At a press conference on Monday, March 19, 2012, Vice-Mayor Renate Brauner, Director of Tourism Norbert Kettner and the Director of the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau, Christian Mutschlechner presented the results of Vienna’s 2011 Meeting Industry Statistics. All key indicators were up: the number of congresses and corporate events by 7% compared to 2010, with bednights generated increasing by 6%, and national value-added growing by 9% to reach a new record level. This year the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau became an authorized certification agency for “Green Meetings” and already has its congress calendar for 2012 crammed full.
“The trend in the international congress industry,” explained Brauner, “reveals that delegates are staying an appreciably shorter time and traveling increasingly seldom in company. We presented this trend at our congress press conference last year in the light of a survey, concluding that growth in bednights in the congress and conference business can be attained only if the number of events increases. Vienna successfully achieved this in 2011, as 3,151 congresses and corporate events were held last year, 7% more than in 2010. The resulting bednights rose by 6% to 1,412,133, equivalent to 12.4% of Vienna’s total volume of bednights last year. Throughout Austria, the Vienna meetings industry not only generated value-added in the amount of 838.4 million euros – an increase of 9% and a new record level – but also secured more than 16,200 jobs.
Vienna has been successful as a meeting destination for decades now, and this success story continued in 2011 despite increasingly difficult conditions in the industry. My hearty congratulations to all those involved in this success.”
Secret of success: future-oriented urban development at all levels
Director of Tourism Kettner explained the reasons behind this success, emphasizing that: “Vienna is in the fortunate position of enjoying a first-class reputation in the meetings industry world-wide for its entire infrastructure, its congress facilities, its hospitality sector, and its companies specializing in meeting services.
Another very important aspect is its international accessibility, especially by air. Maintaining such an image for decades necessitates continuous improvement in all areas in order to ensure that one’s services remain ‘state-of-the-art’ at all times. In this respect, the latest additions to the hotel sector – many of which are tailored specifically to the modern, style-conscious business traveler – are very auspicious, as is the Central Train Station currently under construction and the urban development in the environs. The opening of Vienna’s new University of Economics and Business Administration in the winter semester of 2013 will also have an immediate effect. The Vienna Tourist Board was involved in the planning process, making it possible to ensure that the auditorium complex is ideally incorporated into the nearby facilities of Reed Messe Wien. This means that its infrastructure will be perfectly complemented during university vacations.
Since the beginning of the year, the Vienna Convention Bureau has also been offering a new service that is gaining in importance in the meetings industry world-wide: it is now authorized to certify conferences whose organizers take climate protection, regional value-added and social compatibility into account as ‘Green Meetings’.
All these measures show decision-makers in the international conference business that Vienna focuses on the future at all levels, and this enhances the city’s status as top meeting destination.”
International congresses make biggest impact
A total of 3,151 events held in 2011 (+7%) can be broken down into 1,018 congresses (+9%) and 2,133 corporate events (+7%). The national value-added in the amount of 838.4 million euros which they generated (+ 9%) represents a new record. This value-added includes all domestic sales, consisting of direct spending by event attendees, organizers, exhibitors and companions, and revenues generated by events in “upstream” sectors, such as the construction industry, the food, drink and tobacco industry, the printing industry, banks, insurance and communications companies. The economic effects were computed by Consulting Dr. M. Stoff using the EVENT MODEL AUSTRIA (author: © Martina Stoff-Hochreiner). This model was also used to calculate the tax revenues generated by these events in the amount of 235.2 million euros, of which 154.8 million euros went to the federal government, 28.2 million euros to Vienna, and the remainder to the provinces and local authorities.
Visitors travelling to Vienna’s congresses and corporate conventions are particularly heavy spenders: in 2010 they spent 475 euros per person and bednight, whilst the comparable figure for all visitors to Vienna is just over 260 euros.
The 638 international congresses made the biggest impact in the 2011 review of the Vienna meetings industry. Although they accounted for only 20% of all events, they produced 67% of bednights and 72% of value-added in this sector. Human medicine themes still dominate this sector (42%), though not as strongly as before, as the fields of economics and politics, other natural sciences, IT and communications made up a lot of ground in 2011.
Expertise for “Green Meetings”: competitive advantage for Vienna Convention Bureau
Christian Mutschlechner, Director of the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau, went into further detail on Green Meetings, explaining: “The meetings industry is currently focusing a great deal of attention on this theme, as it is increasingly becoming an image factor for the associations organizing congresses to stage them as ecologically as possible. For the Vienna Convention Bureau it was therefore a necessity to qualify as a certification agency for Green Meetings so as to be able to use the expertise thus acquired to offer effective assistance to organizers. We are deploying this service for our congress acquisitions world-wide, and the positive feedback from organizers proves that this has given us a valuable competitive advantage. In the case of international congresses, where at least two to three years may elapse between acquiring and staging the event, this will be reflected in the Vienna congress calendar at a later date, though the first three Green Meetings that we shall be certifying will already be taking place this year.”
According to Mutschlechner, the congress calendar for 2012 is “exceptionally full for an even year, as even years tend to be weaker than odd years in the meetings industry. However, this year we have a particularly large number of large congresses, so that there will probably be a break with this unwelcome tradition in 2012.”
Highlights of Vienna’s meetings industry in 2012
