FOLLOWING a record year in 2010 Austria is aiming to grab further market share from the region and the Austrian National Tourist Office is to launch an extensive media campaign this month featuring the first ever travel guide for Smartphones designed specially for travellers from the Middle East.
The number of tourists from the Middle East to Austria has quadrupled in the last 10 years and doubled in the last five years with Klaus Ehrenbrandtner, director Middle East of the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) saying: “2010 was a record year in this market for Austria.
“Our target for 2011 is clear: to get more tourists from this region than Switzerland does.” This could indeed be possible: While in 2000 Switzerland had 43 per cent more arrivals from the Middle East than Austria, in 2010 it was only two per cent more as Austria’s growth in the region has been much faster.
To reach this aim, ANTO is focusing on two key activities in 2011: “We want to support the travel trade with our destination training programme ACTS and expand the pool of ‘Austria Certified Travel Agents’, who are our preferred partners,” said Ehrenbrandtner.
“For the local clients we are introducing the iAustria Travel Guide, the first ever travel guide for Smartphones that was specially designed for travellers from the Middle East.”
The launch of the iAustria Travel Guide will be accompanied by an extensive B2C media campaign including online, print, radio and television promotions throughout May and June.
“I think it is also a very good sign that Emirates has just increased direct flights to Vienna from seven to 13 a week. It shows how much the airline believes in our destination,” added Ehrenbrandtner.
The iAustria Travel Guide can be used on iPhone, Blackberry and all Smartphones with Android system and is free of charge.
It offers a comprehensive overview of the best family attractions, sights and shopping facilities; list of restaurants, including Asian, Arabic and halal restaurants; special discount cards that will help users save money on transportation, restaurants, shopping and tourist attractions and information on mosques, prayer rooms and Islamic institutions in Austria .
Special features include a ‘near me’ location search which uses the phone’s GPS receiver to locate a person’s current position in Austria and show on a map where to find all the interesting places nearby.
There is also an augmented reality function allowing users to find out about points of interest they are actually seeing in real time and the personal travel guide has a comprehensive overview of 300 popular tourist attractions, hotels, shopping facilities, prayer facilities, discount cards and many more in Arabic.
The app also offers the most important phrases in the local language.