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 Tourists associate Vienna with classic architecture,
composers, traditional coffee houses and the Blue Danube Waltz,
composed in 1866 - conservative images which the city is now
trying to move beyond.
It has recently begun promoting its culture and imperial history
to a wider audience including lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) travelers with money to spend.
Hosting Eurovision, a kitsch contest popular with gay fans - and
won last year by Austria's bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst -
should give that strategy a big boost.
"I have not felt any dustiness at all. I think the liberal image
fits, it's not artificial," said Ralf, 49, a German graphic
designer with a nose piercing who spent more than 1,500 euros
($1,700) on his trip to Vienna to celebrate Eurovision.
"We know that in some people's minds Austria is still seen as
fusty, boring and everything other than cosmopolitan," Ulrike
Rauch-Keschmann, a spokeswoman for Austria's national tourism
organization, told Reuters.
Vienna hit the headlines this year when the famous Cafe Prueckel
ejected a lesbian couple for kissing in public.
Some conservative politicians in Austria cried foul last year
when broadcaster ORF picked Wurst to represent the traditionally
Roman Catholic country.
But Wurst won by a landslide and in a sign of her instant
popularity has since been gracing adverts for Bank Austria
splashed across the city.
"I personally feel that Austria is really coming out of the
dark," said 29-year-old Ciaran Tuttiett from Britain, sipping a
beer at one of Vienna's public viewing spots. "They use Conchita
to promote themselves. It's fantastic."
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The city is also known for the Rainbow Parade and the Life Ball, one
of the world's biggest AIDS charity events, this year attended by
stars like Charlize Theron and Sean Penn, Kelly Osbourne, Mary J
Blige and of course, Conchita Wurst.
For Eurovision, it has even changed some of its traffic lights to
show same-sex couples instead of the usual single, gender-neutral
figure.
"Vienna is...known by some communities as one of the most open
cities," said Martin Stanits, a hotel association spokesman. "But
with Conchita Wurst and Eurovision, this image is finally reaching a
wider audience."
Vienna's tourist office is investing 1.2 million euros in connection
with the contest and hopes it will bring around 26.5 million euros
in revenues and benefits.
Tourism authorities believe Wurst's victory and its staging of the
show, watched by more people worldwide than the Super Bowl, will
have a lasting effect on Austria and its image.
"No marketing campaign in the world would have meant such a positive
image boost for the country," Rauch-Keschmann said.
($1 = 0.8954 euros)
(Editing by Dominic Evans)
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