33rd TFA Meeting Held In Montafon
Around 150 managers from the mountain railway industry and alpine tourism met in Montafon (AT) for the annual TFA Tourism Forum for Alpine Regions. The event took place under the motto “The Responsibility Principle” and dealt with pressing issues such as habitat design, climate change in alpine areas and AI on the mountain.
Responsibility in tourism habitat management
The host destination, which helped shape the motto of the event, was represented by Tourism Director Manuel Bitschnau. In his joint presentation with Joachim Kresser, Head of Vorarlberg Tourism Development, the innovative destination's (en)habitat strategy was presented. Particularly succinct is the statement that the destination foregoes classic promotional measures and concentrates on convincing guests with a meaningful tourist offer.
The co-managing directors of Silvretta Montafon, Peter Marko and Martin Oberhammer, demonstrated how extremely successful high investments and the gradual merger of the mountain railways to form a total service provider on the mountain are. Your recipe for success: strategic planning and culture of innovation. The participants were able to experience the latter first hand, among other things, on the trip with the AURO Valisera train on Monday evening.
Strategies for a green winter
The second conference focus on the topic of climate change and its effects on ski and winter tourism was very well received. The renowned Swiss climate researcher Reto Knutti woke up the participants with numerous impressive diagrams and images of melting glaciers and CO2 trends. Knutti's objective, competent and by no means missionary nature, as well as the fact that Knutti is a passionate skier himself, was highly valued by the specialists and tourism experts.
Michael Hartmann, deputy managing director of grischconsultaberatungen AG, presented six concrete future scenarios for mountain railway operators and alpine destinations. It is just as undisputed that lower-lying ski areas will soon have to focus their offerings on activities without snow, as is the fact that higher-altitude ski areas will also have to expand their non-skiing offerings.
Pricing remains an exciting topic
Florian Bauer, an expert in price psychology, left a lasting impression as the keynote speaker. He fascinated the participants with more or less well-known facts about human purchasing behavior and thus initiated an exciting price discussion.
The carefully selected supporting program also offered welcome opportunities to exchange impressions of the forum days among the participants.
Founder and organizer Roland Zegg and the TFA team are very satisfied with the successful and inspiring conference in Montafon. With this spirit for knowledge transfer and networking in the Alpine tourism industry, the TFA TourismusForum Alpine Regions is taking big steps towards its 34th edition on March 31st - April 2nd, 2025. The destination will be announced soon.
