The Vienna Tourist Board recently presented its half-year report containing new record figures: 5.5 million bednights reported for the first half-year of 2012 represented an increase of 8.4 % on the previous year.

With 275,000 bednights and an increase of 12 %, the USA continued to be Vienna’s most important overseas source market.

“Record bednight figures have been achieved for every single month so far this year in Vienna,” said Director of Tourism Norbert Kettner commenting on the development of the first half-year of 2012. The strongest growth for Vienna’s main markets was reported for Russia with a plus of 25 % to a total of 319,000 bednights, followed by Japan (+ 19 %, 130,000), Switzerland (+ 15 %, 179,000) and the USA (+ 12 %, 275,000). Increases were also reported for Germany (+ 2 %, 1,112,000), Austria (+ 9 %, 1,090,000), the United Kingdom (+ 8 %, 188,000) and France (+ 5 %, 164,000), whereas bednights for Italy (- 1 %, 273,000) and Spain (- 2 %, 134,000) failed to reach the previous year’s levels.

There has also been growing interest in Vienna from source markets outside Europe, like China (+ 29 %, 79,000), Brazil (+ 40 %, 45,000), Saudi Arabia (+ 163 %, 31,000) and the United Arab Emirates (+ 27 %, 25,000). The net room revenues of Vienna’s hospitality sector are currently available for the period January thru’ May 2012: at 191.5 million euros this indicator has also reached a new record level.