Although the effects of the coronavirus continued to make themselves strongly felt in 2022, the Vienna Tourist Board was able to increase the already consistently high reach of its websites and social media channels during the year.

Above-Average Interaction Rates On Social Media

On Instagram alone, the number of subscribers jumped by around 17% in 2022, to over 333,000 followers. At around 5%, the interaction rate on the organization’s channels was well above the average of around 1% for its other social media channels. In addition to the Vienna Tourist Board’s international B2C social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest), its Chinese platforms Weibo (around 185,000 followers) and WeChat (around 67,000 followers) also gained more users. In fact, the number of followers on WeChat more than doubled compared with a year earlier.

B2B reach and follower numbers also continued to rise. The Vienna Tourist Board (up 51% on 2021) and Vienna Convention Bureau (up 27%) LinkedIn channels saw combined follower numbers exceed 16,000 during the course of the year – an increasingly significant development for addressing specific stakeholder and target groups. The Vienna Tourist Board’s two B2B Twitter accounts – (WienTourismus Newsroom in German and Vienna) had more than 24,460 followers at the end of the reporting period.

A key success factor behind the high reach and engagement levels recorded on the Vienna Tourist Board's social media channels is the steadily rising share of the overall content mix accounted for by video material, which jumped significantly increased in 2022 through increased collaboration with content contributors. One of the highlights of 2022 – the short film The Secret to Thriving in Hard Times produced by YouTube star Nathaniel Drew – was created in collaboration with the Vienna Tourist Board. At the time of reporting, it had generated almost 110,000 views on YouTube. Also, the regular publication of new episodes as part of the ongoing VIENNA/NOW YouTube series, as well as the establishment of the YouTube shorts format saw further growth in both subscriber numbers (39,200) and the organic reach of the Vienna Tourist Board’s YouTube channel Vienna.

Websites for Visitors and Vienna's Visitor Economy

The 12 different language versions of the vienna.info B2C website were kept up to date and continuously expanded throughout 2022. The German language version alone offered several thousand editorial articles about Vienna as a destination as well as comprehensive information regarding coronavirus-related regulations and restrictions for visitors. An online booking facility for Viennese accommodation providers and a comprehensive event database with around 1,000 entries completed the picture. The website had 6.5 million users (up 46% on 2021) and 20.4 million page impressions (up 66%).

The b2b.vienna.info B2B website is where communication with stakeholders in Vienna's visitor economy and international travel industry professionals converges. Tourism companies were able to use the service to find out all the latest on Covid-19 and funding and support schemes, stay up to speed on guidelines affecting accommodation providers and check the Vienna Tourist Board’s market observation dashboard for regular updates on developments for 22 major short-haul and long-haul markets. vec.vienna.info keeps members of the Vienna Experts Club (VEC) and Vienna Experts Club International (VECI) up to speed on all the latest developments. The website of the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau at vienna.convention.at provides comprehensive information on Meeting Destination Vienna, event planning guidance and a calendar showing all of the important meetings in Vienna. A separate section of the site is also dedicated to sustainability – the Vienna Convention Bureau has been a green-meeting certification body since 2011 and also advises stakeholders in the visitor economy on how they can make their meetings even more sustainable.

210,000 users (up 23% on the same period in 2021) and 585,000 page views (up 20%) were recorded on b2b.vienna.info, vec.vienna.info and vienna.convention.at. The number of convention-segment users rose by more than 70% year on year.

Above-Average Click Rates for All Newsletters

The Vienna Tourist Board’s B2C Newsletter Vienna Newsletter in German and English keeps Vienna fans around the world up to date. It was sent out a total of 24 times to more than 54,000 recipients in 2022. The average-open rate was above the average for corporate newsletters, at around 40%.

The Vienna Media News newsletter gives media representatives all the latest news relating to art, culture, travel, food and drink, lifestyle and much more in Vienna. Published in six languages (German, English, French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish), it is received by around 25,000 subscribers around the world. In 2022, it was sent a total of 48 times. The average open rate was around 44%. Features on new arrivals and reopenings on Vienna's culinary scene as well as articles on Viennese cultural highlights were particularly popular.

Since 2022, the Meeting Destination Vienna Newsletter issued by the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau has provided an additional channel for news, information and interesting facts about Meeting Destination Vienna. Available in German and English, it is aimed at international meeting planners – and, as such, directly at (potential) customers and participants in the Viennese meeting industry. In 2022, nine newsletters were sent out to more than 700 subscribers (at the last count), and the open rate was about 50%.

In its Industry Newsletter (German only), the Vienna Tourist Board also notified around 1,800 contacts from the visitor economy about current developments in the destination, key figures and the organization’s worldwide activities.