Newsletter #6 (September 2025)

Newsletter #6 - September 2025

This is the sixth bi-yearly newsletter of the project. The project is approaching its conclusion, leveraging on the network established through our partners' contributions since the start of the Flagship.

We are excited to announce that the final and last Flagship Annual Conference will take place on May 26-27, 2026 in Sierre, Valais.

Mark your agendas - event registrations will open soon!

SP1

National Data Infrastructure for Tourism

Start of Use Case 2: analysing mid-to long-term impact on the MTB World Championship 2025

HSLU, together with HES-SO for Valais 2025 and UCI, kicked off a second use case planned within Subproject 1. This time our focus is to analyze the impact of the 2025 Mountain Bike World Championships that were held in September in Valais.

By combining data sources from Swisscom Mobility Insights and Mastercard, we will analyze visitors' presence and their behavior, such as spending pattern and dwell time. For comparison, our baseline is defined by the same calendar weeks from the year before the event, providing a reference point in the general touristic context.

Our study is designed to complement the traditional event impact analysis. While the standard approach relies on surveys and economic modelling, our methodology is data-driven, hence offering an additional layer of validation. In addition, it enables more granular insights both spatially and temporally. This is particularly valuable for such a major multi-location event and allows for contextualization from a tourism perspective. We use our expertise and experience gathered from Use Case Ticino that was completed in spring 2025.

Data Donation Story expanded to the US-market

In collaboration with the University of St. Gallen, we continued our work on the Data Donation Study, which explores the factors and incentives that encourage tourists to share their location data. After completing our research on the Swiss and German markets — and presenting as well as publishing the outcomes — we decided to take the study a step further. Questions such as “How would tourists in other regions respond? Would cultural values or travel motivations change the outcome?” continued to drive our curiosity. To address them, we expanded our research to the U.S. market. The aim was to determine whether our earlier findings were consistent across regions or whether they were shaped by local cultural values and distinct travel motivations.

Studying the U.S. market enabled us to benchmark behaviors, uncover key differences in expectations, and gain deeper insights into how travelers make decisions in a highly competitive environment. Results reveal that people from the U.S. are more likely to share their location. However, for none of the markets, there is a simple answer to research questions above. The research team is currently preparing a detailed report about the topic.

Creating a Common Language for Swiss Tourism Data – Explore Our Work

Based on the Charter about marketing relevant but non personal data sharing in tourism, a group of nine elected members and two researchers from the HSLU-team have formed the Charter Mapping Group. This is a collaborative initiative to standardize tourism data model for better accessibility, interoperability, and integration across digital platforms. Since our Kick-Off Meeting in January 2025, the Mapping Group has been meeting regularly every month, diving deep into data standards and categorization challenges – from how to classify unique tourism elements like lockers or glaciers, to aligning structures across systems. We are glad to share the first results of our ongoing work on data standardization in Swiss tourism!

You can access and download the first data structure tree we've developed. The Mapping Group continues to work on refining structures, aligning categories, and building bridges between tourism data providers. Explore our progress and check out the data category tree.

SP2

Service Design, Business Processes and Business Models

As part of SP2, we have focused on the progress of three business model projects.

Together with Seilbahnen Schweiz, a report on the business model options with regard to energy generation and distribution by cable cars is currently being finalized. This shows that the hurdles to becoming active in this domain are relatively high, as different players are involved in what is ultimately a complex system. Finding a place and one or more roles here as a mountain railroad is extremely challenging.

Together with various hotels from the Hospitality Club of Hotel Inside (in place of Hotellerie Suisse), we are also working on business model options in the hospitality industry. Here we have developed a morphology for decision-making regarding business model configurations. This ultimately shows how rich the range of options for successful positioning can be. But it also shows the jumble of decisions someone has to go through to find an optimal configuration. As part of this project, we are also preparing a submission for a productivity cockpit for the hospitality industry.

