Photo: Unrating Vienna

Vienna Is Using Bad Online Reviews and Reverse Psychology to Lure Tourists

Vienna News
by Eben Diskin Jul 8, 2019

The city of Vienna is turning negative online reviews on their heads by fully embracing them. In a new campaign called “Unrating Vienna,” the Austrian capital is highlighting negative reviews written about local restaurants, museums, and other attractions to humorously encourage visitors to come make their own judgments.

The campaign uses real reviews and credits their authors, though it certainly singles out some of the more amusing ones — like a review for the renowned Leopold Art Museum that reads, “Paintings are disgusting.”

According to the campaign’s website, 95 percent of all holidaymakers read at least seven reviews before making a booking, 47 percent of all users are skeptical if they find only positive reviews of a product or location, and 20 percent of all Yelp reviews are fake.

Vienna might be taking a risk, but the approach is so inventive, bold, and funny that it could very well push people to visit and prove the reviews wrong.

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