Der EU-China Tourismusgipfel fand am 3–5. Juli 2024 in Budapest statt. Die Veranstaltung war eine der ersten und bedeutendsten Veranstaltungen der ungarischen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft. Den Ministertreffen folgte ein ganztägiger EU-China-Tourismusgipfel und eine Konferenz, an der Balázs Kovács, Partner von GD Consulting und Mitglied des Globl Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), im Bereich eines Kulturtourismus-Panels teilgenommen hat. Der Vertreter von GD Consulting ging in seinem Beitrag auf die Bedingungen und Möglichkeiten eines neuen, lebensqualitätszentrierten NeuTourismus sowie auf die kulturprägende Bedeutung des Storytellings ein. Als gute Praxis wurden der österreichische Tourismusmasterplan und die innovative Tourismuskommunikation der Stadt Linz hervorgehoben. Untenstehend finden Sie eine auszugsweise Zusammenfassung des Beitrages, die mit KI-Unterstützung HIER angehört werden kann.
Edited version of Balázs Kovács' speech at the EU-China tourism summit on July 4, 2024
"Tourism is the art of possibilities, just like culture. Picasso once said that the role of culture is to wash the dust of everyday life off our souls. → The same goes for travel. It can build bridges between different cultures and eras. The desire to learn about different cultures is one of the driving forces of our world. Cultural tourism is a branch of tourism that helps make the world a better place. A better tourism, better life, better world → as the vision and mission of Word Travel Alliance tell us. Better place to visit, better place to live...
Culture and tourism go hand in hand, and it is important for them to be organized into a collaborative ecosystem. Just as yin and yang complement each other, so do tourism and culture.
In today’s turbulent world, as Henry Kissinger recently said, we live in a world order without order. Many describe the situation with the terms of poly-crisis and omni-crisis. We are all searching for new opportunities, new solutions. This is also true in the field of tourism.
We are all experimenting. Symbolically, we can say that the world’s Rubik’s cube has been scrambled. We are trying to solve it again. The cube consists of three rows and three columns, yet there are billions of possibilities for formations. We are all trying to rearrange the cube in a new pattern. A new pattern that is sustainable, where cultural and international cooperation are stronger than ever before.
We are all experimenting. Some admit it, some do not. In Austria, we are currently in a transitional period where tourism is being replaced by the era of visitor economy. The essence of visitor economy is that it looks at the world not only through the eyes of tourists but also through the eyes of locals and industry workers. This is a significant difference.
As Kennedy said, do not ask what America can do for you, but what you can do for America. Translated to tourism, this means the following: do not ask what you can give to the visitor, but what the visitor can give to you, to your city, your hometown. This interpretation is the trinity of new tourism, the visitor economy.
Visitor economy where all three players, the local resident, the stakeholder, and the visitors benefit. The former in quality of life, the second in material goods, and the third in experiences.
In the ecosystem of the visitor economy, cooperation is essential. Success is about networks. The culture scene and the tourism sector need to shift from competition to a culture of cooperation. In Austria, there is a term called coopetition, which combines cooperation and competition. This is the recipe for the future.
The city of Linz in Upper Austria is considered the experimental laboratory of Austrian tourism. Colleagues in Linz are ahead in developing successful recipes than elsewhere in Austria. They know that we have reached the third stage of the consumer society. The first stage was about selling products. The second stage was about selling services related to products. The third stage is no longer about selling services but about selling narratives, stories related to them.
In the world of new tourism, it is about communication, stories, capturing emotions, and conveying them. The tourism short films from Linz are honest, authentic, spiced with humour and provocation. They are worth watching. They have a completely different approach than what we are used to. A world without clichés.
Stories influence our thinking, and our thinking influences our behaviour. Our stories shape the culture, culture shapes leader, leaders shape policy, policy shape the system in there we live in. The world and our behaviour depend on the stories we use and tell. We have a great responsibility in this.
It is important to mirror the real world in the digital space and establish appropriate communication channels. Communication channels and tools may change during a campaign, but the essence, the stories and narratives, remain the same. It is the task of the Hungarian EU presidency to solve the Rubik’s cube with a common pattern that fits the world of new tourism. To boost international tourism, we must involve Chinese partners, replacing competition with cooperation here as well."
Foto: Magyar Turisztikai Ügynökség
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