En Route E-Book

Martin Nydegger

• Herausgeber: Werd & Weber Verlag
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 408

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

"En Route" is the insightful journey of two authors with around 75 years of collective tourism experience. Following their publication in 2008, "Swiss Tourism in a Changing Climate", their new work is dedicated to a total of 16 important topics, ranging from resilience to excellence and overtourism to diversity. Together with 16 exciting Swiss and international personalities, a multifaceted panorama of discussions, assessments and insights is presented. The non-fiction book offers a differentiated examination of current challenges and promises an inspiring journey. "En Route" is a stimulating read for tourism professionals and anyone looking for insights behind the scenes of tourism.

Leseprobe

Martin NydeggerHansruedi Müller

Conversations with 16 personalities

En Route

ENCOUNTERS AND REFLECTIONS ON TOURISM

Foreword

All of us are en route somehow – some more quickly, others at a more leisurely pace. We couldn’t not be, because time never stands still, the Earth rotates, we change, dream, make plans, adapt, embark on a great project or down tools – be this entirely consciously or intuitively. You might be forgiven for thinking that being en route is nothing special. But for tourism industry professionals, en route is the elixir: for most of us, a life without holidays or excursions is scarcely imaginable these days, not least as a way of experiencing to interact with other people. The industry professionals have taken charge of this elixir and have enriched, refined and cultivated it. Demonstrating exemplary hospitality, they arrange transport, accommodation, destinations for excursions, food and drink and other attractions and meet the challenges that come from being en route. Across the world, tourism has become one of the biggest industry sectors – as well as something of a mystery wrapped inside an enigma.

Occasionally, we meet for lunch to talk about all the various aspects of tourism and exchange ideas and thoughts. During one such lunch, it came up in passing that you could actually fill a book with all our reflections. Then, at a subsequent meet-up, we found ourselves returning to that throwaway comment, and things got serious. Despite its mundane beginnings, actually turning this book into a reality proved highly challenging. This is because, rather than simply writing a conventional work of reference, we wanted to delve deeper into some of the burning questions occupying the minds of tourism industry professionals. So we opted for a format that embraced variety and diversity. We outlined some of the key issues that we face virtually every day, got in touch with some people we were keen to discuss them with, and travelled to some symbolic locations that seemed to fit our content. Thus a chance remark turned into a year-long round trip covering 16 topics in different places. Starting out at the Baseltor in Solothurn, our journey took us via the Entlebuch, Europa-Park in southern Germany, the Federal Palace of Switzerland, ETH Zurich, the ITB trade show in Berlin all the way to the École hôtelière de Lausanne. Everywhere we went, we met someone fascinating from the industry and chatted to them about our chosen topic. Sometimes, we stuck to our itinerary, sometimes we veered off on a detour – as is often the case when one is enjoying a lively discussion. Mirroring the diverse nature of our conversations, you will also see that we have chosen to present our thoughts in a variety of ways, including running text, interviews, intros and info boxes. Incidentally, we are ever so slightly proud to say that none of the people we asked turned us down. All of them were very generous with their time, assistance and advice. And we had the great privilege to find that, besides bringing us joy and inspiration, being en route together also genuinely broadened our horizons and taught us a great deal.

En Route is thus, we hope, an insightful journey through the thoughts of two tourism professionals with some 75 years’ career experience between them. The result is a multifaceted panorama full of debate, stories, predictions, insights and recommendations. The reference work you are holding in your hands is intended for tourism industry professionals who are likewise finding themselves bombarded with questions and hunting for answers – for members of management and executive boards of service providers or tourism organisations, for local councillors at tourist hotspots or for anyone else who works in administration, consulting, education or training who might be interested. It provides a nuanced assessment of current challenges, identifies new trends, looks ahead to the future and offers food for thought. Rather than having to be read from cover to cover, it is intended to encourage the reader to leaf through and stop at the bits they find most interesting. It is designed to encourage us to set off into the wide blue yonder and be our companion en route.

We encountered nothing but assistance and hospitality on our travels. Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone we spoke to for our fascinating and insightful conversations and their eagle-eyed edits, to the Board of Directors of Switzerland Tourism for their support, to Iris Schärer for arranging the many meetings, to Annette Weber for her enthusiasm in adding the publication to the Weber Verlag portfolio, and to her collaborators David Heinen for his painstaking copy-editing, Sonja Berger as well as Shana Hirschi and Aline Veugel for their highly creative design work, as well as to the Clipper AG for the accomplished English translation. Everyone we encountered made us feel very welcome and in excellent hands.

This book is dedicated to all the wonderful people who ensure each and every day that being en route somewhere can be so pleasant, so relaxing, so full of adventure and so inspiring.

