Vienna as a Meeting Metropolis
2019 MEETINGS INDUSTRY STATISTICS
A long-term comparison reveals that 2019 was by no means a typical year for Vienna’s meeting industry. The number of events reached a new record high of 5,490, up by 17% on 2018. However, other indicators declined year on year. The number of meeting participants stood at 606,666 (down 4%) and participant overnight stays at 1,581,156 (down 18%); induced economic impact attributable to meetings was EUR 954.53m, a fall of 20%; and the number of jobs secured by meetings was approximately 17,300, a decrease of 19%. Although the number of national congresses and domestic and international corporate events grew, Vienna hosted fewer international conferences in 2019 – and the participant numbers and induced economic impact accounted for by the latter are many times higher than those associated with national congresses. Renovation projects led to reduced capacity in 2019, and this also had an impact on the overall results – which were boosted in 2018 by the meetings held during Austria’s Presidency of the European Council in the second half of the year. Congresses, corporate events and incentives made up 9% of the total of 17.6m overnights reported by Vienna’s tourism sector in 2019.
Full details of the performance of the Vienna Meetings Industry can be found in the 2019 Meeting Industry Report which is available for download here (PDF).
CONGRESSES AND CORPORATE EVENTS 2019
Kind of Event
Number
+/- in %
CORPORATE EVENTS
4,070
+30%
Kind of Event
Bednights
+/- in %
international
1,071,000
-28%
CORPORATE EVENTS
382,000
+21%
Source: Vienna Convention Bureau with Dr Martina Stoff-Hochreiner Consulting
New Brand Identity:
Meeting Destination Vienna
Meetings are an important driver of Vienna’s development as a research and business location, while helping to raise its visibility internationally and increasing its ability to compete. The new strategy taking the city through to 2025 focuses on continuing to define and position Vienna as a destination for meetings. The first steps have already been taken in this direction: working with its Vienna Convention Bureau, the Vienna Tourist Board drew up a communications concept for the new Meeting Destination Vienna brand that is harmonized with the brand strategy for the destination as a whole.
Close cooperation in the capital´s Meeting Industry
In terms of content, the Meeting Destination Vienna brand draws on the high quality of service and expertise offered by Vienna’s meeting industry. The central communicative idea runs through all of the elements of the brands: ‘Vienna makes it easy for you’ – to plan, organize and enjoy an event. Presented in a personal and emotional way, the meeting itself is in the foreground of each individual communications element. This sense of ‘meeting’ is explored from various sides, both in terms of content and the images used. The different executions show that Vienna is not only a place to meet other people, but a place of contrasts and surprising moments, encounters with great thinkers, or charm and Viennese humor. The target audience is addressed directly – one of the messages from Vienna is ‘Meet exceptional perspectives through local eyes’. The feeling of people meeting and interacting with one another is encapsulated in the slogan, which, in turn, is a smart extension of the umbrella brand for Vienna. ‘Vienna Now. Forever’ has been extended to ‘Meeting Destination Vienna. Now. Together’. The slogan stands both for cooperation with customers who plan their meetings in Vienna, and the close ties between the capital’s meeting industry stakeholders.
