Vienna holds top ten spot in European city tourism
At this year’s International Tourism Fair in Berlin (ITB), a research team from MODUL University Vienna in cooperation with European Cities Marketing (ECM) presented a report on ‘’Tourism Demand in European Cities, 2011’’. Based on an analysis of 57 European cities, the figures prepared by MODUL Research highlight last year’s performance of Europe’s resilient and still buoyant city tourism sector.
Vienna, as in the previous year, is among the leading urban tourism destinations sitting comfortably in sixth place. London, Paris, and Rome are the most popular, all recording overnight stays beyond the 15 million mark. ECM reports an average year-on growth rate of 6.2 % in respect to domestic and international bednights spent in commercial accommodation forms. International bednights increased by some 7.0%.
ECM is the leading network of city tourist offices and convention bureaus, representing the collective interests of its members, who are drawn from more than 100 major cities in 33 countries in Europe. According to ECM president, Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, “Overall performance in 2011 lends weight to the view that city tourism is the dominant and most dynamic aspect of European tourism. With respect to the key bednights indicator, we can see that last year many cities recorded all-time highs and impressive growth rates. BRIC countries, especially Russia and China, are emerging as important source markets with lots of potential for the future”.
Prof. Dr. Karl Wöber, project manager and president of MODUL Vienna University lauded the results: "The overall performance of European cities tourism proves strongly that this segment is the driving force in European Tourism. The evidence based on the total bednights for 2011 shows that many cities, despite the ongoing difficult economic developments in recent years, have demonstrated impressive record levels and achieved growth rates. Vienna last year’s results not only in terms of absolute numbers, but also how the growth rate concerns best tourist cities in Europe."
"Despite the crisis, the broad spectrum of countries of origin contributes to growth, and also to the relative safety of urban tourism,’’ said Norbert Kettner, managing director of the Vienna Tourist Board. ‘’In cities, multiculturalism is already a major principle. Take Vienna for example, every fourth guest comes from outside Europe, while over two-thirds of holidaymakers in the rest of Austria stem from only three countries - Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The Vienna strategy promotes the city not only to neighbouring markets, but applies the same intensity to generate demand in long distance markets – this approach can also function as a Europe-wide recipe. "
Vienna is the second most popular city in Europe with Russian guests. A look at the most important source markets for urban tourism in Vienna shows that there were recorded gains not only in Germany, the traditional and most important source market, but most of the rapidly expanding Russian market has benefited. Among the 57 leading tourist cities, Vienna is Europe's second most popular destination for Russian visitors; only Prague has more. The other top origin markets beside Germany and Russia are Italy, Spain and USA.
Next up, MU faculty members Irem Arsal and Clemens Költringer will be attending the ECM spring meeting in St Petersburg from March 28th- 31st, 2012. Based on research conducted by Arsal and Karl Wöber, first results and the outlook for European Cities Tourism in 2012 will be presented during the conference. In addition, the new City Tourism Benchmark Tool, an online application developed at MODUL University will be unveiled.
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Source: European Cities Marketing
Notes: Total refers to tourists staying in all types of accommodation establishments. Forecasts based on the sample of cities reporting their statistics on www.tourmis.info (57 cities provided data for bednights for 2010 and 2011).
