Unlock Vienna: The Vienna City Card’s New and Improved Website

The Vienna City Card, a service offered by Vienna’s largest tourism provider, Vienna Sightseeing, offers a wide range of services to provide an unforgettable experience. At the start of 2024, Vienna Sightseeing won the tender for the Vienna City Card, becoming the official concessionaire for Vienna TouristTourism Board—an organization renowned for its global marketing efforts that position Vienna as a world-class destination. With the traveler top of mind, Vienna Sightseeing strives to make exploring Vienna hassle-free and accessible for all. Globally recognized for their marketing efforts and campaigns, they set the standard for making Vienna a world-class destination, prioritizing the traveler experience. 

As a result of the tender, Vienna Sightseeing became the exclusive distribution partner for one of Europe’s most popular and comprehensive city pass experiences. With a strong existing partnership and two successful website launches together, LIMESODA was the natural fit to relaunch the Vienna City Card website. 

The goals from the onset included increasing turnover, purchases and dwell time—all from the central point of a refined UX design. Working on a timeline of less than six months, the team at LIMESODA needed to work efficiently on relaunching the webshop with a strong consideration for the highly individualized product offerings. In order to achieve this, they utilized TYPO3 due to their extensive experience and familiarity with the CMS. LIMESODA chose TYPO3 not only due to their expertise but also because of its flexible structure and ability to handle large scale projects. Additionally, TYPO3’s ability to handle integrations of interfaces including connections such as partner portal, payment connection, voucher platform, REACT app, and IOS/Android for the native app, made it the suitable CMS to meet the needs of the Vienna City Card relaunch.

For this project, LIMESODA worked closely with the payment and voucher provider AVS to ensure a united, coordinated process across multiple systems. When rebuilding the store, LIMESODA relied on a REACT application which allowed them to specialize the product in detail while ensuring a fast loading time. Due to the individualization of the products, flexibility in route selection was pertinent. In combination with the Vienna Tourist Board app, ivie, the booking route is synchronized and displayed within the app. A joint commitment from all parties, including external service providers paired with a swift execution timeline was essential for making this project a success with a quick turnaround.

LIMESODA designed the user/payment journey with a REST API. This function was utilized for validating tickets, a special feature within TYPO3. From the time the validation is positive, the user is redirected to an overview page via TYPO3. The payment process is carried out at this point in the user journey via an integrated payment interface. When payment is successful, the data is transferred to AVS where the platform triggers the next step: creation of purchased tickets/vouchers which are sent back to LIMESODA and then on to the customer in a pre-prepared confirmation email. A headless JavaScript app was implemented throughout this process to aid in the live query of partner data in order to provide users with the latest offers and opening times. 

The offering from the Vienna City Card boasts over 200 exclusive discounts on local tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants, museums, etc. The card itself offers travelers a hassle free visit to Vienna with unlimited access on public transportation for a selected amount of time. This provides the traveler with options to travel throughout the city without needing to purchase multiple tickets. The purchase process was simplified by Vienna Sightseeing and executed by LIMESODA (via App Ticket) for anyone visiting Vienna wanting to make use of the world-class transportation system. 

As of November 2024, the Vienna Tourist Board celebrated 7 million Vienna City Cards purchased. With a high volume site reporting more than one million sessions between June -  December 2024, loading times and straightforward purchasing options were a necessity to keep this site quick and functional. With a focus on user experience, the shop is straightforward and uncomplicated.The website is available in five languages including German, English, Spanish, Italian and French. 

Sales continue to soar due to the well-structured and performing portal. As of this year, the Vienna City Card celebrated its 30th year providing travelers an easy solution to navigate Vienna with ease. Thanks to TYPO3’s clear and flexible structure, LIMESODA can implement new projects and requirements efficiently and without delay. They can also integrate interfaces as they did in this project. Turnover has aligned with the goals and continues to exceed expectations. Due to its resounding success, the product shop will see additions, add-ons and further optimizations in the future. Overall, Vienna Sightseeing attributes the success of this project to their effective communication with LIMESODA, fast response times and overall commitment to the project.