Martin Nydegger and Hansruedi Müller

Contents

Foreword

Part 1: En Route – from Resilience and Travel Habits through to Sustainability

1Resilience: improving your ability to adapt

with Andrea Scherz

2Intercultural dialogue: travelling as life education

with Luís Araújo

3Travel habits: the destination as an experience in itself

with Martin Lohmann

4Work/life blurring: melding business and leisure travel

with Petra Hedorfer

5Tourism and climate change: how we might resolve the dilemma

with Reto Knutti

6Sustainability: staying fit for the future

with Theo Schnider

Part 2: En Route - from Markets and Marketing through to Smart Tourism

7The market mix: the significance of long-haul markets

with Laura Meyer

8Smart tourism dot com: from text to total immersion

with Dominique von Matt

9Total convenience: making things easy with digital excellence

with Christian Laesser

Part 3: En Route – from Assembling Offerings and Delivering Quality through to the Experience

10Excellence on the mountainside: achieving success through positioning, attractions and marketing

with Urs Kessler

11Micro-touring: discover the world with flexibility and freedom

with Renato Fasciati

12Experience-setting: making magical, unforgettable moments

with Roland Mack

Part 4: En Route – from Staff Shortage and Politics through to Hope

13Staff shortage: achieving success through creative ideas

with Michel Péclard und Florian Weber

14Diversity: surround yourself with people who think differently

with Janine Bunte

15Growth: doing better with less

with Samih Sawiris

16Hope: looking ahead with optimism to the future of tourism

with Lucile Allender

Epilogue

Authors

Imprint

Part 1

En Route

— from Resilience and Travel Habits through to Sustainability

Resilience: improving your ability to adapt

The Gstaad Palace Hotel stands firm like an old oak tree, giving off a sense of being able to withstand any gust of wind. It has already survived many a storm and has kept on adapting; after all, the history of the tourism industry is littered with people’s experiences of crises and complications. And we are currently facing multiple crises, with little sign of a change coming any time soon. They are overlapping, interconnected and impossible to prevent. In the German-speaking world, times like these have also been referred to as Sattelzeiten1 (literally ‘saddle ages’), when long-standing guarantors of success have to be called into question or where even whole paradigms shift. Strengthening one’s resilience, i.e. one’s ability to remain steadfast in the face of disruption and adapt to change, is becoming increasingly important.

‘Resilience’ is a concept found in psychology. Resilient people are those who are adaptable, alert, curious, capable, skilful, able to work under pressure and full of self-confidence. The opposite of resilience is vulnerability; vulnerable people are easily unsettled or upset by external factors. Resilience management includes measures taken to make businesses better able to withstand such external influences. It supports risk and crisis management with the aim of increasing a company’s resistance and adaptability in the face of any kind of disruption. A distinction is often made between agility as the reactive form of resilience and robustness as its proactive form. Robustness relates to how well an organisation can handle disruptions coming from outside, while agility focuses on how well it can respond internally to change. Both concepts are key to grappling with the challenges posed by an environment in constant flux.

“Resilient people are those who are adaptable, alert, curious, capable, skilful, able to work under pressure and full of self-confidence.”

The COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 brought the biggest shock that society and the economy had seen since the Second World War. Practically no sectors or industries were spared its effects. Tourism was rarely out of the headlines during this time, with leisure activities and people’s freedom to travel being severely curtailed. Switzerland did not close its hotels, its restaurants could keep running if they followed strict safety precautions, and ski resorts were also permitted to stay open under restrictions, but everyone involved still had to show an amazing amount of resilience because the threat level – and thus the guidance – was constantly changing.

For our interview on the topic of resilience, we met with Andrea Scherz, owner of the Gstaad Palace and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Leading Hotels of the World. The Gstaad Palace opened its doors in 1913, shortly before the First World War. Now, well over a century later, it continues to tower majestically over the village and stands as a stirring symbol for resilience in the tourism sector. It is also one of the few remaining owner-managed five-star hotels in Switzerland.

The COVID-19 pandemic: an acid test for resilience

How did the Gstaad Palace survive the pandemic? Andrea S. recalls: “When it all kicked off in March 2020, I gathered my staff together in the banqueting hall – following COVID rules – and told them that, although I didn’t really understand what was going on either, they had nothing to be worried about. It wasn’t the first crisis that the Palace would have to overcome, and I told them: ‘we’ll get through this one too’. That gave everyone the reassurance we needed to continue making plans together. Looking back, we weathered the crisis well because, as a family business, we were extremely flexible, we got support from the government, but we could also rely on some good partners and loyal guests. In times of crisis, it’s important to be able to make decisions and take action very quickly.”

Asked whether the coronavirus crisis had taught him that the Gstaad Palace, like many others, also needed more financial reserves in order to stay resilient, Andrea S. answers: “We’ve given ourselves a strong financial footing in recent years, because we know that, time and again, we’re going to have to survive two or even three weaker seasons. We’ve always made sure that we’ve got a supply of ready cash and don’t draw down all our bank loans. Our aim was and still is to be able to access between CHF 3 million and CHF 5 million whenever we need to.”

