Image: Tarabic
It is difficult to imagine that in times of digitalization there are still tourist service providers that cannot be booked online or that some do not have their own website. With the Interegg project (European territorial cooperation) “Borderless digital”, a tourism digitization offensive was launched in Upper Austria and Eastern Bavaria, which is intended to provide a remedy here. The goal is sustainable tourism development in the border area.
Project partners are the Eastern Bavaria Tourism Association, Oberösterreich Tourismus GmbH and the Danube Upper Austria, Entdeckerviertel, S’Innviertel and Böhmerwald holiday region tourism associations. The project is scientifically supported by the Centouris Institute at the University of Passau. The project was started in September 2023 and will run until August 2026. The budget is 2.7 million euros. 75 percent of these are funded by the European Union. “Our target group are service providers who regularly offer overnight stays or experiences, tours and activities for a fee or free of charge. These can be commercial, private or public in nature,” said Michael Braun, board member of the Eastern Bavaria Tourism Association, at the official project presentation at the University of Passau.
1000 top performers
As part of the cross-border project, 1,000 tourism service providers (500 each in Bavaria and 500 in Upper Austria) will be sensitized and informed about digitalization coaching free of charge. This will create new offers that can be booked online. The aim is to help those responsible in the small-scale tourism industry in particular, who often find it difficult to find and implement the right digital forms for themselves. After the end of the project, there should be at least 200 (100 in Bavaria and 100 in Upper Austria) new offers that can be booked online. The tourism services are presented in a digital, cross-border travel companion.
Opportunity for the Innviertel
Gerald Hartl, managing director of the S’Innviertel Tourism Association, is hoping for many participating companies from the Innviertel. “It’s a great opportunity, especially for smaller hosts whose online presence isn’t really up to date, or for those who don’t have a digital presence or can’t yet be found on a booking platform such as Booking.com. I see the project as a great opportunity to make the Innviertel even more attractive and thereby attract even more tourists.”
The individual coaching sessions take place at the respective companies on site, are free of charge and start immediately. The individual coach for tourism businesses from the communities in the S’Innviertel region is Marlene Hangler, Tom Peiter for those in the Entdeckerviertel and Ursula Thaler for businesses in the Danube Upper Austria Tourism Association. The companies also receive support through an e-learning platform and information events. In order to improve their Internet presence, companies are provided with a base of professional photos if necessary. The photo shoots are organized by the e-coaches.
Stefan Mang, Managing Director of Centouris, explained how important a good online presence is: “The number of guests booking their holidays online has been increasing rapidly since the corona pandemic. In 2022, the proportion of online bookings was for short holidays in Germany at around 66 percent, and the trend is rising.”
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Source: Nachrichten
