OPENING – DAY 1 DSTNCMP²⁴

ON MAY 21, 2024 BY WOLFGANG WEILER

DSTNCMP²⁴ opened in an Oscar-worthy fashion.

This time, Mathieu Almaric, alias Green, and his villains from the secret organization Quantum were truly out of luck: The nasty guys not only had Daniel Craig, alias James Bond, against them, as in the 2008 film "Quantum of Solace" shot in Bregenz. In May 2024, he also had the heads of netzvitamine behind him – and they brought along around 280 participants of DSTNCMP²⁴. Where the villains hunted Bond in 2008, in 2024 they fled from the concentrated superiority of Austrian, Swiss, South Tyrolean, and German tourism professionals.

The way netzvitamine managing directors Benjamin Buhl and Stefan Möhler cinematically opened the 14th DestinationCamp at the Festspielhaus on Lake Constance in Bregenz on May 21, 2024, was almost Oscar-worthy.

SECOND DSTNCMP IN AUSTRIA

Vorarlberg's state capital is, after Kufstein in Tyrol, the second Austrian venue for this significant industry event in German-speaking tourism. Until Friday, May 24, tourism professionals, experts, platform representatives, and consultants of all genders will address the diverse challenges of German-speaking and cross-border tourism.

On the opening afternoon, seven moderation teams pitched for three minutes each with highly original and artistically sophisticated presentations to win the favor of the participants. These participants can choose between 32 two-hour sessions on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Topics include Artificial Intelligence in tourism, the challenges of sustainable environmental management, the future viability of destinations, public welfare orientation, mobility and accessibility, marketing trends, innovations, and the requirements of interregional and transnational cooperation.

BREGENZ BENEFITS FROM AN INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

In his welcoming address, Mayor Michael Ritsch pointed out that at the "three-country lake, Lake Constance, borders are essentially non-existent" and that transnational cooperation is excellently organized in many areas of economic life. Now, it is important to jointly master the challenges of the climate crisis.

Four years ago, Bregenz declared a climate emergency and aims to be climate-neutral by 2030. He particularly welcomed the fact that DSTNCMP²⁴ would also contribute to the city's status as a Green Meeting City.

Gerhard Stübe, Managing Director of Kongresskultur Bregenz and Director of the Festspielhaus, also emphasized the importance of supra-regional and transnational networks in his welcome address: "The city of 30,000 inhabitants welcomes up to 400,000 visitors to the Lake Festival in summer and organizes 220 to 250 events between August and May. Without the international network around Lake Constance, this would be unthinkable for Bregenz."

Moderator Bernhard "Börnie" Lingg eloquently guided the audience through the opening event, as usual, and explained the schedule for the coming days. A quick check revealed that almost half of the participants are attending DestinationCamp for the first time.

In addition to the 28 sessions across seven thematic tracks, participants of DSTNCMP²⁴ can also look forward to four two-hour sessions from the netzvitamineAKADEMIE in the mornings, where netzvitamine partners will impart "knowledge-to-go." Consulting, sales, and technology companies have been supporting the industry event as sponsors for over ten years in some cases.

DATA MUST LEAD TO DECISIONS

Instead of a keynote address,an“opening talk” brought this year’s opening event to a close. Urs Treuthardt, Philipp Lehner, and Harald Katzmair discussedthe importance of data for “better” decisions.

Urs Treuthardt served as managing director of Bodensee-Vorarlberg Tourismus until 2023 and is now the owner of “Begegnungsagentur” occursus, an agency for decision-makers. Social scientist Harald Katzmair is the founder and managing director of FAS Research, an analysis and consulting firm based in Vienna. Philipp Lehner, a third-generation family business owner, is the CEO of ALPLA, one of the world’s largest companies in plastic packaging and recycling, with 23,000 employees in 47 countries.

The bottom line: The problem isn't a lack of data, but the inability to make use of it. Philipp Lehner:

Hours-long meetings often result in nothing but words. However, it is important to base decisions on data and translate those decisions into action.

UNLIKE AI PEOPLE CAN USE UNFOCUSED DATA

It is true that one could always aggregate or purchase more data. However, this offers no advantages as long as it remains unclear how the data should be used. The strength of humans, on the other hand, lies in their ability to “make use of even ‘fuzzy’ data.”

The real challenge lies in deriving decisions from data and translating those decisions into action. Harald Katzmair:“AI is a powerful tool. But I can’t ask it what I should want. A prompt only works if I know what I want.”

According to Philipp Lehner, the fact that ALPLA developed an innovative product based on data is “more of an exception. But we use data to support upcoming decisions. And whether it was a good decision is evident from the results.”

3-PERCENT RULE LEADS TO INCREMENTAL GROWTH

All three spoke in favor ofa 3-percent rule: "We shouldn't always think in all-or-nothing terms. If decisions consistently lead to results that are three percent better, that's an incremental improvement."

With regard to tourism, the conclusion was: When interpreting destination-specific data, one needs the “courage to draw one’s own conclusions from it and forge one’s own path. Only when we perceive our actions as coherent can we act in a sustainable manner.”

A CONVIVIAL EVENING AT THE GOLDEN HIRSCH

After the long round of applause and the group photo in the foyer of the Festspielhaus, the social part of the opening day began: A short walk along the shore of Lake Constance under a cloudy sky—now rain-free—led the tourism professionals to Vorarlberg’s oldest inn, “Zum Goldenen Hirschen,” in the city center.

All four of the Kinz family’s restaurants, located in the carefully renovated and partially redesigned 14th-century historic building, were quickly taken over by the participants. Later, the same was true of their Kinz wine bar across the street and the street in between. Around midnight, most of the participants moved on to one of Bregenz’s bars, which had been specially set up for the DSTNCMP²⁴ by the travel guide app plazy .