Destinations and Data State-of-the-Art in Switzerland and Liechtenstein

This research investigates the state of the art among Switzerland (CH)’s and Liechtenstein (FL)’s destinations, intended here as Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), when it comes to their relationship with data: what data are collected, how they are stored, analyzed and what impact they have on the destination. This study aims at bringing insights into smart tourism studies as a key aspect of the debate is how DMOs deal with data. Based on a survey performed with CH’s and FL’s DMOs and related stakeholders, results suggested that there are common conceptual nodes shared by practitioners when it comes to defining smart destinations. However, when it comes to data-related practices (data collection, storage, analysis and sharing) DMOs have very different processes in place. There are organizations that collect but do not extensively analyze data, while others are still not so keen on sharing their data with the whole destination ecosystem. Furthermore, organizations’ decision-making processes appear to be based to some extent on data, especially when it comes to (digital) marketing initiatives and campaigns, although behaviors are quite different also in this area. Destination managers might benefit from this paper as the study shows how to investigate data-related practices of an organization. This type of analysis could allow an assessment of the situation and an understanding of the direction in which the organization might move forward.