Martin N. makes the observation that, as people from Switzerland, putting enough money aside is part our DNA. Ultimately, he says, the only reason the government was able to react very quickly with support measures was because there was a financial cushion in place. He thinks that most people’s personal finances are somewhat more robust than in other countries, where having to live from one pay cheque to the next is fairly common, and that this behaviour is rewarded in times of crisis. Andrea S. argues that, in the US for example – the world’s biggest economy – the ‘hand-to-mouth’ mentality is much more pronounced, creating a distinct borrowing culture and, in this case, eroding resilience. “I’d venture to suggest – or even I fear – that the next crisis will erupt in the US given its huge debt burden.”

PROFILE OF ANDREA SCHERZHolds a degree in hotel management from the EHL Hospitality Business & Hotel Management School in Lausanne and has completed an advanced studies programme in hotel management at a professional education institution Gained hotel management experience in leading establishments such as the Beau-Rivage in Lausanne, The Savoy in London and the InterContinental in Geneva as well as hotels in the US and Italy Since 2001, majority shareholder and CEO of the Gstaad Palace From 2004 to 2013, Member of the Management Board and Deputy Chairman of Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus From 2007 to 2023, Member of the Board of Directors of Swiss Deluxe Hotels Since 2022, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Leading Hotels of the World

However, Hansruedi M. believes that the tourism industry paints a very mixed picture as far as financial security is concerned. Take hospitality, for instance: the pandemic showed us how little it takes for the reserves to be used up, he says. “The Swiss restaurant industry has been in crisis for some years now, and not just because of a lack of rainy-day savings”, Andrea S. adds. He identifies the shift in consumer behaviour as having much to do with this and predicts the demise of the simple country pubs known as Landbeizen. “Whenever I scout out a course for our rally event, there are always some beautiful old inns along the route, but many of them are closed.”

But Martin N. sees things differently. Rather than a lack of resilience in many cases, he argues that the main reason behind this trend is that too many restaurants have simply failed to keep up with the times. Hansruedi M. adds: “If resilience essentially means adapting continually to changing circumstances – including new consumer habits – then this is precisely what many restaurants have sat back and failed to do.”

Andrea S. found his experiences during the second wave of the pandemic to be highly valuable. “We decided to be proactive in communicating what the current situation was. Our guests liked that. They realised that here, ‘under the shelter of the old oak tree’, everything was being done to let them feel safe, and they trusted us. Honest communication is key.”

Lessons from the pandemic – tweaking your risk management

What lessons can we learn from our experience of the pandemic – tweaks to our risk management, new safety or hygiene measures, changes to market cultivation, other kinds of partnership, a rethink of our financial management, all leading to increased resilience? Andrea S. openly admits that his risk management had to be adjusted because the threat of a pandemic had simply not been considered. “If we’re honest, though, we’re rarely able to gauge the impact of potential risks correctly or specifically enough.”

“Honest communication is key.”

“We’re rarely able to gauge the impact of potential risks correctly or specifically enough.”

This assessment leads Martin N. to ask whether one would thus have to conclude that the risk analyses that have become so popular are actually of little use. After all, he says, if you were aware of the risks and able to respond to them, then running such an analysis would clearly be merely going through the motions. Andrea S. is more circumspect: “I wouldn’t go as far as that; anticipating potential risks is definitely a good thing.” He adds that the risk that would have the most consequences for the Gstaad Palace is if something happened to him personally as its majority shareholder and CEO. There is not much that can be done to counter that, he points out – after all, he cannot simply be cloned. However, he continues, there needs to be an answer to the question of who would take on the running of the hotel in such an emergency situation or whether it would have to be sold. He believes that it is important to build a strong team that could manage operations for a long time even without the CEO. “Admittedly, though, risk analyses are often ‘sandbox exercises’ that don’t actually lead us to change anything.”

“During the pandemic, we drew up a contingency plan and acted out a range of scenarios”, Andrea S. says. “We discussed who would do what and identified who exactly would need to take on more responsibility if managers caught COVID-19 and had to isolate, or how we’d feed staff who couldn’t leave their rooms. We had to be really flexible, react quickly and find creative solutions.” As far as resilience goes, he has one golden rule, which he has followed since before the pandemic even struck: “Apart from the Swiss, we never allow an individual market to make up more than 10 per cent of our guests.” Setting a maximum of 10 per cent per country of origin is a major resilience factor, Hansruedi M. thinks. He also believes that not having one single group of guests dominating proceedings is good for maintaining harmony amongst them.

“Setting a maximum of 10 per cent per country of origin is a major resilience factor.”

“We put a lot of work into cultivating the Swiss market during the pandemic and had a good degree of success”, Andrea S. observes. “We were pleasantly surprised and got a lot of positive feedback. Securing the Swiss market was one of the things we learnt from the pandemic.” Martin N. also recognises the stabilising effect of the domestic market: “That made us resilient during the crisis, first in the mountains and rural areas, then later on in the towns and cities too.” He says that Switzerland Tourism was one of the few national tourism organisations (NTOs) that did not close any of its offices abroad or make any of its staff redundant during the pandemic, adding that the Swiss government’s recovery funds had permitted countercyclical crisis management. This allowed the organisation to maintain its presence, retain its expertise and be ready to start working again quickly when the time came.

