Vienna seeks to attract gays and lesbians
Vienna is hailed as an attractive gay and lesbian destination, a recent survey has shown.
Vienna’s tourism board carried out the survey on 800 gay and lesbian users of the tourism board’s internet portal. Results show that 91.5 percent of those asked said the Austrian capital was especially attractive to them.
Vienna Tourism boss Norbert Kettner said: “What is especially striking is that the customer experience largely surpasses the expectation, which means the image and attractiveness of the city is rated even better once they get home.”
The survey was carried out on 800 people from the gay and lesbian community of an average age of 34. Out of the 800 respondents, 50 percent had a university degree and 37 percent were working in executive positions or self-employed. The survey classed almost half of the people interviewed in the “double-income/no-kids” category.
The attractive traits of the city are not group-specific however. The best-rated criteria include the imperial legacy, the architecture as well as the cultural and artistic scene.
Some 98.5 percent of those interviewed said they would recommend visiting Vienna, whilst 98.8 percent showed interest in returning to Vienna or visiting the city for the first time.
According to tourism-boss Kettner, the high-end of the touristic spectrum is particularly attractive with its luxury hotels, culinary and wellness offer. Many famous international fashion labels are moving to the capital.
Vienna also scored top marks for the tolerance of the hosts – a decisive factor in choosing a destination, according to Kettner. He said: “For us, it’s not about creating a label for Vienna. Vienna has long been known as an open and tolerant city where diversity is a key strength. With this survey, and in partnership with the community and the relevant branch, we want to optimise what Vienna has to offer but also send out a signal internationally through targeted marketing initiatives.
A Vienna Gay Café was set up at the Tourism Trade Show in Berlin (ITB Berlin) as part of this marketing action and Viennese tourism representatives plan to take part in other international tourism events. Vienna Tourism is also advertising in other holiday destinations popular with the gay and lesbian community – such as Gran Canaria and Lesbos.
Record numbers of overnight stays were recorded for every month of 2012 as well as overall for the year 2012. There was a fall in the numbers of overnight stays in January 2013. Besides holidaymakers from Italy, Austrians travelled the least to Vienna.