2024 was the most successful year for city tourism in Vienna since records began. The capital recorded almost 19 million visitor overnight stays – up 9% on 2023 and more than the previous record set in 2019. And even more encouragingly, revenue from overnight stays grew by a quarter more than the total number of bednights, which ushered in another milestone: Vienna’s accommodation sector was already closing in on a new revenue record as early as November. For the full year, revenue reached approximately EUR 1.4 billion – 12% higher than a year earlier. City tourism in Vienna proved to be a driver of value creation, generating location-based, year-round jobs. Its extensive spillover effects provided a significant boost to adjacent sectors, such as retail. We would like to express our sincerest thanks to all of the stakeholders in Vienna's Visitor Economy for their hard work – they made this success possible in the first place, despite the confluence of various geopolitical and economic challenges.

Especially in economically challenging times, we are committed to targeting high-value markets – connecting Vienna’s tourism sector with areas of the world where purchasing power is high. Recent studies confirm that air travel remains a critical component of Vienna’s tourism modal split for 39% of visitors (and eight out of ten congress participants), particularly from long-haul markets. This underscores the importance of our close partnerships both with our home carrier, Austrian Airlines, and Vienna International Airport, which continued to serve as a strong international hub in 2024. At the same time, through our tried-and-tested partnership with Austrian Federal Railways and its partners, we are continuing to capitalize on Vienna’s status as Europe’s best-connected city for train travel: one-third of Vienna’s guests prefer to travel to the capital by rail, marking a resounding success for our transportation strategy. In 2024, we not only achieved our goals for the tourism modal split, but also met key strategic performance indicators across the board – from growth in revenue and value creation to social and environmental sustainability. It was also the year we reached numerous milestones and laid the foundation for the continued positive development of Vienna’s tourism industry. Further details can be found in this annual report.

Looking ahead, Vienna remains committed to tourism growth in the coming years, but aims to actively manage it. We will continue to align with key metrics and international standards, working transparently and in cooperation with the UN Tourism organization. This is a responsibility that we will be sharing with policymakers, the city administration, and businesses – after all, it is only by working together that we can successfully shape the future. Our goal is to forge a shared path that creates a win-win situation for everyone involved. Our strategy prioritizes quality, flexibility, and readiness to step up and take action. We aim to develop tourism in a way that generates value, and we can only achieve this with the support of the local population. In 2024, with the support of our partners, we refined Vienna’s already highly successful Visitor Economy Strategy and launched an updated version – Optimum Tourism – in early 2025. Learn more at https://optimum.vienna.info