Andrea S. adds: “Keeping our staff allowed us to maintain the same level of quality and resourcefulness.” It was this that led to the Gstaad Palace’s exciting new partnership with Ferrari, he reveals, because all the exhibition centres and showrooms were closed. Two new models were parked in a prominent position in front of the main entrance, ready for guests to take them for a test drive. “That was a huge success. Unfortunately, the limited run sold out within no time at all.” However, he reveals, there is already interest from other car brands looking to launch a new model, suggesting that the pandemic has also given birth to new ideas.

Martin N. feels that the umbrella organisations for the tourism industry worked extremely well together at the national level during the pandemic and achieved a great deal through their joint efforts, prompting the question of whether the crisis brought service providers closer together on a local level too. Andrea S. confirms that this fantastic spirit of cooperation amongst the national umbrella organisations was palpable, and that the level of political and financial support achieved at this critical time had been a godsend. In terms of individual destinations, he says, people in the Saanenland area have a long tradition of being very willing to work together: ultimately, responsibility is not something that you can outsource. “I usually manage to find my own solutions to the task at hand during a crisis.”

Martin N. asks whether the pandemic also brought the tourism industry and the general public closer together. Hansruedi M. opines: “It’s widely known that people’s opinion of the tourism industry is low when it’s in good shape and begins to rise again when holidaymaker numbers fall.” The interdependency is much more evident in hard times than good, he says. Andrea S. adds that the region is home to a large number of people who were heavily involved in politics, clubs and associations or major events and who helped to make the tourism industry stronger.

A multitude of trouble spots pulling at tourism from all sides

After the Swiss National Bank had scrapped the exchange-rate floor of CHF 1.20 to the euro in January 2015, Andrea S. told an interviewer: “The environment is now much bleaker for a private hotel business. We’re facing a battle for survival.” He remembers how people felt that shock very keenly at first. Back then, he recalls, a guest put it very nicely: “Your hotel is worth every single euro to me. But you shouldn’t forget that I also need to pay for a hire car, a ski pass, a ski instructor and so on. And, overnight, all of those things have become almost 20 per cent more expensive, but not necessarily 20 per cent better.” A shock like the one experienced in January 2015 cannot suddenly be offset with better services, he says: although they tinkered with prices or introduced extra services, this eroded their margins. “We offered three-for-the-price-of-two or five-for-the-price-of-four packages back then, but they were just short-term fixes”, Andrea S. remembers.

Martin N. points out that a healthy degree of market diversification is a wise move for precisely such an eventuality, because the euro crisis had no impact on the dollar, the sterling or the yen. “We reduce our currency risk or other dependencies by having a presence on markets that are as geopolitically and geographically diverse as possible, with different currencies and economies. We’ve also attempted to cushion the loss of Chinese guests by stepping up our activities in other Asian countries.” Besides a healthy geographical mix, he believes that diversifying by theme (motivation for travelling) and by time period (seasons) also makes a hotel more resilient.

“Besides a healthy geographical mix, diversifying by theme (travel motives) and by time period (seasons) also makes a hotel more resilient.”

CRISES IN THE SWISS TOURISM INDUSTRY

In autumn 2022, Switzerland Tourism identified the following eight crisis areas, all of which are interlinked and are hitting tourism hard

Aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic: uncertainties and restrictions

Energy supply: shortage of raw materials, risk of electricity shortages, price hikes

Skills shortage: dried-up job market, pressure on wages, deteriorating service quality

Geopolitical conflicts: fear and uncertainty, sanctions against oligarchs/Russia, loss of Russian market, potential escalation in Eastern Europe and the Middle East

Climate change: lack of snow, receding glaciers, extreme weather, rockfall, the travel/mobility vs. sustainability dilemma, criticism of long-haul markets, guest sensitivity

Exchange rates: Switzerland as a high-price country, muted catch-up effects

Inflation: high inflation in home countries, less money available for travelling, increased interest rates on loans/mortgages

Supply chain: supply bottlenecks, particularly for hardware; impact on costs and investment activities

ST assessment from November 2022

Wherever crises are brewing, tourism will always be affected – directly so, because it is a sector that cuts right across the economy. As such, its links stretch far and wide – and tourism services cannot simply be put into storage when they are not required. “The tourist industry feels every single one of these crises straight away: the supply chain problems with virtually every investment, rising inflation with every quotation, the skills shortage with every vacancy, and so on”, Andrea S. shares. “The worst one in the long term will be climate change. During the pandemic, we were very fortunate that we got strong support from the public sector and had some steady seasons. The various crises caused additional costs of over CHF 200,000 in winter 2022/23 due to the energy costs resulting from the war in Ukraine.” This is manageable if sales hit record levels, he says, thanks not least to the investment made in a district-heating system in 2008 – another measure to improve resilience (see box).

