Austria

It is far from being Austria's best-known city. And that's a mistake. Graz, the country's second largest urban centre with a population of just under 300,000, has nothing to envy its more internationally renowned counterparts such as Innsbruck and Salzburg. The capital of the Land of Styria, in south-east Austria,...

Travelling from Vienna airport to Graz or Klagenfurt, the two main cities in southern Austria, can be a long, long way. This is despite the fact that, in 2020, Austrian Airlines has entered into a partnership with ÖBB railways to transport passengers by train from Graz to the airport....

By the end of 2025, 33 new-generation ÖBB Nightjets will be on the rails, linking European cities by night at speeds of up to 230 km/h. The first trains are due to enter service from late summer 2023 on the most popular routes between Austria, Germany and Italy. Before reaching...

A new luxury address made its debut on the Viennese hotel scene on Monday. The Rosewood Vienna opened its doors on 1 August. For its fifth establishment in Europe, the top-of-the-range brand has invested in a choice address: the former headquarters of Erste Group Bank AG, one of the...

The Ascott group has just opened its first Citadines in Vienna. This opening illustrates a strategy that is now focused on franchising, since this residence is owned by c-view, a management company specialising in hotel real estate. "Ascott's development in Austria with a franchise partner is an important step in the expansion of our European network...

Faced with a rise in the number of infections with Covid (an average of 14,000 cases per day over the last three days) and relatively low vaccination coverage (66% of the population has been fully vaccinated), the Austrian government has ordered a total lockdown of the country. This is due to last until 12 December, but it will be extended...

3G becomes 2G... This has nothing to do with Internet broadband frequencies. In Germany, to be able to come to the country and take part in everyday life, until now you had to follow the 3G rule: Geimpft (Vaccinated), Genesen (Cured) or Getestet (Tested). But the upsurge in...

The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) want to attract more passengers with more attractive rail fares. However, faced with a sharp rise in traffic, ÖBB also wants to better manage the flow of bookings. Hence the incentive for future customers to book earlier. The new rule, which will apply from 1 July, is...

Austria dreams of reviving its tradition of welcoming visitors from all over the world. It seems that this dream is now a matter of weeks, if not days. In 2019, the benchmark for a 'normal' tourist year, the tourism and travel sector contributed 11.8 % to Austrian GDP and accounted for 12.5 % of employment....

Until the pandemic, Vienna was one of Europe's most important cities for the congress and conference industry. In fact, the Austrian capital has played this role for 200 years. The MICE industry remains one of the driving forces behind Vienna's economic activity. In fact, it has been incorporated into the...

Austrian Airlines must emerge from the health crisis smaller and more agile, according to a recent interview with the airline's CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech. "We can only count on ourselves to pull through. Our main shareholder Lufthansa no longer has the means to support us financially again. Nor does the Austrian government",...

When you think of Salzburg, you think of Mozart, music festivals and one of the most beautiful Baroque old towns in Europe. For business travellers, it's above all an exceptional geographical location on an east-west axis between Vienna and Munich and towards the Adriatic. It also boasts world-class hospitality facilities and a very high quality of life...

Austria's reopening to international business on 19 May is an opportunity to look at how this small central European country, so dependent on tourism - particularly in the business travel sector - has prepared for a post-Covid world. In 2019, Austria welcomed 46.2 million domestic and international tourists. They generated 152.7 million overnight stays and 38.09...

On 18 March, Austrian Airlines is launching its new catering concept, called "Austrian Melangerie". A term that may sound strange to French speakers, but it is in fact based on the "Wiener Melange", a traditional café au lait served in Vienna. The Austrian carrier has decided to change its on-board service...

Germany and Austria are in the midst of a debate on the compulsory wearing of FFP2 masks on trains and other public transport. At the end of the week, both countries made up their minds. No in Germany (except in Bavaria) and yes in Austria. The debate raged after the Austrian state of Bavaria introduced the...

Like most of its European counterparts, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) will launch its 2021 timetable on 13 December. And these timetables contain a series of new features presented by the company's Managing Director Andreas Matthä at a press conference in Vienna at the end of October. "We are, of course,...

Ecological awareness and the Covid-19 crisis have had at least one positive effect on Europe's railways: the return of night trains. A fine revenge for a mode of transport that seemed doomed 20 years ago. The SNCF in France, the FS in Italy...

Lufthansa's Airport Express service has been around for decades. As far back as the 1980s, Lufthansa innovated by running Deutsche Bundesbahn trains from Düsseldorf, Cologne and the former federal capital Bonn, as well as from Stuttgart, to the mainline station at Frankfurt airport. The trains were painted in Lufthansa colours...

One - the Radisson Hotel Istanbul Sultanahmet - is more intimate with its 28 rooms, historic ballroom and 19th-century Ottoman-French meeting room. The other, the Radisson Hotel President Beyazit, is more contemporary, with 201 rooms and suites in grey and beige tones, five bars...

We will have to wait until the end of 2023 to see Mandarin Oriental make its debut in Austria, one of Europe's leading business destinations, particularly for conferences. Regularly listed in the top 3 of the ICCA rankings, Vienna will then play host to the top-of-the-range hotel group, which plans to set up a hotel in the...