Prepared for what lies ahead in tourism
Stay up-to-date with current, independent statistics and information on tourism in the Alpine region.
F.acT: Why is it important to steer visitors to rural tourist regions?
Martina Niederberger: In rural natural areas, especially in the Alpine region, rising visitor numbers are increasingly leading to crowding effects and conflicts between recreational use, nature conservation and the regional population. Visitor management is therefore necessary to ensure tourism sustainability, protect sensitive natural and cultural areas and at the same time guarantee attractive visitor experiences. Without targeted management, there is a risk of overuse, acceptance problems among the population and long-term damage to tourism value creation.
F.acT: What are the core results of your work?
Martina Niederberger: The work shows that successful digital visitor management requires interaction at all levels - micro, meso and macro. Tourism associations play a central role at regional level, but are often institutionally weak. So far, digital measures have mostly been used reactively and are only effective in combination with analog strategies.
Social sustainability is also crucial for long-term success: only measures that are accepted as legitimate by society and the population can have a lasting effect. Implementation hurdles also arise from heterogeneous target groups, unclear responsibilities, a lack of resources and a lack of common objectives, which make coordinated management difficult.
Q.acT: What recommendations for action can be derived from this for tourist destinations and companies?
Martina Niederberger: As visitor management requires interaction between different levels of stakeholders, recommendations for action can be derived for both the regional, operational level and the supra-regional, strategic level:
- At regional level, municipalities and tourism associations should intensify their cooperation and communicate clear responsibilities and sponsorships. A particular focus should be placed on communicating with guests before they arrive in order to better direct visitor flows. This requires reliable data on day visitors to enable targeted strategies. Analog and digital measures should be combined, with the "digital first" approach at the forefront. In the long term, investments in know-how and personnel are required. In addition, effective information formats should be developed to indicate overcrowding and modern technologies such as AI and big data should be used for forecasting and real-time monitoring. In addition, the definition of scientifically sound carrying capacity limits is crucial in order to manage the load on destinations.
- At a supra-regional level, clear management structures need to be established and reliable framework conditions, including financial support, need to be created. Uniform standards for the collection, use and exchange of data are essential to ensure the coordinated, sustainable and efficient management of tourism.
F.acT: What are the special features of your study?
Martina Niederberger: The study has several special features. It focuses on southern Upper Austria, a popular region with highly frequented nature hotspots in summer, where day tourism is of central importance. The focus is on the stakeholder perspective of management, in particular from the fields of tourism, politics, nature conservation and alpine associations. Theoretically, the study is based on a combination of the theory of planned behavior and the concept of tourism sustainability in order to capture both individual and structural factors influencing management processes. Furthermore, the study reveals institutional weaknesses of DMOs and emphasizes the importance of the social dimension in the development and implementation of governance measures.