Rethinking tourism digitally

How tourism organizations benefit from digitalization with feratel and redefine the guest-host relationship. A few examples from the practice.

Advances in digitalization have fundamentally changed tourism. This affects both the market and competitive situation, resulting in increased demands on destination management organizations (DMOs) and customer behavior. With the technical solutions from feratel, tourism regions can now exploit their full potential, use the advantages of digitalization, and gain and retain guests.

St. Peter Ording, Sölden, Gstaad

Many regions sit on a treasure trove of quantitatively and qualitatively outstanding accommodation and recreation facilities. This treasure needs to be uncovered. Together with the technology partner feratel, three top international destinations show us how it is done.

In Germany, for instance, St. Peter Ording (SPO) tourism center on the North Sea is once again taking the lead in the industry when it comes to the matter of digitalization: with a new guest card – haptic and digital – and the introduction of a digital holiday companion, services for guests have been further expanded and customer loyalty pushed to an even greater extent.

After booking the accommodation, the guest receives a link to the digital holiday companion. The new guest card is already integrated there free-of-charge. For example, guests can discover what the Schleswig-Holstein holiday destination has to offer before their arrival, use the guest card services during their stay, stay in touch with the destination after departure and much more. The digital holiday companion only shows offers, services, events, etc., for the respective period of stay of the guest.

In connection with the new guest card, the stay becomes a digital experience for the guest. At the same time, actual experiences can be conveniently booked on the smartphone in the destination’s Experience Shop. Also integrated into the digital holiday companion, this interplay of digital solutions simplifies work processes and increases value creation in the region.

SPO is one of the destinations with the most overnight stays in Germany and is feratel’s partner with the most bookings in Germany. The holiday destination has been proving for years now that with the right partner at your side, digitalization brings clear benefits to the industry.

Further south is Ötztal valley, which is one of the TOP 10 destinations in Austria. Here, too, feratel provides support for matters of digitalization with appropriate solutions ranging from the Deskline® destination management system and electronic reporting to distribution of high-resolution panorama videos and more. With a new guest card integrated into the digital holiday companion and linked to the Experience Shop, the Ötztal Inside Card has been offering a service with added value for 1 year.

The Ötztal Inside Card includes a number of free services such as participation in seasonal events, exclusive price deals in the adventure shop, inexpensive special offers such as rescue insurance for the entire stay and all types of sports, great discounts and even free rides on local buses, and much more.

During the summer months, the Ötztal Inside Card can be upgraded to the Ötztal Inside Summer Card. This means that guests can also use summer infrastructures such as mountain railways, swimming pools and lakes, recreational facilities, museums, etc. The upgrade is included from the end of May to the beginning of October with the participating partner operation or can be purchased as a 3-day, 7-day or 10-day upgrade (right in the digital travel companion).

The motto of the new guest card is: at the center of the action instead of on the sidelines. During the travel period, the guest has the Ötztal Inside Card on their smartphone around the clock, integrated into the digital travel companion of the accommodation operation. The digital travel companion, in turn, shows offers, services, events, etc., only for the respective period of stay of the guest. This means neither too much information, nor too little. In addition, the guest can book experiences quickly and easily in the Experience Shop, which is also integrated.

In the Bernese Oberland as well, those responsible for tourism are driving the digital transformation forward together with feratel. Step-by-step digital tools such as customer relationship management, electronic registration forms and digital guest cards with integrated public transport tickets are being introduced or further developed. For example, the tourism organizations Gstaad Saanenland and Lenk Simmental offer cross-destination offers and experiences with the digital guest card. The aim is to create a space for shared experience and to offer guests added value.

Attracting guests and especially retaining them, and increasing added value in the region – these are key issues with which tourism professionals are constantly and continuously confronted. The tourism managers of successful destinations have been relying on feratel and its solutions for many years.