Vienna International Travel Guide

Uber Ridesharing Threatens to Retreat from Austria

The US transportation network company Uber wants to mobilise against the taxi and rental car reform in Austria with a petition. The new law would be a setback for Austria in several respects. If the new law is passed on 3 July, we will no longer be able to offer services such as UberX, according to a statement by Uber.

June 27, 2019

German Road Toll Discriminates Against Foreigners - ECJ

The German car toll violates EU law. This was decided by the European Court of Justice in a ruling. This levy is discriminatory, since its economic burden lies practically exclusively on the owners and drivers of vehicles registered in other member states. In Austria, the ruling is received with great pleasure, as the country has won the case through its infringement proceedings.

June 18, 2019

New Chinese Panda Bear Arrived in Vienna

During his visit to Vienna, Li Zhanshu, one of China's most powerful politicians, brought a panda male with him and handed him over to Schönbrunn Zoo.

May 24, 2019

Standardised Austria-wide Autumn Holidays as of 2020/21

From the school year 2020/21 there will be uniform autumn holidays in Austria between National Day and All Saints Day - from 27 to 31 October - according to the unanimous decision of the Austrian National Council. There will be no additional school holidays, the teaching time will not be changed. Only the distribution of school-autonomous days will change. Specifically, the days off after Easter and Whitsun will be cancelled. This would ensure relief for pupils, teachers and parents.

May 16, 2019

Africa! Africa! - The Continent of Amazement Returns to Vienna

André Heller's new production of his tour comes back to Vienna. Africa! Africa! inspired more than 180.000 spectators last year. This year's tour features spectacular new numbers and award-winning artists.

May 15, 2019 · Sponsored Content

The Vienna Festival 2019 is Opened

The Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival) were opened and started with a mainly female stage. The Vienna Festival is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five weeks in May and June. The Wiener Festwochen show theatre, opera and dance productions from all parts of the world and also perform as producers of international productions.

May 10, 2019

Asia's Largest Airline to Fly to Vienna

From 18 June 2019, China's largest airline, China Southern Airlines, will fly three times a week from Guangzhou to Vienna via the capital Ürümqi (Wūlǔmùqí) in Xinjiang, China's most northwestern province. Xinjiang has made international headlines in the last two years due to massive human rights violations. China may have interned more than a million Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims, in an attempt to suppress their desire for greater autonomy.

May 2, 2019

Palais Esterházy: Oldest Building on Vienna's Kärntner Strasse Restored

Casino Wien, a subsidiary of CASAG Casinos Austria AG, is investing in the preservation of the venerable Palais Esterházy at Wiener Kärntner Straße 41. The heritage-protected facade will be restorated from summer 2019.

April 6, 2019

Vienna's Diversity Ball 2019: "Masquerade"

The 12th Diversity Ball 2019 with the theme "Maskerade" (Masquerade) will take place on May 4th 2019 and will transform the location Kursalon Wien into a shining symbol for practiced tolerance. In a glittering ball night the organizers would like to set a further example for the diversity of their community, for tolerance, for accessibility and for mutual respect.

March 28, 2019 · Sponsored Content

Danube Tower - Viennese Landmark Celebrates New Beginning

After the modernisation, revitalisation and expansion of the Danube Tower (Wiener Donauturm) by the Blaguss Group for more than ten million euros and the creation of 30 new jobs and a new e-shuttle, the tower was reopened. The restaurant, located at a height of 170 metres, offers a fantastic view over Vienna and turns every dinner and celebration into a unique experience.

March 27, 2019

Austria to Become Most Sustainable Tourism Destination in the World

Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Köstinger presented the "Plan T - Master Plan for Tourism" in Salzburg. This strategy paper is intended to ensure that Austria not only remains one of the leading tourist destinations, but that this position is further strengthened. For the first time sustainability is anchored as a basic principle for tourism. The strategic realignment of Österreich Werbung (ANTO Austrian National Tourist Office) is also on the agenda.

March 26, 2019

Tourism Location - Austrian National Tourist Office Invests in Digitalization

ÖW Österreich Werbung (ANTO Austrian National Tourist Office) sees very good chances in the dynamic of digitisation for the domestic tourism location to assert itself as a quality destination in global competition.

March 22, 2019

Hub to the Far East - ÖBB Rail Cargo and Port of Trieste Strengthen Cooperation

At a critical time when the question of Italian economic independence from China is being discussed throughout Europe, ÖBB's Rail Cargo Group is intensifying its cooperation with the port of Trieste in order, among other things, to be able to use the transport connection of the Adriatic port to the Far East.

