reported its so-far strongest April, exceeding the figure for April 2010 by 13.2%. The net turnover of guest nights reported by the hotel industry also climbed to an unprecedented level, boasting a plus of 34.1%. The number of guest nights registered in Vienna in the first third of 2011 was 5.4% above the level of the same period in 2010. The turnover in the hotel sector in the first quarter did not only exceed the prior-year figure by 18.1% but also the previous record of 2008 by 7.3%. The most significant increases in the main tourist markets were attributable to Russia, France and Spain. The number of tourists from the emerging markets of Central and South America (+ 70 %), China (+ 48 %) and India (+ 49 %) was skyrocketing.