2,000 Media Reports Around the Globe

In 2025, the Vienna Tourist Board’s ongoing media relations generated around 2,000 clippings – an average of more than five media reports per day. For its annual theme of Johann Strauss – King of Waltz, Queen of Music – the organization generated around 650 clippings with approximately 750 million impressions. In addition, the multimedia campaign Waltz into Space generated around 10,000 media mentions and an impressive 19 billion impressions – a new earned media record for a Vienna Tourist Board campaign.

In 2025, approximately 720 international media representatives were hosted in Vienna as part of individual research visits and group press trips. By facilitating access, insights and story development, the Vienna Tourist Board helped generate independent editorial coverage that plays a key role in enhancing Vienna’s international profile as a destination.

Vienna Film Incentive Brings International Film Productions to Vienna

According to the Travelsat Index compiled by global online market research company TCI-Research, around 100 million international travelers chose their destination primarily due to films between 2017 and 2019 – a finding that also highlighted another of the competitive advantages that Vienna has over its European peers. The study concludes that one in ten visitors chooses Vienna mainly because of a film. Based on these market research insights, in 2022 the City of Vienna and the Vienna Tourist Board launched its EUR 2m Vienna Film Incentive international film funding program.

Since its inception, six major international film productions have already been supported by the incentive. These include the popular Netflix series The Recruit (2022) and Crooks (2023), the Apple/Skydance production The Fountain of Youth (2024) starring Natalie Portman and directed by Guy Ritchie, as well as the feature film Very Best Ager (2025) starring Iris Berben and Heiner Lauterbach.

In 2025, two projects supported by the Vienna Film Incentive were realized: the second season of the Netflix hit Crooks, directed by Viennese filmmaker Marvin Kren, and the Spanish Netflix miniseries The Map of Longing, based on the novel by celebrated Spanish author Alice Kellen. Shooting locations for Crooks 2 included Kohlmarkt, Graben, Burgtheater, Palais Rasumofsky, and Rathauskeller, as well as numerous parking garages. For The Map of Longing, key locations included the Belvedere Palace, the tram that runs along the Ringstrasse boulevard, the Danube Canal, the State Opera, the Albertina, and the Palm House.

The Vienna Film Incentive mandate has been extended until the end of 2026 and the fund has been allocated an additional EUR 500,000.