F.acT Talks: Succession in tourism

In cooperation with the state of Tyrol, the University of Innsbruck and MCI | The Entrepreneurial School, the second edition of the F.acT Talks was dedicated to a highly topical subject: business succession and handover in tourism. Almost 100 participants from the fields of science, business and tourism accepted the invitation.

Keynote Anita Zehrer, Center for Family Businesses

Prof. Dr. Anita Zehrer, Head of the Family Business Center at MCI, highlighted the explosive nature of the topic in her presentation. There are around 17,400 family businesses in Tyrol. That is three quarters of all companies. In tourism, the proportion is even higher at 92%. A total of around 60,000 people are employed in family businesses in tourism. The family is the greatest advantage in a family business, but it can also be the greatest disadvantage, depending on whether the family is at peace or not. The success factors of family-run companies include their family DNA and high sense of identity as a popular figure, long-term orientation across generations as well as strong employee loyalty and customer orientation. At the same time, however, it was also pointed out that the takeover represents a major challenge. In Tyrol, around 2,600 to 3,000 businesses will be facing succession in the coming years, but in 45% of cases this has not yet been clarified (WKT, 2017). Many things can go wrong during the handover, starting with a lack of communication, the "unwillingness to let go" of those handing over the business or a lack of desire on the part of the younger generation to take over.

The 3 Summits model (Zehrer, 2023) clearly shows how important it is for the transferor and transferee to work together. The family plays a central role here as an emotional level, the company as an organizational and strategic level and ownership as a formal level. This handover process takes between five and eight years on average. "A proper handover begins long before the signature," summarizes Anita Zehrer. "If you talk about succession in the family at an early stage, live trust instead of control, define clear roles and cultivate a culture of open dialog, you turn the generational handover into a structured process rather than a risk factor. It is crucial to preserve your own values and at the same time open up space for new ideas," reports Anita Zehrer.

Panel discussion with takeover candidates

After the keynote speech, the practitioners themselves also had their say. In the subsequent panel discussion with Valentina Ultsch (Head of People & Organization and authorized signatory of harry's home & ADLER Hotels) and Josef "Sepp" Schwaiger (Managing Director, owner and host of Eder Collection / Eder Hotels GmbH), the topic was also discussed from a practical perspective.
For Josef "Sepp" Schwaiger, entrepreneurship is part of everyday life in the Eder family businesses in Maria Alm am Hochkönig: "Entrepreneurship and family are not separated here - we live it. I was given responsibility early on and got involved in the village. After all, we have grown as a region - today the Hochkönig region has around 1.5 million overnight stays. When handing over the business, however, it was important to allocate clear responsibilities and build up self-confidence. In the end, you have to appreciate that you are allowed to develop."
Valentina Ultsch is responsible for HR and cultural work at the rapidly growing family hotel group harry's home & ADLER Hotels. At some point, the motto "We are all family" was no longer in keeping with the times: "A slogan like that is difficult for employees to support - these days, you have to live values that you can identify with. We have defined clear roles for the handover process." On her role as successor: "I'm not the same manager I was three years ago - you evolve."

The 2nd edition of the F.acT Talks addressed the strategic future issue of succession from a scientific and practical perspective. "With the F.acT Talks, we translate research into concrete impulses for companies. This is how knowledge becomes lived practice in tourism," emphasize the scientific sponsors of F.acT, Hubert Siller (Head of the Department of Tourism and Leisure Management at MCI) and Birgit Pikkemaat (Institute of Management and Marketing, SME & Tourism Team, University of Innsbruck), in unison.