DGT 2023

The main topic of this year's conference was "Tourism development and policy". For this reason, Hubert Siller presented the Tyrolean Way as the tourism strategy of the province of Tyrol at the opening. In the subsequent panel discussion with Karin Seiler (Managing Director of Tirol Werbung), Monika Bandi-Thanner (Head of CRED-T in Bern), Mario Gerber (State Councillor for Tourism, Economy and Digitization of the State of Tyrol) and Jürgen Schmude (DGT President), different approaches in tourism policy between the three DACH countries, the concept of living space, year-round tourism, necessary forms of dialogue for more tourism awareness and the focus on sustainable tourism development were discussed. The sessions on Friday and Saturday covered a wide range of topics. We are only presenting a selection of the presentations here.

Many contributions dealt with the topic of sustainable tourism development from different perspectives:

• Florian Gasser (University of St. Gallen) and Mauro Luis Gotsch (University of Applied Sciences Graubünden) presented the relationship between "greenwashing" and "greenhushing" in ski tourism communication in their lecture "Sustainability communication in ski tourism: impact of different communication styles on customer perception and their sustainability behavior". In an experimental setting, it was shown that ski resorts can communicate sustainability measures to the target group through transparent, honest and reflective communication and by actively involving customers. The presentation contained valuable insights into how sustainable efforts in ski tourism can be communicated to the target group.
• Luisa Ehrenzeller (HES-SO Valais-Wallis) presented in her contribution "Do We Offer What They Ask For? Comparing Sustainable Consumer Demands With Sustainability Offers Of International Tour Operators", she focused on the interplay between sustainable product packaging and international tour operators. While the demand side sees sustainability as an asset for a deeper understanding and travel in the destination, the supply side is still concerned that sustainability could have a negative impact on the price. In the communication of these packages, the focus should be on the concrete influences on the customer's perception and less on the reference to policies.
• Birgit Bosio and Paula Hackner (MCI Tourismus) dealt with the application of the Wedding Cake Model at destination level using the example of an Alpine destination in their study "Tourism in the field of tension of the SDGs - a stakeholder analysis of the destination Ötztal". By linking the three dimensions of sustainability with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this model serves on the one hand as an important tool to capture sustainability issues at all levels, and on the other hand as a holistic visualization from the stakeholders' perspective of where a destination stands in terms of its sustainability efforts.
• Robert Steiger (University of Innsbruck) presented a study on emissions in the accommodation sector and how energy-saving measures are perceived by guests. Using an "online choice experiment" on technology-oriented and behavior-oriented measures, it emerged that room temperature is the most important factor for guests. Using two clusters, different recommendations for action can be derived for guests with an affinity for the environment. One concrete example would be to offer a voucher to guests who set the room temperature to below 20 degrees Celsius.
• Marius Mayer, Annika Schlachter and Robert Steiger (University of Innsbruck) presented the results of the study "The Influence of Snow Reliability on Accommodation, and Lift Ticket Prices in Tyrol, Austria - An Application of the Hedonic Pricing Method". This showed that snow-reliable winter sports destinations can charge higher prices for accommodation and ski passes.
• In her presentation on the effects of climate change in summer mountain tourism, Katharina Pöll (University of Innsbruck) presented a literature review focusing on adaptations and effects of climate change in summer mountain tourism. Although the topic is becoming increasingly important in tourism research, the data situation is still weak. The Global South in particular, as in other subject areas, has been little researched. A meta-analysis of the studies shows that mountain regions can serve as a refuge from the heat in summer, but that climate change also increases the risks of mountain sports (e.g. due to natural events such as landslides and rockfalls). Water shortages and forest fires are further risks for summer mountain tourism. At high altitudes, the phenomenon of "last change tourism" on glaciers has also been observed.
• Elena Eckert (Leuphana University) dealt with the topic of "Resilience in destinations". On the one hand, she developed meaningful indicators for this, but at the same time questioned the "top-down approach" that is often used when deciding which indicators to apply. She advises a hybrid method and points out that the local context is a key factor in the selection of suitable indicators. With regard to measuring resilience, Ms. Eckert explains that there are clear differences to measuring sustainability and that static versus dynamic and global versus local factors play a key role.
• Günther Aigner (University of Innsbruck) presented the results of a study on energy consumption and water requirements when using snow cannons in Austrian ski resorts. A questionnaire was used to collect current data from ski resorts in Austria. The projected total annual water requirement amounts to 43.9 million cubic meters, the energy consumption to 210 GWh and the annual CO2 emissions to 4,838 tons. A comparison with a recent Canadian study shows significantly lower energy consumption and lower CO2 emissions in Austria.
• Matthias Firgo (Munich University of Applied Sciences) and Dieter Pennerstorfer (JKU Linz) investigated the connection between the employment of farmers and their renting. They showed the causal relationship between farms with or without overnight accommodation and the survival of the farms. On average, tourist accommodation increases the probability of survival of farms by more than 10 percentage points over a decade, but only for farms with up to 15 beds.

