Global Tourism - Assessment 2 - Vienna

0594617 Assessment 2 Global Tourism
1
Tourism development within a destination can be exorbitantly influenced by both
positive and negative issues taking place in or around a destination. These issues
may be of an environmental, socio, cultural, economic or political nature and can
either directly or indirectly influence tourism development within a destination. The
purpose of this essay is to firstly look at the current situation of tourism development
in Vienna and discuss the destination in relation to Butler’s Lifecycle Model (Butler,
1980). Following this, the paper will identify some of the current issues in and around
Vienna and the implications that these either positive or negative issues have on
tourism development within this iconic tourist destination. Finally, the essay will
review Vienna’s current tourism strategy for 2020 (Brauner & Kettner, 2014) and
identify and explain the goals/objectives within that strategy in relation to the issues
that currently affect tourism development within Vienna.
Currently, tourism within Vienna is booming as in 2013 there were a recorded 12.7
million overnight stays, whereas in 2003 there were only 4.8 million which shows a
60 percent increase of overnight stays in Vienna over just 10 years (Brauner &
Kettner, 2014). When analysing where Vienna sits within Butler’s Lifecycle Model,
one needs to identify each stage of the cycle the destination has already achieved
(Butler, 1980). At the exploration stage of a destination, visitor numbers are low and
at irregular intervals, whereas contact with the locals is high. This can be due to the
destination having low level facilities and accessibility. As a tourism destination
Vienna was within this stage until the 15th-16th century, which marked the age of the
Classical Period. During this era, Vienna experienced an upsurge in music and the
arts, which not only drastically increased visitors to the city, but also placed Vienna
on the map for becoming a tourism destination, mostly for scholars and the
European elite (Sherrane, 2012). This allowed Vienna to develop as a tourism
destination to the involvement stage of the Butler Lifecycle Model (1980), where
communities within the city begun to highly encourage tourism to the destination
which resulted in significant improvements to infrastructure such as universities, art
galleries and distinctive architecture unique to that period of time in order to attract
visitor numbers. This would continue until the 18th century where the development
stage of Butler’s lifecycle would be reached. By now, the visitor numbers were
exceeding those of the locals and improvements and additions to the current
infrastructure became necessary and rural areas were consolidated into the city of

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Vienna (TravelSmart Limited, 2016). Furthermore, in the latter half of the 19th century
the entrance of Thomas Cook saw the early formation of mass tourism were
organised group travel arrangements to Vienna begun. Despite taking serious blows
during World War I and 2 in the 20th century, Vienna persevered as a destination and
quickly rebuild thanks to the aid of the United States and technological
advancements following the wars. This also resulted in Vienna becoming heavily
reliant on a tourism as an economic revitaliser which led to diversification into other
areas of the arts such as film tourism and accessibility to Vienna was drastically
improved (TravelSmart Limited, 2016). This allowed Vienna to develop to the
consolidation stage of Butlers Lifecycle. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries,
Vienna continued to more than incrementally develop as a tourist destination which
eventually in the early 21st century would reach the stagnation stage of Butler’s
Lifecycle where peak numbers within the destination had been reached (Hall, Smith
& Marciszewska, 2006).
Stagnation of tourism development within a destination can lead to numerous
problems. Examples experienced by Vienna include a significant increase in day
tourists which less income, a decline in the duration of stay, a strong reliance on
seasonal tourism and the exertion of Vienna’s maximum carrying capacity (Muller,
Peters & Blanco, 2010). In relation to the issue of seasonality one of the big issues
influencing tourism destination within Vienna, is the significant climate shift/change in
Europe (Schinko, Koberl, Friedl, Prettenthaler, Toglhofer, Heinrich & Gobiet, 2012).
As tourism in Vienna during the winter season is extremely reliant on snow within the
vast number of alpine ski resorts, the climate change within Europe has had a
noticeable impact on ski tourism within Vienna (Probstl, Prutsch, Formayer,
Landauer, Grabler, Kulnig, Jesch, Dallhammer & Krajasits, 2013 and Fischer, Olefs
& Abermann, 2011). The climate shift in Europe has resulted in reduced snowfall,
shorter winter seasons and significant overhead costs for resorts as many have had
to resort to using snowmaking machines which can be costly to run for long periods
of time. In addition to these problems, the climate change has severely impacted on
agricultural seasons within Vienna. Often this would usually not severely affect
tourism within a destination however in the case of Vienna, quite a large portion of its
tourism is achieved through the wine it produces, also known as gastronomy. Due to
wine production being affected this has resulted in tourists who would usually go to

