After a confusion of daily travel warnings, high hopes for the winter season have once again been shattered – the BÖTM top seminar took place under amidst alarming signs for the sector. “To book or not to book, that is the key question guests are asking,” future expert Dietmar Dahmen summarised in the style of Shakespeare. There is great uncertainty. Many things will be completely reconfigured after the crisis. According to Dahmen, the new normal will not represent a return to pre-Covid tourism. Destinations therefore need to develop new structures now. With the installation of a task force, the Austrian National Tourist Board is investigating initial steps in this direction. We want to support the existing structures by introducing a digital task force comprising tourism professionals, lawyers, data specialists & tech. providers, to facilitate a quicker, nationwide, joint response in crisis situations,” said Reinhard Lanner from the Austrian National Tourist Board.

For digitalisation, the coronavirus crisis is acting like fuel on the fire. According to Olaf Nitz from Saint Elmo’s Tourism Marketing, the tasks of tourism professionals are becoming increasingly diverse. “Stop thinking in classic summer and winter campaigns! That makes sense in an advertising reality that relates to print or TV campaigns but the strategy doesn’t work online,” Olaf Nitz warns.

Tourism professionals need to use data management and personalised content that can be customised to each guest. “The entire customer journey has to be personalised,” Nitz says. Implementation is technically feasible and it works by means of tracking concepts, retargeting and data management. “The Austrian National Tourist Board has undertaken pioneering work here and is providing destinations with potential guests.” However, Nitz sees a substantial backlog in the destinations.