Danube
Danube
A river runs through it
EUROPE’S SECOND LONGEST RIVER CLIMBS THROUGH FOUR OF EUROPE’S CAPITALS A S IT
BEGINS ITS JOURNEY. CMW EXPLORES THE MEETINGS OPPORTUNITIES ON THE DANUBE
A
lifeline that runs from the
Black Forest of Germany
down to the Black Sea, the
Danube pulses through the heart of
Central and Eastern Europe. Not only
Europe’s second longest river — twice
the length of the Rhine — the Danube
flows through 10 countries and
conversations on its banks take place in
a dozen languages.
A journey down the Danube
commences with passage through four
capital cities — Vienna, Bratislava,
Budapest, and Belgrade.
Vienna
The city of Vienna prides itself on its
accessibility. Vienna is centrally
located in Europe and can be easily
reached from all over the continent.
The airport is 19km from the city
centre and takes you straight into
some of the world’s leading meetings
infrastructure. There are
three conference centres
(varying in size and
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Top:
Vienna’s largest
covention centre
Messe Wien
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ISSUE 80
layout) with more than 100 additional
smaller meeting venues, not to forget
the meetings infrastructure on a
university level.
The city is capable of responding to the
needs of its meeting clients. There are
more than 32,000 hotel rooms within city
limits, and the hotels in Vienna fully
understand how meetings work,
supporting the city’s strategy to be a
European meeting hotspot.
More than half of the surface of
Vienna is green, making the city a
very clean one and, for some years
now, the city has been voted most
liveable in the world in surveys.
The city regularly hosts the European
Congress of Radiology, with more than
20,000 participants, as well as of the
European Geosciences Union General
Assembly with more than 12,000
participants, and it welcomes them again
in 2016 and 2017.
There is great variety in the
facilities on offer, and organisers will
have is to decide what kind of location
best suits their event. If you want to
combine modern meeting
infrastructure with imperial
splendour, then the Hofburg Congress
Center is a unique place and
experience for participants.
For large conferences in need of many
small meeting rooms there is the
Austria Center Vienna with more than
170 meeting rooms, while if a large
exhibition is the core of an event then
Reed Messe is a strong offer.
The city is well served by its
infrastructure and transport links. Not
directly related to meeting infrastructure,
the opening of a new central train station
was one of the biggest recent investments
and around this there is a complete
redevelopment that includes office
buildings and a quintet of new hotels.
Vienna has no particular target when
it comes to business meetings, in terms
of nationalities and industrial sectors,
and while the majority of its custom
comes from organisers of European
meetings, its reputation in the MICE
industry affords it ample allure for
international events.
Bratislava
Further down the river lies Bratislava,
the capital of Slovakia. The city describes
itself as a ‘Metropolis on the Danube’ and
the river plays an important part of
Bratislava city life.
The Coronation City of the
Hungarian Kingdom for more than 150
years, during the Turkish invasion, the
city regards itself a twin with Vienna,
and is served by Vienna International
Airport. Add Budapest in Hungary to
the mix and the trio is known as the
Golden Triangle. The Slovak Tourism
Board has distanced itself from the
‘Little Big City’ marketing concept, but
the fact remains that the city has
everything necessary for international
events, while remaining simple to get to
know. It is highly accessible and there
are no long distances or lengthy traffic
jams to hamper proceedings.
In the next two years, Bratislava hosts
the EU Presidency, a 20,000 person event
that includes 200 meetings. A top event
within the meetings industry in terms of
importance and organisational challenge
in Bratislava (it occupies two full houses
at Ondrej Nepela Arena Ice Hockey
stadium with a capacity of more than
10.000 seats).
Other events include the Gourmet Fest
for 12,000 people; Bratislava goes
Classical, and Region goes Modern.
The city’s most interesting locations
include the Reduta Slovak Philharmony
Bratislava, just 100m from the river.
The largest hotel ballroom —
DoubleTree by Hilton Bratislava — can
cater for 600 people.