“Like an old oak tree, our hotel has grown over decades and gives off a sense of being able to withstand any storm. In a world that’s turning ever faster, people are looking for places that exude a certain calm, constancy and continuity”, Andrea S. once said in an interview. Was that also the case during the pandemic? Andrea S. thinks so: “When a storm’s raging, you’re going to seek out an oak tree with big, strong roots that’ll handle anything the elements can throw at it. Many executives who’ve been shaken by one crisis or another appreciate that, when they go and stay at the Gstaad Palace, everything will still be as it always was: the same management team, the same people looking after them, the same settings. This feeling of something that’s grown organically over time is what people look for. The guests feel safe and well under the healthy oak tree. When you’re on holiday, you want to have to think about crises as little as possible and simply relax and enjoy yourself instead. Peace of mind is becoming increasingly important.”

GSTAAD PALACE – THE FIRST CUSTOMER FOR A DISTRICT-HEATING SYSTEM

Source: Gstaad Palace: 100 Jahre Palace Gstaad, 2013, p. 195.

The Gstaad Palace spent CHF 650,000 converting its oil boiler to run on district heating generated centrally in the Saanenland region. The hotel’s eco-friendly heating system was switched on in December 2008. It is saving some 270,000 litres of heating oil a year, thereby helping to reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality. Incidentally, this is not the first time that the hotel has used wood to heat its rooms, as it was forced to make the switch during the Second World War when coal became scarce. Oil-fired boilers then took off in the 1950s before things came full circle almost 60 years later with a return to the central burning of wood chips. This is a particularly logical move in the Saanenland area, because the requirement to consider wood as a building material is generating a lot of waste timber that can be put to good use in this way.

“As tourism professionals, we’ve got to get used to this clustering and this fast pace, because they’ll need more of our attention than in the past.”

The oak tree as a symbol of constancy, continuity and calm does not just apply to a hotel such as the Gstaad Palace, Hansruedi M. adds – it also holds true for destinations like Gstaad itself, or even Switzerland as a whole compared to other countries. Martin N. sounds a note of caution: “If you merely preserved what you’ve already got, you’d be hamstringing yourself. Security and stability isn’t the answer for every service provider. But Switzerland’s reliability was undeniably key to us coming through the pandemic so well. Safety, trust, hygiene and quality went from being a prerequisite to a competitive advantage, and even to an intrinsic motivation at times.”

Previous crises such as 9/11, SARS, the financial crisis and various military conflicts have shown that slumps in the tourism industry come hard and fast, whereas recovery tends to take a long time. Martin N. believes that the current situation is wholly uncharted territory because of the sheer number of these crisis areas and the overlaps and links between them: the ramifications are manifold, and events are moving at speed. “As tourism professionals, we’ve got to get used to this clustering and this fast pace, because they’ll need more of our attention than in the past.”

“Where’s it all going to lead?” Andrea S. asks. “This pile-up of crises has given me food for thought too and has brought me my own personal moments of difficulty. My job got very stressful. I’ve now got to the point where I’m wondering whether I’d really be doing my children a favour if I were to pass the Gstaad Palace on to them. Will the crises get even more challenging?” Hansruedi M. wonders whether his father might not have thought along similar lines before he handed him the Gstaad Palace. “No, I don’t think so. The crises are much more clustered together than they used to be. Although ready cash was a constant concern back then, the situation is now much worse in terms of our external challenges.”

“As far as the climate crisis goes, we’re trusting the next generation to show an awful lot of resilience.”

It is no secret that succession planning is a key issue on many companies’ agendas at the moment. As far as Martin N. is concerned, Andrea S. has the right emboldening mindset. The worst thing would be for the guests to notice that the owner of their hotel was having a crisis, he thinks. “Most definitely”, agrees Andrea S. and asks: “In the future, will there still be enough young, motivated people willing to take responsibility in the tourism industry, and especially in family-run hotels, given these new challenges?” There are too many other temptations, he thinks. “Are the days of the family company numbered?” Hansruedi M. wonders, believing that people will have to consider new management models for their businesses.

This is an intriguing and important line of thought for Martin N.: “All of us are faced with the question of how we can prepare the next generation for the challenges in the tourism industry. And what state it’ll be in when we hand it over to them.” “One of the most serious things that we’ll be passing on to our youngsters is the greenhouse gases that our generation has produced”, Hansruedi M. warns. “As far as the climate crisis goes, we’re trusting the next generation to show an awful lot of resilience.”

Strengthening self-awareness – activating or acquiring resilience skills

A crisis clears the air, recalibrates our values, makes the seemingly impossible possible and allows new things to grow. Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” But how can crises be actively managed? Can you acquire or learn resilience (see box) as a personal skill, or does it only develop through experience? How can team and process resilience be strengthened to stay fit for the future as a business when encountering challenges further down the line?

“For me, acceptance is an integral part of resilience. You need to realise that you won’t just get sunshine 24/7, that your days will be filled with more than wine and roses. Nature, too, has its cycles. So do life and the economy”, says Andrea S., adding: “My father would always say to me, ‘Only one thing in life is certain: things won’t turn out how you expect them to.’” You need to accept that not everything is going to go perfectly, he says, and instead to look for solutions armed with a positive mental attitude. “Sometimes, new challenges propel me onwards. As captain of this particular ship, I’m happy to see a heavy swell on the horizon from time to time, as it’s an opportunity to show what you can do.” Hansruedi M. mentions a book by Benedikt Weibel, the former CEO of Swiss Federal Railways, called Endlich beginnen die Schwierigkeiten (‘Finally, the tough times are here’) (2016). Only when the going gets tough is it clear who is capable in his job, he thinks.