March 22, 2019

Austrian Airlines Responds to Low-Cost Carriers with Low Fares

Austrian Airlines takes up a stance against low-cost competition at Vienna Airport. On the one hand, flights to Germany, such as Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin, will be increased from April onwards. Paris and Copenhagen are to follow in May. On the other hand, prices are to be reduced.

March 22, 2019

Ryanair's Austrian Subsidiary Laudamotion Renamed to Lauda

The Austrian Ryanair subsidiary, the low-cost airline Laudamotion, has separated from the name "Motion" for marketing reasons and is now called only "Lauda". In addition, the fleet will be expanded and more destinations will be served.

March 22, 2019

Vienna International Airport Permitted to Build Third Runway

The Austrian Administrative Court has rejected objections from citizens' initiatives and residents and confirmed the authorization for the construction of the third runway at Vienna Schwechat Airport (Flughafen Wien Schwechat).

March 21, 2019

Welcome Expats - Vienna Remains the Most Livable City in the World

In 2019 Vienna was again rated by the international consulting agency Mercer as the city with the highest quality of life worldwide. In the special evaluation on the subject of personal security, however, Vienna was only ranked 6th.

March 14, 2019

Austria Sees 8.6% Rise in Indian Tourists in 2018

Seeing an upsurge in its inbound tourists in 2018, a representative of the Austrian National Tourist Office said it received over 1.9 Indian tourists - an 8.6% rise over the last year.

March 7, 2019

Austria as an Attractive Cycling Destination - You like it? Bike it!

At the international tourism trade fair 2019 in Berlin, Austria presents itself above all as an attractive cycling holiday destination. At the centre of the trade fair appearance: the cycling campaign "You Like it? Bike it!"

March 7, 2019

New International Bus Terminal to be Built in Vienna - 270 Buses per Day - 5 Mio Passengers per Year

Until 2024, Vienna will finally get a central and modern long-distance bus terminal, which will also become a flagship and showpiece for arriving tourists. 200,000 arrivals and departures of long-distance buses with around five million passengers per year are to be realized at the new terminal in Leopoldstadt directly next to the Dusika Stadium.

March 6, 2019

Vienna in Airport Ranking only in Midfield

According to a comparative study entitled "Airport Worldwide Rankings 2018" with 141 airports surveyed worldwide, Vienna International Airport (Flughafen Wien Schwechat) occupies only 49th place.

March 5, 2019

Benko-Hyatt Project - New Luxury Lifestyle Hotel Opens in Vienna in April 2019

The first Andaz Hotel in Austria, the boutique hotel "Andaz Vienna Am Belvedere" at the new Vienna Central Station, opposite the 21er Haus and the Schweizergarten, next to the park apartments at the Belvedere, is to be opened on 17 April 2019. It is the second project and a 50:50 joint venture between René Benko's Signa Group and Andaz Hotels, an affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

March 1, 2019 · Sponsored Content

Austria is Booming with Chinese Tourists - Number of Overnight Stays Six Times Higher

In tourism, China is currently one of the most dynamically growing foreign markets of origin. In the 2018 calendar year, the number of overnight stays by Chinese guests in Austria increased almost sixfold (+491%) compared to 2008, reaching around 1.4 million overnight stays.

February 28, 2019

Overseas Chinese in Vienna Celebrate Spring Festival and Start of Year of the Earth Pig

The Chinese Ambassador to Austria, H.E. Li Xiaosi and the Director General of UNIDO, Mr. Li Yong, toasted the Chinese New Year together with Mayor Ludwig and other Viennese Overseas Chinese.

February 13, 2019

What Does No-Deal Brexit Really Mean for British-Austrian Travel Behaviour?

As of March 29, 2019 at 11.00 p.m. (UTC Universal Time Coordinated) or March 30, 2019 at 00:00 (CET Central European Time) the United Kingdom is no longer an EU member and is to be treated as such by Austria. In order to close the legal gaps in the course of a disorderly Brexit, a comprehensive law is in preparation. This law will be subject to numerous amendments in several Austrian ministries. The main areas affected are civil rights (in particular right of residence, social security), transport and customs. In following we look at the effects of the No-Deal-Brexit on travel behaviour.

February 13, 2019

Vienna Opera Ball - Provide your Kids with the Chance to Debut at the Ball

The Ball of Balls in the magnificent building of the Vienna State Opera is regarded as the meeting place of international celebrities in Vienna and is a social event of the first order. Offer your children aged 17 to 24 the opportunity to open the Opera Ball together with 150 couples. We show you how to do it.

