Austria’s third Destination Summit
FROM 14-21 Oct the Austrian National Tourist Office hosted the 3rd “Austria Destination Summit” (ADS) for 60 top travel advisors from Australia and the USA.
Participants came together in Vienna for three days before they could choose one of four post-convention tours to explore Burgenland/Styria, Tirol, Salzburg/Salzkammergut and Vorarlberg.
The educational focus of the ADS was the “Destination Day” held at Schönbrunn Palace, an in-depth learning experience and meeting opportunity with 30 key suppliers. The experiential Vienna program included an evening at Belvedere Palace to come face to face with Klimt’s The Kiss, a welcome cocktail at the Park Hyatt Vienna for members of the Australian contingent and explorations by bike, discovering the more modern side of Austria’s capital and taste-testing Viennese flavours. A much talked about highlight was an exclusive private performance at the Spanish Riding School complete with dinner afterwards in the baroque reception rooms of the Imperial Palace.
The aim of the ADS is for travel agents to “engage, explore, experience” what the heart of Europe has to offer, particularly for high-end clients, and the week-long itinerary was specifically curated to match supply and demand with a high number of Virtuoso agencies present.
The Australian market shows continued growth for Austria, an increase of about 30% of overnights in the last six years – a
result that was toasted to in Vienna!