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Vienna for its wine rather choosing alternative destinations such as Germany,
Switzerland or the Czech Republic as they border Austria and are also large wine
producers (Schinko, et al., 2012). Finally, other problems caused by the climate
change in Austria include increased rainfall which means there are less sunny days
for tourists to go sightseeing than previously and a notable decrease in fresh drinking
water as Vienna receives its water supply from the lower Austrian Alps rather than
using groundwater (Rudel, Matzarakis & Koch, 2007).
Another important issue to consider and usually the most important deciding factor
on whether a tourist travels to a destination or not is the political stability of that
destination. In regards to Vienna, the Austrian political stability in general is
extremely stable which often can be a deciding factor of visitors travelling to Vienna
over other surrounding European countries. However, there have been some recent
political issues within Austria which have been within high discussion of tourists
looking to travel to Vienna. One such issue has been the policy surrounding refugee
entry across the Austrian border (Kreichenbaum, 2016). Earlier in 2016, a
conference was held with a decision to effectively close the borders for refugees on
the ‘Balkan route’ which blocks entry from refugees’ entry into Macedonia from
Greece. Furthermore, the Austrian government has severely reduced the number of
refugee applications overall and now only allowing 3,200 refugees a day across the
border (Kreichenbaum, 2016). Austria’s decision to close the border has received
sharp criticism by a majority of the countries within the EU. This political activity
would potentially be a major deterrent for tourists to travel to Vienna as these
activities have been very public and travellers may view Austria as a very racist
country based on the government’s view on refugee foreign policy, especially the
majority of Vienna’s tourists are from the European countries they are receiving
criticism from. Tension between the Austrian foreign minister and Turkey’s
counterpart even exacerbated to the point where Turkey’s minister referred to
Austria as “the capital of radical racism” (Huet, 2016).
A politically related issue to the refugee crisis is terrorism. Although there have been
no recorded major terrorism incidents within Vienna or Austria in general in recent
years, there have certainly have been within neighbouring or nearby European
nations. More often than not, fear alone of travelling to a tourist destination due to
acts of terrorism which have taken place recently within that destination or another

4
nearby destination can become a primary deterrent for a tourist choosing to not
travel to that destination. Terrorism within Europe has reached its peak within the
past two decades and with the fairly recent terrorist attacks by ISIS within France
and Germany (amongst other European nations), vigilance by antiterrorism units is
on red alert as feared attempted terrorism attacks using chemical warfare or car
bombings are feared to be imminent (TV-Novosti, 2016). In addition, the two of the
terrorists involved with the November 2015 bombings in France, were arrested in
Austria which is an issue which further discourages tourists from travelling to Vienna
(TV-Novosti, 2016). Although there have been extreme restrictions on the number of
refugees who can now seek asylum within Austria, the large number of refugees who
are now within Austria are creating significant issues. Firstly, there has been a
noticeable increase in crime, especially by refugees. Over 11,000 refugees have
been suspected of committing criminal offences within just the first half of 2016
compared to a just over 15,000 for the whole of 2015 (TV-Novosti, 2016). Despite
only 13 of these issues being related to terrorism acts, these staggering numbers set
a noticeable restraint on current tourism development within Vienna. Secondly, the
influx of refugees has stirred further internal political issues which include but are not
limited to soldiers replacing police as embassy guards in Vienna in order to fight the
refugee crisis, more Austrians turning to firearms following the terrorist attacks in
France and Germany, and even clashes between left and right wing activists within
Vienna which have resulted in riots from the Identitarian Movement who are often
described as a racist and Islamophobic group (TV-Novosti, 2016). All of these
predicaments can potentially or have already become barriers or hindrances to
tourism development within Vienna as they are directly linked to travellers perceiving
Vienna currently as an ‘unsafe’ destination due to all the negative media being
displayed which can often be even more subjective than it realistically is.
Finally, in order for a destination to be able to monitor and improve tourism
development within that area, a tourism strategic plan for that location is paramount
for that destination to reach their goals and objectives. Currently, Vienna have a
tourism strategy which focuses on three primary goals that the Vienna Tourist Board
wants to achieve by 2020 (Brauner & Kettner, 2014). The number of international
visitors to Vienna has quadrupled since 1980 and is expected to increase by 65
percent by 2030. In order to maximize benefits from this growth, the goals the