Or how about
meetings with a
view? The UFO
fine dining
Above:
Some of the sights
from the Danube
restaurant and lounge on the bridge
presents a fantastic view for 120 people
seated, with less surreal vistas at the
Lindner Hotel Outlook Bar, for 80
people seated. Venues on the river
include the Rivers Club event boat, and
the Au Cafe riverbank restaurant/café.
For large-scale events there are also
locations including the Ondrej Nepela
Arena; Incheba Expo, a 60.000sqm
exhibition and convention space; the
National Tennis Centre (three tennis
halls available for conventions); the
Aula University of Economy, a
stand-alone congress venue with
up-to-date technology, translation
booths and easy access for the disabled.
Finally, the Crowne Plaza presents a
view of the presidential palace, for
those who aspire to greater things.
Bratislava’s infrastructure
development includes an inner city
highway conceived to connect the city
to all directions including a direct
highway connection to Vienna
International Airport (30 mins by car),
a new highway to divert transiting
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Danube
traffic to outer city limit highways and
speedways. New hotels, tram lines, a
new bridge and infrastructure is being
heavily developed.
Bratislava traditionally relies on
neighbouring countries and Germany
as its primary source of business
travellers. In terms of sectors, the
automotive industry is very strong.
Volkswagen manufactures the Porsche
Cayenne, Audi Q7, Touareg, and the
electric cars Skoda Citigo and VW Up
in Bratislava, among other models,
including the Touareg car range.
Other sectors with a presence in the
city include petrochemistry, as
evidenced by Slovnaft, part of MOL
group, as well as IT, pharma and
real estate.
Budapest
Carry on down the river into
Hungary and you arrive in
Budapest, a hub and meeting
capital that makes its name as a
destination in the very heart of Europe.
The city bears the footprints of the
Barbarians, the Roman and Ottoman
Empires, but it is possible to trace early
Catholicism as well as to visit the largest
operating synagogue in Europe.
Its population of more than two
million makes it the eighth largest
city in the European Union, with
appropriately well-developed
infrastructure, a developing economy
and vibrant academic and cultural life.
All that makes Budapest one of
Europe’s favoured locations for
conferences and incentives.
Correspondingly, since the 1990s,
Budapest has been chosen as the
venue for several international events,
congresses and conventions of
significance.
One of the highest accolades Budapest
has received is that it was chosen to be
the next venue of the European
Selection of the world famous
cooking contest, Bocuse
Below:
The Danube
provides a
backdrop unlike any
other in Europe
d’Or. More than 1.3m voters gave
Budapest the second-place ranking in
Condé Nast Traveller’s 2013 Best
City global index.
There are plenty of beautiful
buildings in Budapest, among them
the Parliament at the side of the
Danube bank, the New York Café
House, one of the most beautiful café
houses in the world, and the ship
A38, which was voted as the best bar
in the world.
In terms of transport, there is easy
access to the city from Europe by air,
train, or car. Short flights from all the
European capitals are improved by the
presence of more low-cost airlines
operating flights to Hungary, not least
its own Wizzair.
There are few more suitable places
worldwide where the uplifting cultural
experience could better be combined
with the rejuvenating experience of a
health spa treatment than Budapest.
There is the possibility of listening to
contemporary and
classical
Meetings on Danube
„Do you know a European capital
where you can enjoy fine dining
in a UFO whilst looking at
a beautiful medieval castle?“
„WE DO!“
EUROPEAN UNION
This project is co-nanced
by ERDF funds.
Bratislava
SLOVAK CONVENTION
BUREAU
www.slovakconvention.sk | www.slovakia.travel
e-mail: [email protected]
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Danube
HUNGEXPO –
BUDAPEST
music, opera performed by internationally
renowned stars, fiery local music,
top-flight jazz, the ever-popular operetta,
folk music and dance in one of Budapest’s
numerous concert halls, opera houses,
restaurants, bars, and music clubs. And of
course there are a variety of museums, art
galleries and exhibition halls to explore.
Outside of the city there is beauty too.
The protected Puszta-regions, the Great
Plain, the romantic Danube Bend with
historic sites, pretty baroque towns like
Eger or Lake Balaton, the largest fresh
water lake of Central Europe, and a
beautiful holiday resort.
