As the world becomes more digitized, tourism brands and destinations are looking for innovative ways to become part of this change to reach more clients.

Even so, founder and CEO of Outdooractive, Hartmut Wimmer, says it's also important to stay current: the usual marketing tactics aren’t resonating with new generations.

“We are strong believers that everything is going to be digital,” said Wimmer, whose company and app caters to outdoor enthusiasts, during the ITB Convention in Berlin this week.

“All the things we have done in the past will not reach my kids,” he added.

Photo caption: Hartmut Wimmer, founder and CEO of Outdooractive GmbH, speaking during ITB 2019 in Berlin

So how to overcome this issue?

Hartmut recommended that instead of companies putting their content and marketing budgets on big platforms such as Google, Tripadvisor and Airbnb, they should cater directly to users by digitizing the information of destinations and users.

He suggested that content should be put into one database that can be easily managed to help communicate and provide better experience for customers.

His company focuses mainly on the users, by gathering information from them– as per the rules of the General Data Protection

Regulation – and from the destinations in order to provide interesting outdoor experiences for customers.

“We have to focus on the experience of the user,” he said.

This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted. Jabeen Bhatti is reporting exclusively for 4Hoteliers.com at ITB Berlin 2019 - www.4Hoteliers.com/itb.

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