Waltzing Around the World – and Into Space
International Marketing Highlights
In 2025, the Vienna Tourist Board actively serviced 12 incoming markets with a marketing budget of EUR 15.1m. In addition to Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Spain, France and Italy, activities centered on Canada, the Arab countries, China, Japan and South Korea as well as the USA. In the long-haul segment, the focus of the department’s development work was on the USA, which is Vienna's highest-volume and highest-revenue overseas market.
Waltz into Space Global Campaign in the Strauss Year
As part of its “King of Waltz. Queen of Music.” theme year marking the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss II’s birth, the Vienna Tourist Board set off on a mission of truly cosmic proportions in its Waltz into Space campaign. In partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) – which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025 – the Vienna Tourist Board sent the Blue Danube Waltz where it truly belongs: to the stars.
In the wider cultural imagination, Johann Strauss II’s legendary Blue Danube Waltz has long been regarded as the ultimate anthem of space – made immortal by Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. All the more remarkable, then, that this iconic waltz was never actually included on the legendary Voyager Golden Records – the golden discs that NASA launched into space in 1977 carrying humanity’s greatest achievements in the hope of reaching extraterrestrial life.
With the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on board and in close collaboration with the ESA, the Blue Danube Waltz was transmitted into the vastness of space on May 31, 2025 and left to resonate there as an eternal musical link between humanity and possible extraterrestrial life. The signal was sent as an electromagnetic wave at the speed of light from the ESA’s DSA 2 Deep Space Antenna in Cebreros, Spain.
Rolled out internationally and across multiple media channels, the campaign consisted of four coordinated strands in a total of nine markets: a short documentary Space Anthem, a mission film Waltz into Space: Why The Blue Danube Waltz was not on the Voyager Golden Records, a Space Notes performance campaign with sponsorship of individual notes, and promotion of the live stream of the concert at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna as well as public viewings in New York.
Waltz into Space achieved broad digital and media reach internationally. The mission film alone generated around 20.4 million views – setting a new record for a campaign film for the Vienna Tourist Board in the process. Between January and June 2025, the organization’s media work helped generate around 6,500 international reports on Waltz into Space. The total number of impressions across all markets reached 13.5 billion. International media including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBCNN and Classic FM covered the campaign, with Forbes, The Independent, Wired, El País, Tagesschau and many others also featuring it. A Viennese idea became a topic of global conversation – from daily newspapers and culture magazines to space media.
Through the Space Notes initiative, people around the world were also able to symbolically purchase a note from the Blue Danube Waltz and become part of the mission. A total of 13,743 participants from 92 countries became so-called “Space Note Ambassadors”. On average, around 300 notes were awarded per day.
Vienna Invited the Scottish Village of Dull to Stay
To show that Vienna is anything but dull, even in the traditionally “dullest” month of the year, the Vienna Tourist Board invited residents of the Scottish village of Dull – known for its quiet and seclusion – to experience the Austrian capital in January 2026. The sealed invitations were handed over in December 2025. The campaign already generated international headlines before the visit – including in respected media such as The Independent, Daily Mail and Euronews.
More than a third of Dull’s roughly 100 residents happily accepted the Vienna Tourist Board’s invitation. They were treated to a varied program: from attending a Viennese ball and a performance at the Spanish Riding School to cooking and dance classes. The itinerary was individually tailored to the guests’ interests (33 people, age range: 9 to 84 years) so they could judge for themselves whether the Vienna experience was “Dull” or “Not Dull.” The campaign generated 976 million impressions through 357 international media reports.
Display alternative text
Residents of Dull, Scotland, read out Vienna’s invitation letter
15 Kilometers of Art: Vienna Challenges Athletes in the United Kingdom
The Vienna Tourist Board measured Vienna’s art and issued a challenge in December 2025: if they were ever to be lined up alongside one another, the artworks hanging in Vienna’s major museums would stretch for a distance of 15 kilometers. Sport enthusiasts in the United Kingdom were invited to cover exactly this distance in the global leading sports app Strava for The Art of Endurance: Vienna’s 15K Challenge and turn their route into a Vienna-inspired artwork. Whether running, walking, cycling or inline skating – everything was allowed and there was no minimum time. All participants had to do was post their route in the Strava app. Inspiration came from Strava influencer Nick Bester, who created a musical note with his running route, and the Strava Art Instagram page.
In the three-week The Art of Endurance: Vienna’s 15K Challenge, more than 77,000 people in the United Kingdom took part. The campaign generated a total of 7.7 million impressions through website visits, B2C newsletter sign-ups and challenge participation.
