Conference “Location:City:Destination” in cooperation with Tourismus NRW

Will we still speak of tourism in the future, or rather of an "ecosystem of hospitality?" Locations and destinations are in transformation. Framework conditions of living and economic spaces are changing due to technological innovations and digitalization, new work concepts or dynamic developments in cities. Tourism in particular is undergoing fundamental change, with sustainability and resilience becoming fixed values of a new understanding of travel. More than ever, cities, communities and regions have the opportunity to put people at the center of the discussion about spatial development and to involve them accordingly. Tourism experience chains detached from spaces where social responsibility is taken seriously are no longer viable.  Significance is becoming more important than attention.  A culture of encounters creates the foundations for a sustainable economic, destination and living space. In the light of this development, an integrated view of living space, location and destination is necessary.

Together with Tourism NRW, the Chair of Tourism / Center for Entrepreneurship organized a hybrid conference about these interfaces on July 8, 2021 as part of the FLOW.NRW project. Besides scientific and expert keynotes, a number of best practices from national and international cities were presented to develop a possible hospitality ecosystem. More details about the program and speakers can be found here, as well as in the media library.

Looking back on the congress, important and trend-setting conclusions can be drawn for the future development of destinations. The congress title "Location:City:Destination" already makes clear that tourism has, more than ever, an integrative power, but also has to network and open up accordingly. Thus, Prof. Dr. Harald Pechlaner (Chair of Tourism) explained at the beginning that tourism is possibly in its greatest transformation due the Corona pandemic and that tourism culture plays a decisive role. In this context, many speakers agreed that the crisis must be used as an opportunity to develop new perspectives. These new perspectives should also question the traditional understanding of tourism, establish a new tourism culture and, last but not least, address the megatrends of sustainability and digitalization. Matthias Rumpf (OECD Centre Berlin) underlines in his presentation the challenges for tourism, which result from the megatrends demography, digitalization, climate change & sustainability. As Prof. Dr. Thomas Bieger (University of St. Gallen) emphasized, integrative location management is a central guiding principle for destinations. An important aspect here is to soften the boundaries of tourism - just as the boundaries between work and leisure or living space and destination are blurring. In this new guiding principle, Prof. Terry Stevens (Stevens & Associates) drew a new and trend-setting paradigm for tourism development, which must break away from traditional patterns of action and thinking.

The Keynote in Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w1ujisjgt0

In this context, North Rhine-Westphalia is an interesting laboratory for re-integrating tourism - also on a spatial level. Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart (Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia) underlined the state's innovative power and dynamics, as did the participants in the panel discussion "The City in Flow". The mega cities in NRW function as a vivid artery, but the surrounding areas are also becoming more important and the rural regions are calling for further networking. For this purpose, no borders should be drawn, but the region should be understood as a large network. Diversity within this network could become a leitmotif in NRW, encompassing the region's strengths: A lively cultural and creative scene, civic engagement, industrial culture and modernization, and the diversity of the interplay between city and country.

What is the role of tourism in regional development? How can tourism contribute to attractiveness of living spaces? On the one hand, tourism can have a greater impact on the region through New Travel and the reorientation of the tourist offer; on the other hand, tourism can use its implementation skills to drive integration across different sectors: Tourism as a connector, tourism as an integrative cross-cutting function. Through the progress of the conference, opportunities and best practices were presented to further develop the integrative tourism of the future. These include fostering the implementation competence of DMOs, attracting professionals, responsible management, sustainability measurement, networked mobility, citizen participation or demand-driven and community-oriented urban development.

The regional discussion and the Best Practices I in Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYclCUbh2Vg

In the final panel discussion, it became clear that networking in national and international, but also thematic and strategic networks is of high importance for the future and resilient development of tourism. Cooperations, e.g. with startups, make it possible to pick up on the latest trends and technologies quickly and effectively and to keep a finger on the pulse of time. Dynamism and creativity are important and are primarily carried by employees who understand and live these values. An attractive location will attract suitably qualified personnel, but equally requires an open and vibrant culture. In this sense, culture often acts as a location factor, but equally contains the potential to drive transformation from within. An "ecosystem of hospitality" could function as a new guiding principle of integrative location, city and destination development by calling for networking and cooperation among stakeholders across sectors and administrative boundaries - in combination with dynamic processing of needs and trends.

The final panel discussion and the Best Practices II in Replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCwDK1AVnlI

We would like to thank Tourism NRW e.V. for the joint realization of the congress, as well as the numerous experts who enriched the congress with their diverse perspectives and experiences.