Air India looks to woo tourists with Delhi-Vienna service

Air India’s decision to start three-times-a-week flight to Vienna might prove to be a money spinner. Air India started the flight connecting Delhi with Vienna on April 6. The airline started the service after Austrian Airlines withdrew from the sector.

Not only are the number of Indians travelling to Austria increasing, the country is also generating a lot of interest among affluent Indians wanting to tie the knot in a foreign locale. Officials from the Vienna Tourist Board told newspersons, who travelled on the inaugural Air India flight to Vienna, that the city witnessed close to 50 per cent increase in tourist arrival from India in 2015.

Pankaj Srivastva, Commercial Director, Air India, said that the flight is expected to link Vienna not only to the Indian subcontinent, but to South-East Asia and Australia as well.

“The first flight to Vienna had 106 transit travellers, 53 of them from Bangkok,” he added.

Ishvinder Maddh, Managing Director, Robinville, a market entry specialist for tourism boards and sight-seeing in the region, pointed out that in 2015, Indians had 2,15,000 room nights in Austria, far more than the average of 1,63,000 room nights in the previous years.

The Austrian capital is also the new attraction for big, fat Indian weddings.

The Viennese hospitality industry is currently abuzz with a Jindal family wedding scheduled to take place soon.

Sources say most luxury hotels in the capital have been booked and about 1,000 guests are expected to attend the wedding.

Maddh’s company is also organising another Indian wedding in Vienna in July.

The writer was in Vienna at the invitation of Air India