– United Kingdom in Fifth Place Amongst Vienna’s top Markets With 359,000 OvernightsVIENNA, Austria, January 22 /PRNewswire/ — With a total of 9,843,000 overnights, Vienna was 3.8% below its record result for 2008, making these the Austrian capital’s second best overnight figures ever. December made a huge contribution to this result, setting a new record with 916,000 overnights.
The four countries at the head of the overnight rankings in the top ten list for 2009 each experienced a slight decline: Germany (2,077,000 overnights), Austria (1,970,000) and the USA (508,000) were each down 2%, whilst Italy (560,000) was minus 3%. The result for France (285,000 overnights) was unchanged compared to the previous year. On the other hand, there were sharper drops for Switzerland (284,000 / -7%), and above all the United Kingdom (359,000 / – 10%), Russia (284,000 / – 12%), Romania (272,000 / – 13%) and Spain (308,000 / – 15%). The “Greater Vienna” region (Vienna together with seven adjacent communities) will probably report a total of around 10.5 million overnights in 2009.
Vienna’s Director of Tourism Norbert Kettner commenting on these results: “The fact that, after six record years, Vienna was nevertheless able to achieve its second best overnight figures in a year characterized by extremely difficult conditions attests to its attractiveness as a destination. The decline was so moderate due to the fact that there was growth – in some instances significant – from many Asian countries, and above all from Japan, whose overnights were up 8% to 268,000. It remains to be seen whether the record month of December represents a new trend, or whether it was just a ‘Xmas bonus’. At all events, these results give us the motivation to face 2010 with confidence.”
