City makes overtures for a younger market

Vienna by Brian Richards

City makes overtures for a younger market

Tourist board flags up a trendier image

THE popular images of Vienna are numerous – for example, the Vienna Boys’ Choir, coffee houses, Strauss waltzes and New Year balls, to name a few. Then there are Mozart concerts, fine palaces, the Spanish Riding School and Christmas markets.

Nightlife

But to the on-going concern of the Austrian National Tourist Office, the city’s appeal still lies with a more mature UK market than with younger visitors.

Despite the staging of music festivals, the addition of modern attractions like the hands-on House of Music and a club and restaurant scene on a par with many European capitals.

Lively music scene

Under this year’s theme of Motion and Emotion, summer highlights included the three-day Danube Island Festival music extravaganza, which attracted more than two million fans of pop, rave and funk.

Other annual events now include the Vienna Love Parade, based on the Berlin model, and the Summer Stage extravaganza with everything from jazz to beach volleyball. The month-long Contemporary Music Festival gets under way in the city this week.

Change of image

The Austrian National Tourist Office UK director Oskar Hinteregger said: “Though the city has a classy feel, we’ve had to get away from the image of Vienna as somewhere only for wedding anniversary couples and opera buffs.”

He added: “The key to its success with younger visitors lies in the many events staged for the Viennese that are not solely for the benefit of tourists – such as the Love Parade.”

The UK supplied 149,680, or 4.7%, of Vienna’s 3.1 million visitors last year, 11% up on 1998 and a 20% increase on 1997’s figures.

The signs remain encouraging – UK visitors for the seven months to July this year showed a 15% rise over the same period in 1999 of 90,366.

City-break appeal

While Vienna sells at a consistent level on the UK market, city-break operators agree that it attracts primarily the middle-aged and senior markets.

Crystal Cities product director Alan Betty said: “Vienna appeals more to 40-plus couples in the ABC1 group – a lot go there for the cultural and musical attractions.

“The city suffers from its high culture – it’s saddled with the image of the Spanish Riding School, Strauss and Mozart, whereas cities like Prague, Amsterdam and Barcelona have a big youth culture.”

Summer is cool

However, Cresta’s Cities brand manager Ian Ackland strikes a note of optimism. “The older generation go for the Christmas markets but over the last two or three years Vienna has become very trendy in summer.

“People in their late twenties and early thirties are going for the nightlife, the bars and the restaurants.”

Out and about: by night Vienna offers its visitors a wealth of restaurants and a host of musical venues

New accommodation

&#42 Vienna offers around 37,000 hotel beds, many of them in the traditional turn-of-the-century buildings that give the city its character. More than half are in the four-star bracket.

&#42 Among the most modern is the ViennArt in the Spittelberg, where a glass-roofed atrium houses the reception area and an interior design shop. Another new four-star hotel is the 70-room Arcotel Hotel Boltzmann near the city centre.

&#42 A new top-of-the-range hotel due to be given five-star classification is the 72-room Das Triest, designed by Sir Terence Conran. It has a fitness room, sauna and solarium.

City forthe young

&#42 Go shopping in Mariahilfer Strasse: it is regarded as Vienna’s hippest shopping street. The city’s most exclusive shops are in the old city and around Karntner Strasse, Graben and Kohlmarkt.

&#42 Visit the new House of Music: make your own music, conduct the Vienna Philharmonic interactively on screen, experience all kinds of unfamiliar sounds and learn about the great Viennese composers.

&#42 Go clubbing: there arediscos, bars and trendy pubs aplenty in Spittelberggasse and the adjacent 7th district streets; also off Florianigasse in 8th district. Prime dance venues include Flex, Arena, Blue Box and U4.

&#42 Go pubbing: there are bars galore within the Bermuda Triangle area of the old city. For something more sophisticated try the watering holes around Backerstrasse or Sonnenfelsgasse.

&#42 Experiment in the local bistros: there are great Viennese dishes likeTafelspitz, a tender beef cut, and the chocolate Sachertorte. There’s much more than Wienerschnitzel.