January 31, 2019

Vienna is Europe's Greenest Capital City

A new study has ranked 25 of Europe’s capitals on 10 green factors to reveal the continent’s most eco-friendly capital cities. Vienna - how else could it be expected - has once again emerged as the number one.

January 30, 2019

Irish Ryanair Acquires Austrian Laudamotion Completely

The Austrian Niki-Airline successor Laudamotion has now been taken over 100% by Ryanair. Ryanair last held three quarters of the shares of Laudamotion. No information was given about the price for the remaining 25 percent.

January 29, 2019

Hallstatt App 2.0 - Protective Measures against Chinese Tourists

The Upper Austrian community defends itself against too many tourists, especially from China and South Korea. Since the Chinese built an exact copy of the city in Guangdong Province, and the South Koreans partly shot a soap opera in Hallstatt, the popularity of the Dachstein community has increased enormously. As a result, more and more tourists come to Hallstatt as part of a bus tour classic with 4 destinations including Hallstatt. In the previous year there were exactly 19,344 coaches. For the first time in the history of Austria, a town is now defending its friendly visitors by implementing the new "Traffic Concept Hallstatt 2018" and by strictly controlling the entrance to the town centre.

January 29, 2019

Vienna Airport Surpasses 27 Million Passengers for the First Time

Vienna International Airport was able to handle 27 million passengers for the first time last year, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%. The top destinations were London, Moscow and Bangkok. 74 airlines serve 205 destinations in 71 countries. In the ranking of airlines as measured by their share of overall passenger volume, Austrian Airlines was followed by Eurowings (incl. Germanwings), the easyJet Group, Lufthansa and Laudamotion. The increase in the number of passengers in 2019 is estimated at 10%.

January 28, 2019

Austrian Tourism: 45 Mio. Arrivals and 150 Mio. Overnight Stays in 2018 - Germans Return

With 149.75 million overnight stays in Austrian accommodation establishments, a new record was reached in 2018. Compared to the previous year, overnight stays increased by 5.25 million (+3.6%). At +5.0% (56.26 million), the number of overnight stays by Germans rose disproportionately strongly.

January 24, 2019

Population Development - City of Vienna at 1.9 Million Inhabitants

Last year Vienna grew by 11,000 inhabitants. The birth surplus was 4,000, the migration gain 7,000. Immigration from Great Britain was disproportionately high due to Brexit fears. Serbia is the strongest group of immigrants. The influx of refugees has fallen back to the level before the wave of refugees. In 2027 about 2 million people will live in Vienna.

January 22, 2019

New Twin City Liner to Connect the Danube Metropolises of Vienna and Bratislava

A new, larger and more modern fast catamaran will be operating between Vienna and Bratislava with the start of the season on 29 March 2019.

January 19, 2019

Hollywood in Austria's Mountains - Avalanche Drama Film Follows Current Avalanche Danger

In Tyrol, a Hollywood drama about a married couple whose perfectly believed family life gets completely out of balance when they barely escape an avalanche is currently in the making. Austrian film funding supports the production of "Downhill" with Will Farell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. With a shooting time of 8 weeks, an added value of 7 million Euros and 10,000 overnight stays is expected.

January 18, 2019

Largest Viennese Ice Rink of All Times on Two Floors

A total of 9,000 square meters of ice, spread over two levels. The Vienna Ice Dream (Wiener Eistraum) is growing and will offer for the first time in the coming season the "Sky Rink", an opportunity to race across the ice on two levels.

December 19, 2018

Expansion and Modernization of Hilton Vienna am Stadtpark

The Hilton Vienna Parkview, the third-largest Hilton Hotel in Europe with a total usable space of around 50,000 square metres on a total of fifteen floors, is being developed and comprehensively modernised by the Vienna Invester Group as a developer and Hilton International while it continues to operate. The modernisation work will start at the beginning of 2019 and completion is scheduled for the end of 2020. With the completion of the expansion, the current capacity of 579 rooms is to be expanded to 660 rooms. So far, no information has been provided on the investment sum.

December 14, 2018

Leonard Bernstein - "I am enjoying Vienna enormously - as much as a Jew can"

An exhibition in the Jewish Museum Vienna to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the star conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein focuses on the New Yorker’s relationship with the music city of Vienna, looks at the great artist’s Jewish roots, and also pays homage to his political activities.

December 14, 2018

Christmas in Vienna 2018

Christmas in Vienna is one of the most renowned Christmas concerts. Every year, the concert programme fascinates with the varied interplay of classical Christmas songs and popular Christmas music from all over the world. This year it will get international with a medley of Russian, Italian, American and French Christmas carols, as a "Special Guest" Jose Feliciano will finally perform "Feliz Navidad".

