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“Optimum Tourism” For the City and Its People

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In April 2025, Vienna launched its new “Optimum Tourism” Visitor Economy Strategy, which introduces a growth model with quality of life for residents as well as visitor satisfaction for visitors at its heart. By establishing the Vienna Sustainable Tourism Observatory, the city can now measure its progress toward sustainable tourism according to international INSTO standards. The data makes progress clearly visible, while also showing where action is required. In close consultation with partners from the visitor economy, specific measures are implemented through a series of action programs.

The action programs in place in 2026 include the “Legacy” and “Measurement of Meeting Visitors” topic areas. Launched in 2025, the Accessibility action program is being continued in partnership with the City of Vienna and Vienna Economic Chamber (WKW). The goal is to continue to improve the quality of the destination and help providers to become more inclusive – not just with a view to fulfilling statutory obligations, but also to enable them to create offerings that are accessible to as many target audiences as possible. Six awareness raising training sessions for hotel directors, hotel staff and employees from the arts and culture sector have already been offered.

In November 2025, the Vienna Tourist Board, working alongside the WKW Endowed Professorship for Sustainable Urban and Tourism Development as well as Urban Innovation Vienna, published a practical handbook titled “The Places To Be”. It laid out six international case studies outlining future-proof approaches to urban development. Drawing on twelve principles derived from successful models both in Vienna and other destinations around the world, it provides a solid foundation for cities to develop new centers that are equally attractive to residents and visitors.

Three Objectives For Success

The “Optimum Tourism” Visitor Economy Strategy has three focuses, and is synonymous with “good growth” and balancing the needs of locals and visitors more closely than ever.

  • Objective 1: Satisfaction levels for visitors and residents must be held in balance when tourism grows: Vienna wants to maintain the “sweet spot” between tourism acceptance and visitor satisfaction, and will measure adherence in monthly surveys.
  • Objective 2: Two-thirds of Vienna’s visitors should match the “desired visitor” profile.  These are leisure travelers with an interest in art and culture, business travelers attending congresses or company meetings, and luxury guests in the high-end sector.
  • Objective 3: Vienna is a global meetings hub. Every tenth overnight stay should be accounted for by this segment in future. In 2024, Vienna reported 1.9 million overnights generated by over 671,000 meeting participants – put another way, one in every nine visitor overnight stays in Vienna came from a congress or corporate meeting.

Greater Focus on Added Value and Quality

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.

In 2025 the Vienna Tourist Board won 19 coveted international awards for its campaigns. They won a number of prestigious accolades including Gold, Silver and Bronze CCA awards, Gold and Silver from WebAd and Gold in the Best of Content Marketing Award.

Membership of international networks such as UN Tourism, the City Destinations Alliance, the World Tourism Cities Federation and the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association is a cornerstone of the Vienna Tourist Board's strategy, as is the Vienna Convention Bureau’s membership of the International Congress and Convention Association and the Professional Convention Management Association, among other organizations.

In 2025 Vienna Tourist Board Managing Director Norbert Kettner was appointed to the Board of Directors of Destinations International – one of the world’s largest networks of destination organizations, with more than 8,000 members and partners representing more than 750 destinations. Kettner, one of 25 members of the Board of Directors, who have been appointed for the next three years, will be adding European expertise to the US-based international committee.