“One skill I’ve acquired for times of crisis is the ability to ‘power down’ rather than constantly thinking about my various problems”, Andrea S. explains. “I simply go and feed the squirrels instead and can switch off for a long time. It makes me calmer and, yes, happier too. It’s a matter of counting your blessings. By that, I mean remembering the happy moments when times are bleaker and trying to view your situation in a positive light again. Then you’ll realise that your list of positive experiences is actually a long one. You have to cultivate this positive mindset.”

RESILIENCE FACTORS OF INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS

Source: based on www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience.

The factors that strengthen an individual’s resilience include:

Environmental factors: support from one’s family, one’s own culture, one’s community, one’s social environment

Personal factors: cognitive abilities (e.g., intelligence, the ability to acquire information independently, etc.) as well as emotional skills (e.g., control over one’s emotions and actions), tolerance of the unknown, the ability to actively shape relationships, and a positive attitude toward problems

Process factors: the ability to identify opportunities and prospects in crises, an acceptance of what cannot be changed, and a focus on the next challenge and the strategies formulated to tackle it

Equally, factors that erode people’s resilience include insecure ties, low cognitive ability, and difficulties handling stress and relaxation and focusing on challenges. The factors that strengthen a group’s resilience include:

A high degree of group cohesiveness

A collectivist attitude

Shared values

“We have to cultivate this positive mindset.”

On the subject of mindset, Martin N. adds: “Embrace experiments.” Times of crisis, perhaps more than any other period, provide ideal opportunities for innovations and experiments that either make you more successful or, if not, wiser in his view. Something else he thinks is key to rise above mediocrity and be ambitious in the standards you set: “Aim high.” Ultimately, he argues, tourism is an industry that was invented by people, and only the strongest team of them can bring success. So: “Empower your work partners.”

Andrea S. feels that it is important to know what situation you are in when a storm hits, and thinks that many tourism providers are badly prepared or equipped: all it takes is one fairly hefty gust of wind, and you are flat on your back. Financial stability, a wealth of experience and a healthy dose of self-confidence are key as far as he is concerned. “This self-confidence is something I’ve got because I know my grandparents guided this hotel though the Second World War despite not having much money to fall back on.”

Hansruedi M. mentions the much-quoted model of the seven keys to resilience and suggests that Andrea S. probably possesses many of these qualities in abundance (see box).

THE SEVEN KEYS TO INDIVIDUAL RESILIENCE

Source: Heller, Jutta: Resilienz: 7 Schlüssel für mehr innere Stärke, Munich 2013.

The seven keys to individual resilience:

Acceptance

Optimism

Self-efficacy

Self-responsibility

Network orientation

Solution orientation

Future orientation

In answer to the question as to which of these resilience factors can be acquired or learnt, Martin N. says that they sound like general leadership qualities – personality traits, in other words. “Although executives are always taking leadership courses at Switzerland Tourism too, courses like this are little use if you don’t have certain personality traits.” He suggests that, rather than being ‘learnable’ in the true sense, resilience tends to improve through experience – sometimes that of the bitter kind, too.

“I think that some of these qualities, like a positive mental attitude, acceptance and a focus on finding solutions, can also be taught – so you could learn them”, Andrea S. argues. “But you need strong willpower.” “One of the most important jobs for a manager is to look out for aspects of resilience when picking staff to work for you”, thinks Hansruedi M. When putting teams together, he says, you must ensure that individuals complement one another and that the makeup of management teams is as mixed and diverse as possible – something that is going to become even more important in the future. He goes on to say that there are certain principles that you can base yourself around, such as those of business continuity management (BCM)2 :

1.Prepare: preparing for potential crisis events, e.g. with early-warning systems

2.Prevent: preventing or mitigating crisis events by reducing your risk factors

3.Protect: using physical and virtual protection systems to minimise negative consequences

4.Respond: instigating a rapid, effective and well-organised response to events – identifying opportunities presented by the crisis

5.Recover: mounting a recovery and harnessing any lessons learnt so that you are better prepared for future events

“One of the most important jobs for a manager is to look out for aspects of resilience when picking staff to work for you.”

Measuring resilience

“You can’t control what you can’t measure”, runs a popular rule of management coined by Peter F. Drucker. Resilience is famously hard to measure. Hansruedi M. puts it like this: although you can see in the aftermath of a crisis how resilient a company has been by looking at its profit figures, determining it in advance is virtually impossible. However, he argues, resilience can be conveyed symbolically. Take the image of the 110-year-old Gstaad Palace, for instance, which has come through a great many crises and is still amongst the best hotels in the world.

