diff --git a/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py b/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py
index 9a41dde57..cf5b51bd8 100755
--- a/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py
@@ -999,7 +999,7 @@ class VimeoIE(InfoExtractor):
         video_thumbnail = config["video"]["thumbnail"]
 
         # Extract video description
-        video_description = get_element_by_id("description", webpage)
+        video_description = get_element_by_attribute("itemprop", "description", webpage)
         if video_description: video_description = clean_html(video_description)
         else: video_description = ''