The Bottom Line in Numbers

Visitors and Artists

Roughly 3.4 million people attended the more than 7,700 events put on by Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture. In Culture Capital Year alone more than 2.8 million followed the call of the Culture Capital, and the pre-programme in 2006 to 2008 attracted 600,000 visitors. This surpassed all expectations. Linz09 offered a packed programme that combined variety with impeccable artistic quality. Approximately 5,000 artists from 66 countries were responsible for 220 projects. All of Linz’s museums notched up record numbers of visitors: Ars Electronica was stormed by 230,000 people, HÖHENRAUSCH attracted more than 270,000 visitors – a number that is without parallel among exhibitions of contemporary art in Austria. Upper Austria’s Landesmuseen registered 233,000 visitors in 2009, an increase of 150% compared with the previous year. Wholly new audiences were won over for cultural projects, particularly thanks to BELLEVUE, KULTURHAUPTSTADTTEIL DES MONATS [Culture Capital Neighbourhood of the Month] and BRAUHAUS [The Brewery] and to the fact that quite a few Linzers took up the standing invitation issued by Linz’s traditional cultural institutions for the first time in Culture Capital Year. Remarkably enough, the various groups that had hitherto patronized one of Linz’s cultural institutions at the expense of all the others seemed to mingle quite happily in Culture Capital Year. Traditional habits of the consumption of culture were subjected to a radical revision. According to a Spectra poll, by August 2009 50% of Linzers, 30% of Upper Austrians and 7.5% of Austrians had visited at least one Linz09 event – an astonishing result, given the fact that one normally proceeds from the assumption that Europe-wide only 5% of a city’s population are interested in culture.

Tourism

Linz09 is a success story in terms of tourism: More than two million day visits and an increase of 9.5 % in the number of overnight stays document the success of Linz09 and the ease with which Culture Capital Year was able not only to weather the present economic crisis with regard to the federal province and the capital but to come through with colours flying.

From the point of view of the tourist industry, Culture Capital Year set Linz on a track that ran counter to the general trend observable in the other provincial capitals. Linz’s increase in overnight stays in 2009 of 9.5 % is in striking contrast to the drop in demand in Innsbruck (-9,9%), Salzburg (-2,2% ) and Vienna (-3,8%).

The greatest increase in visitors who stayed overnight was observable market-wise with regard to Switzerland (+28 %), the Czech Republic (+28 %), Austria (+19,9%), Germany (+15,6 %) and Italy (+4,7 %); the overnight stays of business travellers from the USA, China, the UK and Russia slumped in the wake of the economic crisis. Nevertheless, the gains in Linz put Upper Austria easily ahead of the Province of Salzburg (-3,3%) and Vienna (-3,8%).

Sponsoring, Ticketing and Merchandising

Additional sponsoring contributed around 10.5 million euro to the budget of Linz09, which included around 6.5 million euros worth of contributions in kind (services, advertising, non-cash benefits). Ticketing and merchandising yielded 1.8 million euro. Its statement of revenues and expenditures shows that Linz09 not only broke even but carried over significant cash reserves to 2010.

Indirect Returns

The indirect returns generated by Culture Capital Year amounted to a significant impulse for Austria’s economy. According to calculations done at the Department of Economics of the Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, the measures in 2009 plus those in the run-up to Culture Capital Year in Upper Austria will have added 426 million euros to GDP (2005 to 2011). The highest annual returns were achieved in Culture Capital Year itself: +117.7 million euro. For the next two years Upper Austria may count on additional Culture Capital impulses in terms of economic achievement worth 35.3 million euro. In terms of jobs, Culture Capital created or safeguarded a total of 4,625 jobs in Upper Austria between 2005 and 2011.

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