The project to include travel by public transport in the hotel price has so far made very slow progress. Work has now reached the stage where a pilot project will be set up and scientifically monitored in Valais next year. In addition to the Regional Directors' Conference, the partners in this project are the Canton of Valais, Hotellerie Valais and Innotour, a federal funding program. In the run-up to this pilot, a study was also carried out this year on the choice of means of transport when travelling to Valais; this will give us a baseline next year with which we can analyze the effects of the pilot on customer behavior.

SP3

Modelling the Resilience of Tourism Systems

Building on the hotel overnight simulator presented at the 2025 Flagship Conference in Chur, the Sub-Project 3 team has taken a new step forward: simulating how digital innovations spread across space and time.

Our latest case study focuses on the growth of Airbnb listings in the canton of Valais — a striking example of how digital platforms transform local tourism economies. By analyzing the number of Airbnb listings per commune over time, we applied a mathematical model inspired by the well-known Bass diffusion model. This model captures how innovations spread from early adopters to the wider market.

Figure: Simulation of Airbnb Offers in Val d’Anniviers. Real data (black points) and fitted mathematical model (red line)

Simulation of Airbnb Offers in Val d'Anniviers. Real data and fitted mathematical model

But real life isn’t always smooth. To reflect the disruptions caused by COVID-19, we added a perturbation term to the model. This helps us simulate not just adoption over time, but also how resilient each commune was to external shocks.

The results are promising:

Most communes showed a classic logistic growth pattern, meaning the platform gradually gained traction over time.
The model accurately reflected the slowdown during the pandemic and post-crisis recovery.
We're now able to quantify and compare resilience and innovation profiles across communes — paving the way for more targeted support and better-informed decision-making.

This is a first success in our broader mission to simulate how digital innovation spreads within the tourism ecosystem. Looking ahead, we plan to apply similar models to other innovations and destinations — helping stakeholders prepare for, adopt, and adapt to change.

SP4

Coordination, Orchestration and Communication

We need 5 minutes of your time! Help us by filling a short form.

As part of our mission to accelerate knowledge transfer within our sector, we are documenting digital projects in Switzerland beyond those supported by Innotour. By collecting your project information, we aim to facilitate collaboration and support the creation of new connections and synergies. Our goal is to catalogue recent digital initiatives throughout Switzerland and enhance communication among participants. Help us, and take 5 minutes to fill in this very short form in order to share your current/recent digital projects. You can also spread the message and send the map and the form to all your tourism fellows.

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If you have not yet explored our Podcast Series, we invite you to listen to any of our seasons. In our most recent season, we examined the concept of "high tech, high touch," emphasizing our belief that technology should be guided by humans and leveraged to enrich customer experiences and relationships. Our interviews feature a range of distinguished hoteliers and tourism professionals, including representatives from DMOs, MSC, UEFA, and several Swiss hotel hoteliers.

On another note, we are about to close the third edition of our coaching program, which included four projects. Here’s a quick reminder of them.

Lausanne Tourisme (DMO): This project aimed to enhance hospitality quality in Lausanne through the implementation of a training program for front-line staff. In the past months, we have carried out surveys with other DMOs and hotel employees to understand the needs of the industry. Lausanne Tourisme plans to implement the digital solution in the coming months.
Fondation du Château de Chillon: The Foundation is responsible for managing one of Switzerland's historical sites and is considering the integration of digital technology and AI to update the castle's security system and visitor services. AI-powered surveillance may offer increased security, enhance visitor management, and improve operational efficiency. Following an analysis of existing constraints and requirements, the Foundation will continue with a feasibility study and involve the partner Icare in subsequent phases of the project.
Alpine Regenerative Hubs: The Alpine Regenerative Hubs project aims to transform alpine tourism into a driver of ecological restoration and community empowerment by developing a platform that connects businesses, communities, and travelers to fund local regenerative projects.
Ballons du Léman: Ballons du Léman, a hot air balloon company in Suisse Romande, plans to develop an AI assistant for improved marketing and visibility. Following market analysis, the project will move forward and grow, potentially with partners, to offer seamless, personalized travel itineraries.

If you would like more information about these projects, please contact us. Many will likely continue with support from various funders, so reach out if you see value in them.