Martin N. says that the resilience of a particular market to the COVID-19 pandemic can be measured using the recovery rate, i.e. how quickly a country has bounced back compared to its situation in 2019 (benchmark year). The resilience of various tourist markets can be gauged by looking at numbers of international arrivals. Measured against international arrivals from various markets, the recovery rate in 2022 compared to 2019 was as follows3: from the Middle East -17 per cent, from Europe -21 per cent, from Africa -35 per cent, from the Americas -35 per cent, and from Asia -77 per cent.

If you divide resilience into process, team, environmental and personal resilience, then process resilience is probably the easiest to measure, e.g. using a market’s recovery rate. Even if resilience is virtually impossible to measure before a crisis hits, precautionary measures (the ‘prevent’ element) can still be taken. “Switzerland Tourism has seven people on its Executive Board, and my aim is to surround myself with a team as diverse as possible”, Martin N. says. “It’s extremely hard to modify people’s personality traits. When there’s a change of personnel, we always add someone to the team who has skills that nobody else on the Board possesses at that moment in time. So I always ask myself, ‘Who haven’t we got sat round the table yet?’ And that’s the kind of person we look for. Using this method to assemble our management team makes the organisation as a whole more resilient.”

“Motivation is another important issue, I think”, Andrea S. says. “When staff have the motivation to drag a business out of crisis, you’re going to have more resilience.” It is a question of attitude and identifying with the company, he suggests. Asked whether the Gstaad Palace also lost any staff during the pandemic who had not been able to handle the crisis, Andrea S. answers: “We brought in short-time working, of course, which affected people’s pay, but I didn’t make anyone redundant. Now that we’ve pulled through the crisis together and can look back on a very good season, I’ve given every single member of staff a CHF 1,000 bonus, regardless of what job they do – from pot washers to directors.” It is, he says, the employees that hold the key to success in this ‘people business’ – and that are so vital to resilience in times of crisis.

Conclusion

Resilience is very much ‘in’ at the moment, because the crises of recent times have been piling up, overlapping and influencing one another. And the tourism industry, which is being constantly and directly impacted by these crises, needs to adapt to this fast pace by becoming more resilient. The factors that strengthen a person’s resilience include social factors, such as their family or their own culture, personal factors, such as their cognitive and emotional potential, and process factors, i.e. the ability to identify opportunities and prospects in times of crisis. Resilient people are those who are adaptable, alert, able to work under pressure and full of self-confidence. Although these qualities can only be acquired to a limited extent and are more so gained through experience, a team’s resilience can be strengthened by focusing on strong shared values and promoting group cohesiveness when you put it together. Andrea S. argues that acceptance is another integral part of resilience: people need to realise that life is not all sunny days all the time. Nature, the economy and, yes, the whole of life itself – all of these are cyclical. The resilient people are those who go looking for solutions armed with a positive mental attitude.

1Strassberg, Daniel: ‘Wenn Weltbilder wackeln’, in: Republik, 28 February 2023.

2German Association for Quality (https://blog.dgq.de/organisationale-resilienz-im-strategischen-management-viel-hilft-viel).

3UNWTO January 2023.

Intercultural dialogue: travelling as life education

The idea that ‘travel broadens the mind’ has become a popular expression and reveals some of the reasons why people go on holiday: to ‘do something cultural and educational’, to ‘broaden my horizons’ or to ‘see things in a new light’. Although these are not amongst tourists’ main motivations for travelling, familiarising oneself with foreign cultures undoubtedly widens one’s perspectives, fosters respect and provides an opportunity to practise tolerance. Travel can make us more open-minded, more interesting human beings to be around. Some might see travelling as a form of ‘life education’ and tourism promoting international understanding. At the same time, it is a known fact that conflicts can arise between tourists and locals, especially when visitors congregate en masse or generally make a scene. The issue is thus multifaceted, depending to a great extent on how people travel, how open-minded everyone is and how skilfully the flows of tourists are managed.

“Travel can help to give us a better understanding of other cultures and ways of life. It makes societies more tolerant.”

We came up with seven positive aspects to provide food for thought and a starting point for our conversation on intercultural dialogue:

An understanding of culture: travel can help give us a better understanding of other cultures and ways of life. It makes societies more tolerant.

Education: intercultural dialogue can broaden our perspectives, teach us more about other cultures and improve our language skills.

Experience: travel allows us to experience new things and go on adventures. Meeting locals and getting to know local traditions and dishes is a route to once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Emancipation: travel liberates us from social constraints and enables us to act independently. Travel teaches younger people in particular what new lifestyles are out there and allows them to seek emancipation.

Networks: intercultural encounters can help us build up a network of friends and contacts well beyond the borders of our own country and encourage an interest in other ways of life.

Identity: the ritual, utopian and mythical character of travel strengthens our cultural identity by teaching us assurance about our own behaviours, giving us ways to develop as individuals and encouraging pluralism.1

International understanding: tourism plays a key role in opening political borders, reducing the socio-cultural distance between nations.

The intercultural dialogue that happens when we travel clearly offers a wealth of opportunities to expand our horizons and gain an understanding of other cultures and ways of life. However, intercultural dialogue cannot be viewed through rose-tinted glasses, as it also has several factors that can spark conflict:

“Intercultural dialogue depends to a large extent on how people travel – in what form, how often and with what attitudes – as well as what the welcoming culture is like in the host country and how flows of tourists are managed.”

