Programme
STiAS 2025
Astrid Steharnig-Staudinger, Managing Director of Austria Tourism, opens our two-day conference. With her welcoming words, she gives the starting signal for a programme full of exciting content and encourages exchange and networking. Inspiring days of innovation and collaboration await us!
Christian Schützinger, Managing Director of Vorarlberg Tourismus, welcomes all conference participants as the host of the federal state of Vorarlberg.
Even in challenging times, tourism in Vorarlberg continues to develop on the basis of strong and healthy roots. The coronavirus pandemic in particular has shown that the values of the 2020 tourism strategy in terms of regionality, hospitality, sustainability and networking were the right ones. These central pillars will continue to form the values foundation of the Tourism Strategy 2030.
A positive failure culture is the key to success today - and that's exactly what the STiAS opening keynote is all about. Why is failure actually so important in order to be truly successful? How can you make real gains from setbacks and strengthen your mental health? Because in the end, one thing counts above all: all you have right now is this moment. Let's find out together what it really means to live the "never give up" mentality and make the best of every challenge.
We learn. We grow. We shine. - Under this motto, we will take you on an inspiring journey. Discover how a positive error culture is not only a personal success factor, but also for sustainable tourism in Austria. Because learning from mistakes means growing - and this growth makes us shine as people and as a destination. An impulse full of food for thought and encouragement that shows that success begins where we allow ourselves to learn.
Visitor management is a central building block for sustainable tourism, as it helps to strike a balance between the needs of travellers, locals and the environment. It enables the long-term utilisation of tourism resources without overexploiting them and thus contributes to sustainable development.
The thematic block consists of an opening lecture, the presentation of a best practice and a subsequent panel discussion. Speakers will be added on an ongoing basis.
Sustainability at a business level is essential to ensure the future viability of the industry. Social sustainability plays a key role here, as it creates a balance between economic success and social responsibility. A business that takes social aspects seriously not only contributes to improving local living conditions, but also secures its own growth, credibility and continued existence in an increasingly value-orientated world.
Lecture: Martha Schultz, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber
The thematic block consists of an opening lecture, the presentation of a best practice and a subsequent panel discussion. Speakers will be added on an ongoing basis.
From March to July 2024, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economic Affairs called for projects that deal with the identification or derivation of solutions on the way to balanced tourism. 17 projects were selected based on the selection criteria of sustainability (social, ecological, economic levels), feasibility, strategic importance and innovative content as well as regional anchoring/broad involvement of various stakeholders.
Some of these projects will share their learnings and outline their progress in a specially designed "Balanced Tourism Gallery". Katharina Mayer-Ertl from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economic Affairs will host the gallery.
Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of tourism. But before tools are used indiscriminately, it must be clear: What role does AI play in tourism? What role in my organisation? What is the aim of its use? What advantages does AI offer when it comes to promoting sustainable measures? And what are the key success factors for successful implementation? In our interactive workshop, you will develop practical answers to these questions, always taking into account the areas of application of tourism sustainability.
"Cause We Care" is myclimate's programme for climate protection and sustainability specifically for the tourism and event industry and is designed to help destinations and companies implement sustainability measures and finance climate protection projects (locally or globally). The workshop outlines the Management of environmental and climate protection efforts and tests the platform as an intuitive tool for planning, financing and implementing sustainability measures. A central feature is the simple calculation of the COâ‚‚ footprint for recording and monitoring operational emissions. In addition, the platform offers an extensive catalogue of implementable sustainability measures that are specially tailored to the needs of tourism service providers and event organisers. The platform also provides personalised communication materials to help companies raise awareness of climate protection among guests and employees.
The workshop will be led by Christina Roitinger from myclimate, Katrin Erben and Christian Baumgartner.
Sustainable communication content and messages are already on the minds of tourism stakeholders. The focus of this workshop is therefore not on the communication content, but on the channels through which it is played out. Through sustainable further development, digital marketing should become significantly "cleaner". Together with our media agency, Österreich Werbung is also working with a carbon calculator to measure the CO₂ emissions of past advertising campaigns - both online and offline. This tool not only makes it possible to gain a better understanding of the climate impact of advertising activities, but also provides an important basis for future measures. Insights into the results and next steps will be shared in this workshop.
Following the four parallel workshops - "Balanced Tourism Gallery", "AI and Sustainability", "Cause We Care" and "Sustainability in Media" - the most important learnings and insights from participants will be shared.
Ulrike Rauch-Keschmann reviews the first day of STiAS and takes us through the highlights and key moments of the conference day.
A bit of cuisine, a bit of culture and, of course, glimpses behind the scenes of the Festspielhaus Bregenz and its lakeside stage round off the Vorarlberg evening as an ideal moment for networking and exchanging ideas.