On behalf of Vienna Convention Bureau, IME Consulting had invited 8 senior level persons from top MICE agencies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to attend the FAM group from December 6 – 9, 2016 to Vienna for site inspection of its MICE resources. They took the directly flight via Austrian Airlines from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, which show Austrian airlines has enough routes to carry large Chinese incentive groups departing from different cities to Vienna.

Ms Sophie Buchacher, Market Assistant of Vienna Convention Bureau greeted us at the airport with a lovely smile and warm hug. On the way to hotel, she sent each of us a removable wifi device for free of charge and explained that this can be also provided for Chinese MICE groups for free. This make all our agency buyers excited since it will save amount of cost on wifi and all the troubles for rental and bring in and out of China.

We expereienced total three hotels during our stay. They are Hotel Palais Hansen Kempinski, Hilton Vienna Stadtpark and InterContinental Vienna Hotel, which are all the top hotels and good for Chinese incentive groups in different size. The Hotel Palais Hansen Kempinski is located in the historic building and it is suitable for high end and luxury small or middle size group. Hilton and Intercontinental has more rooms and they can provide Chinese food like congee, fried noodle and dim sim during breakfast. When we entered the room, we were so excited to find the welcome page in Chinese language on TV. The most important for Chinese group is kettle and tea bag in the room, which both Hilton and Intercontinental hotels can offer.

Beside the inspection in the hotels, we did visit some special venues in Vienna. City Palace Liechtenstein, it is the private palace for the Royal family of Liechtenstein in Vienna downtown area. But it can be rented for special event like concert, gala dinner etc. Hofburg Imperial Palace, connected with most important places like presidential office of Austria, Sisi Museum with more than 300 items on display remind us the love story of Sisi, which is a big attraction to the Chinese tourists. Different size of function rooms can be provided to fit different requirements. The selling point of the function room is  that all kinds of lighting and audio systems has been built in and save the budget and time to find other suppliers for lighting and audio set-up. It is all inclusive in the room rental!

Of course, you can find and feel Christmas atmosphere in every corner in Vienna in this special season. When we arrived Christmas market in front of the Schönbrunn Palace, we are attracted by the many booths for selling foods, drinks and Christmas ornaments. Many local people came and gathered to drink and chat, to listen the live band music, which is really like the temple fairs in China during the Chinese New Year.

It makes more and more Chinese peoples easily go to Vienna to experience the fantastic local food, wine and music since Austrian Airlines opens the directly flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

We believe that there will be more and more MICE products created by the agencies after the FAM trip and Vienna will be the most important MICE destination for Chinese group in the nearest future.