The Covid-crisis hit Europe hard. Borders were closed, nationalism is on the rise and parliaments are ravaged by quarrels. Europe is more divided than ever. The European idea is locked behind closed doors. Vienna, a city in the heart of Europe, wanted to make a statement for solidarity and bring back the European idea.

We created the first tourism campaign by a city for other cities: “United Cities of Tourism”. The idea: For every 100th tourist in Vienna, we sent one to another European city. To bring tourists back to all cities equally. And with that bring back solidarity.

The PR strategy was to adhere to the European idea not by empty words, but by selfless actions.

We announced the campaign with OOH and classical PR – no huge means, but the initiative struck a chord among the tourism industry and resulted in other tourist boards joining the initiative.

Unexpectedly, our initiative became a European-wide movement. As the Tourist Boards from Berlin, Milan, Paris, London and Barcelona joined our movement and shared it across all their channels. Truly restoring togetherness by working together.