December 7, 2018 · Sponsored Content

Bratislava - Vienna Railway Line Extended

The two EU capitals Vienna and Bratislava are approaching each other. After a construction period of about two years, representatives of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), the EU, the City of Vienna and the Province of Lower Austria opened the first part, the so-called "Vienna section" of the Vienna - Bratislava line extension. The completion of the second part, the so-called "Lower Austrian Section", will last until 2023. The journey time from the main railway station in Vienna (Hauptbahnhof-Wien) to the main railway station in Bratislava (Bratislava hlavná stanica) will be reduced from 66 minutes to 40 minutes.

December 5, 2018

Expat Survey: Vienna for Expats Highly Attractive and Newcomer-Friendly

A study commissioned by the City of Vienna confirms that four out of five international professionals and executives who came to Vienna had a good or very good start. 93.9 percent confirm the city's high international attractiveness, 89.3 percent would recommend Vienna as an expat destination.

November 22, 2018

Vienna's Schönbrunn Zoo is Europe's Best

The Schönbrunn Zoo in the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace in the 13th district of Vienna was founded by the Imperial Habsburgs in 1752. At 266 years of age, it is not only the oldest zoo in the world to still exist, but has also been named Europe's best zoo for the fifth time in succession. The zoo scores above all with the successful keeping of the Giant Pandas. Second and third place go to Leipzig Zoo and Zurich Zoo.

November 16, 2018

Japan's Largest Airline ANA Expands Service Between Tokyo and Vienna

The Japanese ANA - All Nippon Airways relies on Vienna as its European hub for business flights to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Poland and is expanding its range of services as a result of the facilitation provided by the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

October 31, 2018

Austrian Airlines - More Women in the Cockpit and Daily Flights to Tokyo

Become one of the few female pilots at Austrian Airlines. A total of 100 fully-trained pilots are currently being sought. As part of its expansion, Lufthansa's subsidiary intends to significantly increase the proportion of women pilots. The airline is also expanding its services to Tokyo, namely six weekly flights from March 2019 and daily flights during the 2019 summer timetable.

October 25, 2018

Canada: New Daily Flight Connection from 2019

From 29 April 2019, Austrian Airlines will be flying daily to Montreal, the second-most populous municipality in Canada. Air Canada will assume flights on the Vienna-Toronto route.

October 22, 2018

Vienna City Tourist Attraction "Fiaker" at Risk of Termination

A last ride quickly? Fiakers belong to the classic tourist image of Vienna. The sightseeing tours through the historic streets at a leisurely pace are very popular with Vienna travellers. According to various media reports, however, a ban on horse-drawn carriages is being considered for downtown Vienna (1st district). The hooves of the horses and carts would cause about 800,000 Euros of damage annually. Are they now part of the cityscape or are they just animal cruelty?

October 19, 2018

Agressive Southern Chinese Airline Launches Shenzhen-Vienna Service

The South Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines is pushing ahead with its expansion into Europe by adding Vienna - Shenzhen as the next non-stop route after Zurich at the end of August. The new twice-weekly flights will take off on October 20th, connecting Vienna with Shenzhen on Thursdays and Saturdays using the airline's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft (see picture).

October 12, 2018

Outlook - Chinese Tourists and the Destination Austria

With around 900,000 arrivals (+23%) and 1.3 million overnight stays (+25%) in 2017, China is Austria's most important Asian market of origin with the greatest growth potential. From January to July 2018, Austria also recorded record figures with around 542,000 arrivals (+ 8.2) and around 781,000 overnight stays (+ 11.5 %) from China.

October 3, 2018 · Updated: October 11, 2018; 22:55

Expats in Austria: "You will never be able to make local friends"

We would like to share with you some of the findings of the Expat Network InterNations on the well-being of expats in Austria. Although these differ in some respects considerably from other annual reports, they also contain survey results which are a common thread in most studies. These include the fact that the quality of life is perceived as very high, but on the other hand intercultural communication and establishing friendships is perceived as very difficult.

September 20, 2018

Expansion of Nepal-Austria Relations Beyond Mountaineering

Nepal's Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali paid a working visit to Austria. The visit focused on bilateral relations and the opening of the embassy in November last year.

September 19, 2018

Record Season for 2018 Film Festival at Vienna’s Rathausplatz

65 days of music, opera and dance on the big screen are now over. The City of Vienna reports about the great success of this year's Film Festival on Vienna's Rathausplatz. A perfect combination of culture, culinary delights and a splendid summer attracted almost a million guests.

September 5, 2018