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carefully formulated strategic focus on improving Vienna’s competitiveness within the
international tourism market and strengthen its ranking as a one of the most highly
sort after and well-connected tourist destinations on a global scale (Brauner &
Kettner, 2014). The Vienna Tourist Board use a formula within the strategic plan in
order to create plan’s primary objectives. This formula is known as
‘Global.Smart.Premium’ with each of these three areas related to a primary goal or
objective which the board wants to achieve by 2020. Global focuses on Vienna as an
international destination both as a centre for political decisions, economic
development and at its role as a primary European tourism destination based on its
location, accessibility and level of urban and cultural development. As Vienna is
regularly used for conference and business and educational type tourism, the Tourist
Board has placed extra emphasis on developing Vienna on a global scale in order to
compete with European destinations who are developing at a similar rate such as
Zurich, Munich and Geneva (Dill, 2015).
In order to maintain and develop Vienna within this context, the Global objective
looks at improving connectivity to and within Vienna and developing and adding to
the already renowned number of influential enterprises, universities and research
facilities which Vienna is already home to which attract world class talent (Brauner &
Kettner, 2014). The Smart goal looks at Vienna from both an environmental and
liveability standpoint. This area is extremely important in relation to the climate
change issue which is currently affecting tourism seasonality within Vienna. The
Vienna Tourist Board is looking to further reduce the cities already small ecological
footprint in order to lessen the impact of the climate shift for the foreseeable future.
In addition, in regards to liveability there are plans for technological and innovation
projects in order to further increase the appeal of Vienna as a tourist destination
which extremely safe and secure from both a political and a social standard while
also reducing resource consumption and increasing resource sustainability (Brauner
& Kettler, 2014). The Smart goal is an ideal objective in once again combatting the
climate shift problem and also contesting the current safety issues within Vienna due
to politics and terrorism which deter tourists from travelling to Vienna. Finally, the
Premium goal looks at increasing the luxury quality of products within Vienna which
standout from its European destination competition. Due to Vienna’s location and
immense accessibility, it is a popular choice for short stay tourists. Rather than focus

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on increasing the length of stay by visitors, the Tourist Board is looking to increase
the amount of money that the visitors are spending within Vienna (Brauner & Kettler,
2014). These is a specific goal to achieve a revenue of €1 billion in the hospitality
sector and 18 million bed/nights by 2020 (Steffens, 2014). This revenue is extremely
important as although this goal does not directly relate to the climate or political
issues within Vienna, portions of this money can be used to fund environmental
projects, improve liveability and overall positively promote Vienna as a safe,
sustainable and stable tourism destination to the rest of the world.
In conclusion, it is obvious that Vienna is one of the top European travel destinations
in the world. Although having achieved the Stagnant stage of Butler’s Lifecycle
Model (1980), history shows that Vienna as a tourist destination is determined to
persevere and push forward ahead of its competition. The major current issues
influencing tourism development within Vienna as previously discussed are the
European climate shift, slight political instability caused from refugee issues and fear
of impending terrorism attacks and from acts of terrorism which have already taken
place within neighbouring nations. However, in the large scheme of things these are
relatively small hurdles for Vienna as a tourism destination as tourism statistics in
recent years have shown. In addition, the Vienna Tourism Board has developed a
well-constructed tourism strategy, which if it is as efficacious as the previous
strategies in recent years will achieve auspicious results. Nonetheless, future issues
would could potentially significantly affect tourism development within Vienna are
unforeseeable, so as a tourism destination the Vienna Tourism Board should be
optimistic and have contingencies in place just in case such issues were to take
place. In the short to midterm scheme of things however, it is to all appearances that
Vienna will continue to improve and flourish as a tourist destination.

