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Linz09: Hospitality in Culture Capital Year

Press Conference
Friday, 3 Oktober 2008, 10 a.m.
WKO Oberösterreich, Linz, Hessenplatz 3

In 2009 Linz will be European Capital of Culture; playing host to the whole of Europe. Linz09’s programme, with no let-up all through 2009, will feature around 200 projects and is bound to attract many interested visitors to Upper Austria’s multifaceted capital. This will give every Linzer: man, woman or child, an opportunity to contribute their share to making our visitors feel welcome – simply by being friendly and obliging and by displaying competence and knowledge about Linz and Linzer life. If these visitors return and perhaps even bring friends, we will have done a great deal for Linz’s future. Linz09 is our chance to make the city better known, more popular and even more attractive – with what ought to be lasting effect. Everyone – taxi drivers, policewomen and men, restaurant staff, etc. – has a part to play as a Linz09 host and in making visitors share the city’s joy at having been made European Capital of Culture in 2009.
Linz, which has repeatedly had its share of international limelight in the past, will be a magnet for visitors from all over Europe throughout 2009. Linz09 Capital of Culture, intent to show the world what it is capable of, will be worth the trip – however long.

LINZ, FIRST AID – the new language guide for Linz09
The capability of responding in a friendly manner to requests for information in several languages on the part of Linzers in general and of those who are in constant contact with our visitors in particular underscores the European dimension of Linz09 and its partners. Linz09’s “WIR09” aims to give a boost to the cooperative potential of all service nodes in the business community and to motivation and competence in the areas of hospitality and quality of service in general.
To make this happen, Linz09 and the Economic Chamber of Upper Austria have developed a language guide containing key phrases and vocabulary for passing on information in nine languages: “Wir09”, which has been designed as a kind of “first aid” manual to facilitate basic exchanges between visitors and hosts and serves as a basis for communication with visitors in their own language.
“The long-term success of Linz09 will also owe much to the staff of businesses in Linz and of the city’s institutions and transport system, who will all be perceived as co-hosts of Capital of Culture Year. We are therefore looking forward to continued flexible cooperation with Upper Austria’s Economic Chamber and to the contribution that entrepreneurs are going to make as dedicated hosts to Europe”, says Dr Walter Putschögl, Commercial Manager of Linz09.

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WKO-Press Information (Only German)