The future of DMOs - is it in the past?

Recently, critical voices have been questioning the role and works of Destination Management/ Marketing Organizations (DMOs). In exaggerated terms one could even speak of an increasing problem of legitimacy, in a sense “Who needs those organizations and why?” But to simply cold-swat DMOs is not the right thing to do. Rather one must question which tasks DMOs should and could take over in the future.

In the past, DMO had a broad foundation of their legitimacy

“Picking up visitors" was yesterday - Myths in destination marketing must be demystified

by Pietro Beritelli and Christian Laesser

Please note: This contribution is an abstract of a paper in the recent “Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Tourismuswirtschaft”. An English version is attached (click here to download).

Current approaches to destination marketing with the aim of "picking up/ attracting visitors" with the help of communication and sales promotion are under increasing pressure. Much of (destination) "marketing" is habitual, because everyone is doing it that way and it is concluded that it is having an effect. We oppose this: "Attracting visitors" through tourism organisations has never really worked and will work even less in the future.

Dynamic pricing in winter sports resorts: No trivial "exercise"

More and more winter sports resorts are implementing dynamic pricing systems to strengthen their profitability. However, the dominant orientation towards demand-dependent sales maximization is not enough. Prices inhibit a large number of different properties, which should be integrated into pricing. And then there is another important ingredient missing from any “normal” dynamic pricing (in other serice industries): limited capacities.

Dealing with overtourism: A complex solution for a simple problem

This contribution starts easy and ends complex. Overtourism is a simple and easy-to-explain challenge. Solutions might be quick and easy. However to get there, we are encountering a serious challenge: The allocation of property rights with regard to public goods.

Digitization in Tourism – Hold your breath and focus!

Digitization is a multi-layered development in which one easily can lose the overview. However, there are a few clear avenues for entrepreneurial tourism practice that need to be reconsidered, with the primary objective of increasing productivity and earning more revenue: (1) business model configuration (macro level), (2) process design (micro level) and (3) dealing with data (resource level).

How to violate every rule in pricing behaviour – and get away with it

Recently I traveled to the US to attend an international tourism research conference. I encountered a pricing behavior of the tourism industry which I have been familiar with for some time. However, it has never ever upset me as much as this time (I shall not use the p…o… word in public).

Serviced Apartments - finally arriving in Switzerland for the benefitof all

Accommodation models are becoming increasingly hybrid. What began with the rapid spread of B & B continues with a growing number of serviced apartments. Thus, a globally widespread form of accommodation (finally) sets foot in Switzerland - for the benefit of the guests as well as the providers.

Overtourism - How do we not destroy what we travel for?

An exclusive market study by DGT and AIEST for the ITB Berlin

Speakers: Profs. Jürgen Schmude (President of DGT), Harald Pechlaner (President of AIEST), Christian Laesser (Secretary General of AIEST)

Tourism is threatening to suffocate itself: due to the limited space, further growth in tourism inevitably leads to ever more and ever greater conflicts in tourist destinations worldwide. A quantitative and qualitative study presented at ITB recently reported about the status quo of overtourism in selected European destination. What differences and similarities exist between urban and rural destinations, which measures offer possible solutions and which strategies do tourism experts regard as promising? The video includes a presentation of the study by Profs. Schmude and Pechlaner as well as an interview with me on possible measures for the communities affected by overtourism.

Please check out the video at Overtourism: Status Quo, Massnahmen, Best Practices europäischer Tourismus-Destinationen (in German), and my interview with NZZ: Wir haben das Reisen in den Genen.

Learning from dairy farmers means learning to win!

Dairy farmers are trying to regain dwindling margins.
Tourism should be acting like them.

No - I did not smoke too much. No, I am not an old Communist who - with the aim of "learning to win" - looks back romantically on Soviet-style socialism. Rather, in the last few days, two messages have gotten me to hit the keys and write this short column.

The WEF Tourism Competitiveness Report: Measuring the non-Measurable?!

This article discusses the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum in the context of existing research on this topic as well as from a methodological perspective. A positive ranking can be achieved when ranking the tourist competitiveness of individual countries, however, a critical examination of the procedure is appropriate. Main criticisms are in particular the missing embedding of the report into the existing research, the lack of traceability (rationalization) of the selection and weighting of the measured variables (which is partly arbitrary and demonstrably ignores important quantities), the type of data collection (survey and hard data) and their amalgamation. For this reason, the results may only be noted with a critical eye. This is particularly true for Switzerland, which has lost its appeal - despite having been in first place for some time - due to its price disadvantage. (©Christian Laesser. All rights reserved.)

Switzerland constitutes a very good reason for Chinese people to travelto Europe - but the competition is intense

Switzerland contributes a great deal to the attractiveness of Europe as a destination for Chinese people. But the number of easily accessible destinations – e.g. due to the abolition of visas, visa facilitation, and better air links - is rapidly increasing for Chinese tourists worldwide. In the competition for their holiday budgets, Europe and Switzerland, therefore, have a difficult time. This shows a first trend-analysis of data on the travel behavior of the Chinese population, data which I collected in a survey in China together with Survey Yes.

Destination branding: It is time to surrender in ​dignity to theimpossibility of this task!

Destination branding is one of the key instruments in destination marketing. The article shows that we should end the dance around this golden calf sooner than later.

Only a few are claiming that branding is not one of the key instruments in destination marketing. A destination must be positioned in the market, and guests should get a clear picture of what is going on, and what values, etc., a destination embraces. In short, destinations should have an emotional and thus binding meaning for their guests.

I allow myself to raise my critical voice at this point: Let's stop burning our budgets specifically for destination branding. Why? Because I think we've all gotten a wrong picture for years. Let me bring forward some arguments to explain how I come to this conclusion.

Local suppliers in the world of global sales platforms: David vs.Goliath?

Hotels, in particular, holiday hotels, are challenged by the dominance of global booking platforms. As shown in the following remarks, it is worthwhile to pause and take a look at the sales and distribution as a whole.

Digitization - What is really going on? A sober view of a fascinatingphenomenon

Digitization is on everyone's lips. We are fascinated by all new possibilities and in joyful expectation about what the future may bring. However, and in relation to the data (big data), which we generate and leave behind from all our activities in Cyberspace, there is - and quite rightly - an ambivalent relationship.
In times of such fundamental changes, it is sometimes helpful to leave the drunken astonishment of what is feasible behind and try to understand the events with a sober mind.

Let me try.