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References
Brauner, R., & Kettner, B. (2014). Tourism Strategy 2020 - Vienna: Now or Never.
Vienna: Vienna Tourist Board. Retrieved September 21, 2016, from
http://www.tourismstrategy2020.vienna.info/downloads/WT-
Tourismusstrategie-2020_EN.pdf
Butler, R. W. (1980). The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications
for Management of Resources. Canadian Geographer, 24(1), 5-12.
doi:10.1111/j.1541-0064.1980.tb00970.x
Dill, K. (2015, March 5). Vienna Tops 2015 List Of The Most Livable Cities On Earth.
Retrieved from Forbes website:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2015/03/05/vienna-tops-2015-list-of-
the-most-livable-cities-on-earth/#75d544627fd0
Dumitru, S. L. (2014, July 10). Vienna’s 2020 Tourism Strategy: 1 Billion Euro by
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by-2020/215297/
eTurboNews . (2012, January 3). Vienna expects flat tourist numbers in 2012.
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Fischer, A., Olefs, M., & Abermann, J. (2011). Glaciers, snow and ski tourism in
Austria’s changing climate. Annals of Glaciology, 52(58), 89-96(8).
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Hall, D. R., Smith, M. K., & Marciszewska, B. (2006). Tourism in the New Europe:
The Challenges and Opportunities of EU Enlargement. Oxfordshire, United
Kingdom: CAB International.
Huet, N. (2016, August 5). Turkey calls Austria 'racist'. Retrieved from Euronews
website: http://www.euronews.com/2016/08/05/turkey-calls-austria-racist
Kreickenbaum, M. (2016, February 26). Austrian-led conference closes Balkan route
for refugees and divides Europe. Retrieved from World Socialist Web Site:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/02/26/refu-f26.html
Mueller, S., Peters, M., & Blanco, E. (2010). Rejuvenation strategies: A comparison
of winter sport destinations in Alpine regions. Tourism : An International
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M., Dallhammer, E., & Krajasits, C. (2013). Climate change in winter sport
destinations: transdisciplinary research for implementing sustainable tourism.
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Gobiet, A. (2012). Climate change and the Austrian tourism sector: impacts,
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Music. Retrieved from ipl2 website: http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/
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guides.com/europe/austria/wien/vienna/vienna_history.html
TV Novosti. (2016, September 27). ISIS may strike Europe with car bomb &
chemical attacks, warns EU counter-terrorism chief. Retrieved from RT News
website: https://www.rt.com/news/360699-isis-eu-car-bombs-chemicals/
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Paris massacre of November 2015 - reports . Retrieved from RT News
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TV Novosti. (2016, August 26). More Europeans turning to firearms following terrorist
attacks – report . Retrieved from RT News website:
https://www.rt.com/news/357002-firearms-europe-spike-permits/
TV Novosti. (2016, September 6). Over 11,000 asylum seekers listed as crime
suspects in Austria . Retrieved from RT News website:
https://www.rt.com/news/358370-austria-refugees-crime-suspects/
TV Novosti. (2016, June 12). Police deploy pepper spray as left & right activists
clash in Vienna . Retrieved from RT News website:
https://www.rt.com/news/346289-vienna-right-left-clashes/

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TV Novosti. (2016, August 24). Soldiers replace police as embassy guards in Vienna
to help tackle refugee crisis . Retrieved from RT News website:
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Global Tourism - Assessment 2 - Vienna

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