Vienna beckons honeymooners and film world

By Venkatachari Jagannath | 12 Feb 2004

Chennai: Want to get married in an imperial palace and enjoy your honeymoon in a scenic and romantic city?

"If yes, come to Vienna," invites Ines Griesser, media manager, Vienna Tourist Board. According to her one could hire a portion of a palace for Euro 500 per day to conduct a wedding. "An increasing number of couples are getting married in Vienna," she adds.

Griesser is part of an Austrian team on visit to promote the world''s music capital as a preferred destination for Indian tourists. She is also promoting Vienna as the best place for film shoots amongst the Indian cine industry.

According to her many Hindi and Tamil films are shot in Vienna. As the films don''t identify the venue of the filming, viewers often mistake the locales for Switzerland. "We have a separate office attending to the needs of the film units."

Apart from the film world, the Vienna Tourist Board is looking at increasing the number of Indian tourists to Vienna.

"Last year 8,727 Indian''s visited our city. I hope this year the number would go up to 10,000," remarks Griesser. On an average an Indian tourist spends 2/3 nights in Vienna. The Austrian capital offers different categories of overnight accommodation for the tourists - palaces converted hotels, international five star chains and also family run hotels. The room tariff (mostly inclusive of breakfast) are cheaper than many other tourist destinations in Europe. A five star room in Vienna would cost around Euro 207 while this is Euro 301 in Switzerland and Euro 487 in UK.

"For the budget travellers family rooms are available starting from Euro 58 in single star hotels," Griesser adds. There is also a discount travel ticket Vienna Card for Euro 16.90 multi-modal transport — train, bus and tram that enables a person to travel throughout the city for 72 hours. The card also offers discounts at museums on sightseeing and shopping, restaurants and cafes.

This year Vienna tourist''s big draw is expected to be the new Liechtenstein museum, and a performance by the magnificent Lippizaner horses of the Spanish Riding School opposite Schonbrunn Palace. Plus, of course, the normal attractions of cosy coffee houses, wine taverns, catchy waltzes and club nights..

Queried about the package for the domestic corporate sector that is increasingly holding its dealer and other conventions overseas, Griesser says, "Vienna has a good convention centre. Congresses, corporate conventions and incentives are important elements in Vienna''s tourism, accounting for approximately 9 per cent of overnight statistics by visitors to the city."

According to the latest statistics published by the International Congress and Convention Association, in 2002 Vienna ranked in fourth place world-wide as an international congress destination with 58 international events behind Barcelona (79), Copenhagen, (73) and Stockholm (64).

For the Vienna Tourist Board, India offers a new potential source of tourists. "Despite the SARS scare and Iraq war we didn''t see a drastic fall in the number of Indian tourists to Vienna compared to tourists arrivals from other countries," reasons Griesser. According to her India and China are the two countries that her organisation is targeting.