In March, the Implementation Management Team for the Schleswig-Holstein Tourism Strategy 2030 invited stakeholders to Neumünster to take stock of progress halfway through the strategy’s implementation, together with interested parties from the tourism industry. We were represented at the event by our three colleagues, Denise Engelhardt, Manon Krüger, and Lisa Naschert, who shared insights from research directly with practitioners and discussed them with the participants.
Manon Krüger used the key performance indicators for the tourism strategy to demonstrate that the region is on track to meet its goals by 2030. Visitors and many tourism industry employees are already very satisfied, and residents’ acceptance of tourism has recently risen again. The economic goals are also on track; only the efforts to promote year-round tourism need to be stepped up once more to reach the target figures.
In the session “Data as an Opportunity: How Existing Information Supports Decision-Making in Day-to-Day Tourism,” Denise Engelhardt highlighted the role of data in tourism and demonstrated that it is not the volume of data but its targeted use that is crucial—illustrating this point with the example of visitor management.
In the session titled “How Smart Is Your Destination? Assessment Using the Smart Destination Maturity Model,” Lisa Naschert provided insights into the fundamentals of a smart destination. Together with the participants, she discussed the current state of their respective destinations, as well as key challenges, opportunities, and areas requiring action.
