The city of Salzburg was elevated to the tourist aristocracy this week: The travel guide book publisher “Lonely Planet” has named it the “best city to travel” in 2020. For 15 years, Lonely Planet has selected ten top cities, countries and regions each year. Salzburg took first place among the cities in 2020, followed by Washington DC, Cairo, Galway (Ireland) and Bonn. Decisive were the themes of the city, the incomparable experience and the “wow-effect”. In addition to the festivals with the baroque old town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the high culture of exhibitions to concerts, the medieval fortress and the mountain panorama Salzburg has much to offer here.

That this will flush “accolade” more guests to Salzburg is to be expected according to previous winning cities experience. And that the tourist crowds are no longer perceived by all locals as a blessing, is clear to all. Especially bus tourists who do not stay in Salzburg, and Salzburg as a bad weather program in the summer bring challenges.

Ideas Competition

Locals are currently invited to develop ideas for better coexistence:

Worth Living Salzburg

How can Salzburg maintain its high quality of life while remaining an attractive tourist  destination? What is necessary and possible to preserve the balance between guest and resident interests?

We are looking for creative and fresh ideas to make the interaction of the population and tourism in the future as good as possible. Under the umbrella term “Worth Living Salzburg” tourism for Salzburg is to be rethought and constructive solutions to be found – for locals and for guests. This requires a variety of ideas and new impulses for a worth living Salzburg. We invite you to find new, thought-out, simple, surprising and concrete solutions to the question: How can Salzburg maintain its high quality of life and at the same time remain an attractive destination?

We are looking for ideas on infrastructure, technology, information, offer or other topics.

Participate now and submit ideas for new solutions and services for the best possible interaction between residents and visitors of the city of Salzburg! The 10 best ideas are finally awarded by a jury!

Open Innovation Salzburg

The Open Innovation Salzburg Platform is a joint initiative of ITG – Innovation Service Salzburg, Salzburg Research, University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, Private University Schloß Seeburg, University of Salzburg and Province of Salzburg. Salzburg Research, an expert in digital open innovation methods, contributes to increasing the innovation performance and capability of companies and educational institutions. In the project, we support the development of the regional crowd, accompany and evaluate the implementation, impact and quality of the open ideas competition. In addition, together with the consortium, success factors will be identified and worked out on how the solutions selected in the ideas competition can then be put into practice.