Benefits in terms of improved public image and self-confidence
According to a Spectra poll conducted in August 2009 the public image of Linz has undergone a substantial make-over since the beginning of Culture Capital Year. It has proved possible to establish Linz as a dynamic modern city, whose strengths are its rootedness in industry and technology on the one hand and its vibrant cultural life on the other. Linz09 also succeeded in making its fellow Austrians aware of the European Capital of Culture 2009. In August 2009 97% of Linzers, 90% of Upper Austrians and 60% of Austrians knew about Linz’s special role in that year and declared themselves “very well” or “well” informed. The high name recognition and the high levels of informedness are owed above all to Linz09’s PR work and to the manifold activities that demonstrably succeeded in putting the vast majority of Austrians who were interested in Linz09’s programme in the picture.The intense efforts over the last decades to bring about a relaunch of the city − to transform it from a city with a great deal of heavy industry and an inevitably abysmal air quality to a city with a high quality of life and with cultural ambitions −, and the successful Culture Capital Year with its countless visitors from everywhere and the experience of being part of a world-spanning network gave a tremendous boost to the city’s self-confidence. Linzers are proud of their city – and justly so. It represents an ensemble of a modern, efficient industry, a steadily growing cultural life that need not fear comparison and spaces close to nature in or near the city. This kind of ensemble is almost unique in Europe.
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