There are major new events on their
way in the form of the 2015 Red Bull Air
Race World Championship, which
previously saw 650,000 spectators line
the banks of the Danube in 2009.
Hungary hosts the 2016 Beach Handball
World Championship on Budapest’s
Margaret Island.
Budapest replaces Guadalajara,
Mexico, as the host city of the 17th FINA
World Championships and FINA World
Masters swimming championships in
July 2017.
Belgrade
The Serbian capital Belgrade is next on
the route. Those unfortunate not to be
arriving on the river may take new
national airline, Air Serbia. Today, the
country’s liberal visa requirements and
excellent flight connections makes
Belgrade more accessible than ever.
There are currently 26 carriers and 60
destinations served in scheduled
passenger service from Belgrade Nikola
Tesla Airport, which is just 15km from
the city centre.
The city is a new and mostly unknown
destination for delegates attending
meetings and congresses, and being the
centre of South Eastern Europe’s social
and economic activities, it is a good
starting point to discovering this region
and getting new members from this area
for the international associations.
Together with large scale investments in
infrastructure capacities in the last few
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years, Belgrade offers a compact meeting
package with great value for money.
The Lonely Planet guide named Serbia
one of the top 10 Hot Spots in Europe,
while The Times in London called it
‘Europe’s new capital of cool’. This praise
resulted in the city making constant
progress in International Congress and
Convention Association (ICCA) rankings.
At the moment when BCB and SCB were
established, Belgrade and Serbia
improved their ranking from 79th to 55th
place in 2008, reaching 49th in 2010.
Since then, it has always had a place
among top the 50 ICCA destinations in
the world.
With 50 international meetings held in
Belgrade in 2014, it ranks with Montreal,
Washington and New York in terms of
global appeal for business events.
This year the annual general meeting
of the European Association of
Pharmaceutical Full-line Wholesalers,
the Congress of the European
Association of Neuroscience Nurses, and
the Congress of the European Society of
Pathology take place in the city.
issUe 80
Above:
danube nightlife
ensures your events
don’t end when
offices close
While the Congress of the European
Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology
and Association Internationale des
Études Byzantines take place next year.
The International Congress on Trends in
Medical Mycology, Congress of the
European Society for Cardiovascular
and Endovascular Surgery both slot
in in 2017.
Perhaps the most remarkable meeting
location in Belgrade is the Sava Centar,
which claims to be one of Europe’s
best-equipped convention venues. As a
purpose-built convention centre with a
large plenary space for 3,760 delegates,
3,500sqm of exhibition space and 16
additional meeting rooms for concurrent
sessions, it has been a host for the largest
and most important national and
international congresses and events in
Serbia.
In the last couple of years, Belgrade has
experienced plenty of large scale
investment and new developments in
infrastructure capacities both regarding
function spaces and visitor attractions.
In addition to the new Crowne Plaza,
Radisson Blu and Holiday Inn Express,
hotels, Marriott Courtyard will welcome
its first guests by the end of summer
2015. These new properties bring the
total number of hotel rooms that are
within close proximity to the Sava Centar
to more than 1,500. There are currently
around 3,650, four-star and five-star
hotel rooms, and 1,700 rooms in
three-star hotels available in Belgrade.
Besides international association
meetings, particularly in the medical and
IT sector ranging from 600 to 1,500
participants, in the last few years
Belgrade has experienced the
establishment of an ever-growing
number of associations focusing on the
Balkan and Danube region. The
destination is becoming more and more
attractive for corporate meetings coming
from Central Europe, and today
companies from Turkey and Russia, as
well as the Middle East are also looking
to Belgrade, due in part to Serbia’s visa
free regime.
1.
Take
a superb destination:
BUDAPEST!
2.
Select
a multifunctional venue:
HUNGEXPO!
Who said organizing an event can’t be fun?
You can pair up these with your event and fulfill
with our full scale services be it a congress,
a gala or a concert up to 15.000 delegates.
So, do you like mixing and matching?
Have fun at HUNGEXPO!
Phone: (+36-1) 263-6520
[email protected]
U
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