Record year for Vienna tourism

Vienna attracted a record number of tourists last year, with the number of overnight stays up five per cent from 2010 and hotel revenues on course to have risen almost 10 per cent, figures show.

“This result is no coincidence. Vienna is a wonderful city, but we are not sitting on our laurels and have implemented a very intensive and diversified publicity strategy,” the Austrian capital’s deputy mayor Renate Brauner said.

Overnight stays were 11.4 million and January-to-November hotel revenues were up 9.2 per cent at €446.7 million, with December – the time of Vienna’s famous Christmas markets – looking to have ensured a bumper 2011.

Tourism board chief Norbert Kettner said the success was thanks to the city’s strategy of attract­ing visitors from new markets, notably Russia, Asia and central and south America, particularly Brazil.