Kitzbühel Tourismus has been pursuing a co-creative approach to strategic destination development since 2021.A joint vision for the future was developed with the involvement of all those interested in the living space, i.e. locals, second homeowners, entrepreneurs and employees.
Following a comprehensive evaluation of the status quo in 2021 with over 1,200 respondents, a major milestone was reached after intensive and sometimes tense discussions: a shared understanding of the future development of Kitzbühel as a tourist destination. The result is a vision for the future with five success patterns and a common core of services.
Branding process #weareKitzbühel
Since Kitzbühel Tourism initiated the 2021 branding process, over 70 Kitzbühel residents of all ages and professions have been working at full speed on a voluntary basis to implement specific projects as part of the jointly developed vision for the future. While work is to continue on quality and top performance for products that are already successful, such as ‘Outdoor Active’ and ‘Culinary Delights’, the vision for the future also includes trend topics such as ‘Workation’, which is still in its infancy. Everything that emerges from this new vision of Kitzbühel Tourismus serves one purpose: to make Kitzbühel even more attractive as a place to live (My Preferred Place for Being) - for guests as well as for locals, second homeowners and employees.
New workshop format
In regular meetings of the so-called steering committee and in internal debriefings, it was recognised that there is great interest in discussion rounds on specific product topics. For this reason, a series of workshops was initiated with the aim of further improving and developing the success patterns.
The first workshop focused on the topic of city centre revitalisation, which revealed some interesting results: 44 retail, 17 catering and 11 service businesses are located in the city centre. Kitzbühel's town centre hosts 23 one-day and 21 multi-day events on a total of 172 days, with summer taking centre stage with 95 event days. It can therefore be said that one or more events take place in the town centre every third day.
In the opinion of those present, all events are very well organised, especially the formats initiated by Kitzbühel Tourismus such as Kitzbühel Advent, Sound | Escape, PURA VIDA and Wochenteiler were discussed. In order to revitalise the town centre more during the course of the year, existing events should be expanded and more should be organised in the so-called low season. The following parameters would also be desirable for the continuous revitalisation of the city centre 365 days a year: better coordination of the opening hours of restaurants and hotels, year-round opening of hotels and cafés and bars, and the establishment of a new shopping centre.
For Kitzbühel Tourismus Managing Director Dr Viktoria Veider-Walser, the start of the workshop series is a step in the right direction: ‘As part of the brand development process, we have now reached a point where the dialogue on specific products and topics helps us to work on the quality of our success patterns in a targeted manner. I was particularly impressed by the positive attitude of those involved and the desire to pull together.’
The next workshop on the topic of hiking is planned for Thursday, 24 October 2024. If you are interested, please contact project manager Bettina Wiedmayr at wirsind@kitzbuehel.com
All information on the #wirsindKitzbühel branding process initiated by Kitzbühel Tourismus can be found at marke.kitzbuehel.com