Prejudices: travel can reaffirm or reinforce stereotypes, clichés and prejudices, something that becomes especially problematic if these prejudices lead to certain groups being discriminated against.

Superiority: a sense of superiority is particularly widespread amongst travellers to developing countries and can lead to exploitation or abuse. Flashbacks to colonial times and corresponding patterns of behaviour can lead people to behave arrogantly.

Swindling: locals exploiting tourists’ lack of knowledge by selling them goods or services at overinflated prices.

Xenophobia: tourism can spark racist conflicts if locals consider the intercultural dialogue that is happening to be interfering or disruptive. For instance, niqab-wearing visitors from the Arab world in the West can trigger xenophobic reactions, as can excessively scantily clad Western tourists in the Middle East.

Mass tourism: the risk of conflict situations increases when tourists gather en masse. Hostility and intolerance, especially towards large groups of visitors from faraway cultures, increase and capacity is squeezed.

Whether the opportunities presented by intercultural dialogue can be harnessed or whether the conflicts will simply pile up depends to a large extent on how people travel – in what form, how often and with what attitudes – as well as what the welcoming culture is like in the host country and how flows of tourists are managed. Whereas cruises and ‘club’-style holidays focus more on encouraging contact between the tourists themselves, educational and study trips place more emphasis on encounters with locals.

PROFILE OF LUÍS ARAÚJOLaw degree From 2016 to 2023, CEO of Turismo de Portugal, responsible for a 650-strong team plus a further 350 external trainers covering a total of 26 source markets for Portugal Prior to 2016, Member of the Board of the Pestana Group, which has 100 hotels in 15 countries, and in charge of sustainable development in Latin America From 2005 to 2007, Chief of Staff to the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism From 2020 to 2023, President of the European Travel Commission (ETC), covering 33 national tourism organisations (NTOs) across Europe

All of these reflections gave rise to a raft of questions, which we discussed with Luís Araújo, former CEO of Tourismo de Portugal and President of the European Travel Commission (ETC), at the ITB travel trade show in Berlin.

Campaigns conveying intangible messages

One key aspect of tourism is intercultural dialogue. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear that term?

Luís Araújo: I grew up on the holiday island of Madeira, which gave me a strong sense of what’s important for tourism from a young age. My parents would often invite tourists who they’d met out walking to come and eat at home with us. If they ever came back to the island one day, they’d come and visit us again, and we’d keep up the relationship. This experience taught me the power of intercultural dialogue: it brings people together so they can learn from one another. The hospitality that my family showed towards our guests was always a win-win situation, really, despite the language barrier. My grandmother, who couldn’t speak any English, used gestures to communicate. My parents forged some interesting friendships with people from outside our little island, and our guests had a unique opportunity to experience what life on Madeira was really like. I’d say that this interpersonal dialogue is what tourism is essentially all about. Though there are challenges and risks, the potential to have enriching experiences is unlimited. Even the things I learnt when I was young showed me that welcoming guests with open arms can be a good thing for both sides.

“The power of intercultural dialogue: it brings people together so they can learn from one another.”

“We launched the ‘Travel better’, which encourages visitors to experience our country’s hospitality rather than simply tick tourist hotspots off their list.”

Is intercultural dialogue encouraged specifically at Turismo de Portugal, or does it need to be fostered on a case by case basis as the situation dictates?

In our little country, and amongst the people who live in it, it’s always been important for everyone to be welcome and respected, regardless of their differences. This belief is key to our objectives and something that we highlight in our marketing campaigns. Rather than merely lauding Portugal as a destination full of tourist attractions, we want to showcase it as also being a place where people are warmly welcome, irrespective of where they come from or what they’re interested in. We want to put it to tourists that travel isn’t just about taking something with them when they go – it’s also about giving something back while they’re here. Our campaigns are designed to spread this message worldwide without overusing ‘Brand Portugal’, thus suggesting that our visitors aren’t all that different from ourselves and that we should view one another as equals.

Do you use intercultural dialogue as a marketing message in your campaigns, or do you wait until your guests have arrived before springing it upon them? Take Peru, for example. As well as visiting historic sites such as the Inca temples, meeting indigenous communities is also expressly recommended in order to gain a better understanding of the country’s culture.

Our campaigns highlight our country’s cuisine, history, memorials and major sights, particularly on social media. However, the principal concept behind them is based on more than just these familiar elements. There’s our campaign, ‘Time to be’, for instance. The concept here used intangible messages and stressed how Portugal was a destination that welcomed its visitors with open arms. In our campaigns, we try to convey a sense of cultural integration rather than coming across as tritely positive. We launched the ‘Travel better’ campaign two years ago, which encourages visitors to experience our country’s hospitality rather than simply tick tourist hotspots off their list. We’re focusing on getting our message across to those tourists who appreciate the Portuguese values.

The varying significance of intercultural dialogue