SAUDI ARABIA: SAUDIA Starts Flights From Vienna To Riyadh And Jeddah

Saudi Arabia’s largest airline SAUDIA started flights to Vienna, Austria from Riyadh and Jeddah. The carrier will fly to Riyadh before continuing on to Jeddah.

The new flight connection to Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, as well as to Jeddah will be served four times a week deploying an Airbus A320.

The presence of SAUDIA at Vienna Airport means that one of the largest airlines in the Middle East is now represented here.

The airline links Vienna with Riyadh and Jeddah, the two most important cities for business and tourism in Saudi Arabia.

The new flight connection provides positive impetus, particularly for Austrian tourism and the popular travel destination of Vienna, says Julian Jäger, Joint CEO and COO of Vienna Airport.

Direct flight connections serve as a driving force for an increase in the number of passengers.

For this reason, the Vienna Tourist Board is pursuing an air service development strategy in cooperation with Vienna Airport in order to lure new airlines and flight connections.

The fact that SAUDIA decided in favour of Vienna Airport is an extremely gratifying development and will promote incoming tourism from the Arab region, in which we registered about 334,000 overnight stays in Vienna in 2017, explains Norbert Kettner, Managing Director of Vienna Tourist Board.

Effective immediately, SAUDIA offers four weekly frequencies from Vienna to Riyadh and Jeddah.

The aircraft leaves Jeddah at 7:40 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and arrives in Riyadh at 9:20 a.m. The continuation of the flight from Riyadh to Vienna departs Riyadh at 10.10 a.m. and arrives Vienna at 2:40pm.

The return flight takes off from Vienna at 4 p.m. and lands in Riyadh at 10:20 p.m. and is scheduled to land in Jeddah at 01:10 a.m. on the following day.

This flight will be operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft.


Tourism Observer

REUNION: Germany Travel Agents Visit Reunion

Five tour operators and travel agencies coming from Germany, Austria and Luxembourg were part of this latest eductour in Reunion for six days. Accompanied by the person responsible for IRT's marketing and promotion in German speaking countries, Ms. Larissa Metke, the sales representative of Air Austral in Germany Ms. Katharina Essmann and by the sales representative of Lux * Hotels for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe Mr. Manuel Schirmer, the tourism professionals have been able to live the Reunion Experience through a journey of discovery.

It is a wide range of tourist offer of the destination meeting the German group of professionals could discover with, the program

The visitors were given a wide range of tourism offerings to sample and experience, among them a visit to the market of St. Paul, the discovery of Salazie, a hike in the heart of Mafate followed by a picnic, the excursion to the Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion's highly active volcano, the helicopter flights over the island, the visit of a vanilla plantation , a culinary workshop experience in Far Far Kréol to discover the flavors of the Reunion gastronomy and so much more.

Through this tour, the objectives of this eductour were many and it was primarily about

Training professionals on their knowledge of the destination;
Increase sales to the destination Reunion;
Supporting the development of market knowledge of German tourism professionals;
Encourage professionals to include the destination in their program and create circuits;
Sustaining relationships with partners in Germany, Austria and Luxembourg;
Developing awareness of the island on the German market in cooperation with tourism professionals.

This eductour was conducted in conjunction with another Vanilla Island, Mauritius and the cooperation resulted in great success. By familiarizing German, Austrian and Luxembourg tourism professionals with the tourism products of the destination Reunion, IRT, short for Ile de la Reunion Tourisme, intends to develop the awareness and sales of the destinations on the German speaking markets.