SEE LESS, EXPERIENCE MORE: VIENNA MAKES THE CASE FOR SLOWER CITY BREAKS IN 2027

As travellers look ahead to 2027, Vienna is challenging the ‘see everything’ city break with a simple proposition: slow down, wander and leave something for next timeThree museums before lunch, a landmark before dinner and 20,000 steps by bedtime. For years, the classic city break has been defined by how much travellers can squeeze into 48 hours. For 2027,

Vienna is making the case for doing the opposite.

Through its new Wanderful Vienna campaign, the Austrian capital is encouraging visitors to resist the urge to tick off every sight and instead take the city at a slower pace: wandering without a strict itinerary, lingering in its green spaces and allowing time between cultural experiences. The campaign is designed to build awareness of Vienna through a different way of experiencing the city.

The thinking is simple: city breaks can quickly become an exercise in consumption. One gallery follows another, attention starts to fade and even the most extraordinary works of art risk becoming another item on a checklist. Vienna’s answer is not less culture, but more space around it. The city’s museums, architecture and artistic heritage sit alongside parks, gardens, boulevards and neighbourhood streets, allowing visitors to alternate sightseeing with time to walk, sit and take things in.

It is an approach that has deep roots in Vienna. The city grew around places made for strolling, from the Ringstrasse and its grand boulevards to winding roads, expansive parks and museum districts. Under Emperor Joseph II, formerly imperial green spaces including the Prater and Augarten were opened to the public, helping turn leisurely time outdoors from an aristocratic privilege into part of everyday city life. Vienna’s artists, writers and intellectuals would also use walking as a source of inspiration and creative practice.

The art of doing less

Rather than planning a city break around how many attractions can be covered each day, Vienna is encouraging visitors to build in room to wander.

That might mean leaving a museum without immediately rushing to the next one; walking part of the Ringstrasse with no particular destination in mind; spending an hour in the Burggarten or one of Vienna’s other historic green spaces; or allowing a neighbourhood to dictate the route rather than following a tightly planned itinerary.

The result is a different kind of city break – one where the aim is not to return home having technically seen everything, but to have properly experienced what you did see.

It also provides an alternative to the increasingly packed itineraries that have become synonymous with short-haul European breaks. Instead of another list of “20 things to do in 48 hours”, Vienna’s message for 2027 is refreshingly straightforward: you do not have to do it all.

Matthias Schwindl, International Media Relations Manager

“Vienna has an extraordinary concentration of art, culture and history, but experiencing the city shouldn’t be a race from one attraction to the next. Wanderful Vienna is about giving yourself permission to slow down, to spend longer somewhere that interests you and to enjoy the spaces between the sights. Sometimes seeing less allows you to experience much more.”

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Editors notes

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Notes to editor  

For more information on Vienna, please visit www.wien.info/en    

For media and press enquiries, please contact: vienna@lemongrassmarketing.com / +44 (0) 1865 237990   

About Vienna Tourist Board  

Austria’s capital of Vienna is consistently ranked as the city with the highest quality of life for the 3rd consecutive year by The Economist Intelligence Unit, providing its residents, expatriates and visitors with high security, seamless public transportation, a wide variety of cultural and arts institutions, and a staggering 53% of the city serving as public green space. 

The Vienna Tourist Board, founded in 1955, is the official destination marketing service provider for the tourism sector of the city. It promotes the city worldwide and provides many services, tips, resources and information for Viennese businesses, residents and visitors.    

For further information, please visit www.b2b.vienna.info    

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