The social dimension of sustainability was given space here:

• Monika-Bandi Tanner (CRED-T Bern) pointed out the need for tourism to address the issue of "gender equality" - in practice on the one hand, but also in research on the other. The founding of a new Swiss network called "Equality4Tourism" as an initiative of many different tourism stakeholders was also presented here.
• Magdalenda Obermair and Monica Nadegger (University of Innsbruck & MCI Innsbruck) followed with a "queer-intersectional perspective in tourism research as a tool for emancipative, social criticism". Based on qualitative interviews with female tourism researchers, they were able to show that tourism research is still strongly male, white and westernized.
• The topic of destination commitment was discussed in two contributions. In the presentation by Denise Fecker, Anita Zehrer (MCI Innsbruck) and Mike Peters (University of Innsbruck) as a conceptual classification. Here, the retention of employees in tourism was discussed not only at an organizational level, but also at a destination level. In previous research, the topics of employee retention and destination loyalty have not yet been sufficiently linked. In her research model, Denise Fecker combines these two perspectives and shows how future research could investigate employee retention from a spatial perspective.
• In the study "Commitment in tourism associations - organizational and destination commitment in Tyrol", Denise Fecker, Anita Zehrer, Hubert Siller and Frieda Raich (MCI Innsbruck) addressed the question of whether employees in Tyrolean TVBs are committed both to their employing organization and to the destination as a place of work. Various influencing factors for both commitment goals (organization & destination) were identified and a connection between the two forms of commitment was confirmed. Both "Organizational Commitment" and "Destination Commitment" contribute positively to the recommendation of the employer and the place of work. The study shows that commitment to the destination is an important factor for employee retention in tourism and emphasizes the relevance of cooperation between stakeholders within a destination.
• Stefanie Haselwanter and Anita Zehrer (MCI Innsbruck) dealt with "Entrepreneurial motivation in the context of small and medium-sized family businesses in tourism". The study shows how motivations are influenced by both family factors and contextual factors from the destination environment. Based on these results, a typology of the entrepreneurial motivations of family entrepreneurs in Alpine tourism was derived.

Tourism policy visions were also the focus of some exciting presentations:

• In the study "Tourism policy against the background of a transformation in Bavaria? - Selected empirical findings and considerations" by Markus Pillmayer & Katrin Eberhardt (Munich University of Applied Sciences) focused on Bavarian tourism policy during the COVID-19 pandemic and the industry's resilience to so-called "wicked problems". Katrin Eberhardt and Markus Pillmayer from Munich University of Applied Sciences criticized the lack of appreciation and political consideration of tourism in political decision-making during the crisis. Possible causes cited here include a lack of assignment to political decision-makers and a lack of a collective representative figure for the various sub-sectors (destinations, hotels, gastronomy). In order to understand the tourism industry as a systemically relevant sector, strategic and fact-based approaches to tourism policy are therefore required.
• In the presentation by Ralf Vogler (Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences) on "Day tourism in a regional context and the role of municipal tourism policy - findings from the Hessian Kinzigtal", the interplay between regional policy, leisure use and tourism policy was discussed in the Hessian context. Together with several small municipalities, Ralf Vogler discussed the difficulties when, for example, municipalities and destinations are not congruent and there is a lack of self-image as a destination. Tourism is then often only understood as nature conservation, but the municipality as a micro-destination lacks an active understanding of the management of tourism and local recreation.

The topics of service quality, consumer behavior in tourism and especially the area of "Mindful Travelling" were also discussed:

• In the presentation "Trends in travel behavior of the "Next Traveler Community" - insights and implications for the tourism ecosystem" by Vanessa Borkmann, Katharina Dienes, Constanze Heydkamp (Fraunhofer IAO Stuttgart) and Ronja Gaulinger (IAT Stuttgart), the focus was on generation-related travel with a focus on Generation Z. Trends in the travel behavior of Generation Z were discussed using a multi-stage data collection and analysis with a panel survey, interviews and innovation breakfasts. The core aspects here are social media and the "instagrammable destination", as well as the offer in the area of ecological and social sustainability. In addition, "workation" is gaining in importance as a new work and travel model for this generation, with social contacts and communities taking center stage. "Virtual travel, on the other hand, plays a role as a first look at the destination.
• Axel Dreyer (Harz University of Applied Sciences) and Jens Rüdiger (IU International University) gave an overview of 30 years of service quality in tourism. They discussed whether we need to consider the "experience" concept not only in the development of offers in the future, but also in the acquisition and retention of employees.
• Christian Mayer and Nico Stengel (Kempten University of Applied Sciences) focused on the strong growth of the camping industry. The speakers highlighted the changes that this growth brings with it and discussed the expectations of both experienced and new campers for the future.
• Carola May (IU International University) presented a comparative cultural analysis on the topic of "Adventure Tourism". The use of the term "adventure" in the leisure and tourism sector was scrutinized. The study shed light on whether the term "adventure tourism" is synonymous with "outdoor tourism" and which cultural differences play a role in this.
• Katharina Stiebler, Markus Kreuzberger, Wolfgang Aschauer (University of Salzburg) and Florian Nemetz (Vienna University of Economics and Business) presented insights from their ethnographic study on "Mindful Traveling" at a yoga retreat on Koh Phangan. The researchers provided deep insights into the journey to oneself that is made possible by the practice of "Mindful Traveling".

The intensive conference program was rounded off by an evening event on the Nordkette in a high alpine snowstorm as well as culinary contributions from the Axamer Bäuerinnen and the Futterkutter.

Ingrid Kausl and Elodie Puraye from MCI Tourism were responsible for the perfect organization in advance and the smooth running of the event. Many thanks for this!