EMTS, the 2nd ever European Mountain Travel Summit (EMTS), has concluded in Crans Montana, gathering 160 senior executives of the Ski Industry. Delegates from different countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas got together to have an insight on how business is going, what could be done better and to learn from peers.
The business-to-business event connects top-level executives from all over the globe for thought provoking content, a number of networking events and alpine skiing in a leading mountain resort destination.
“This has been a great and unique chance for Crans-Montana to host such a high-quality summit,” said Bruno Huggler, Director of Crans-Montana Tourism & Congress. “EMTS enables professional development and an exchange of knowledge that encourages all participants to find new ways and approaches for sustainable economic development. The topics presented and discussed were of high importance for the future development of mountain resorts, and the fact that mostly top-level management attended led to an exchange at a very high level, with many takeaways for all partners involved.”
Attendees represented countries across the world, including Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and others.
Content highlights were Attracting Younger Generations with panelists Andrew van der Feltz, Senior Director, EMEA & APAC, Expedia Media Solutions; Nicolas Mayer, Partner & Industry Leader – Lodging & Tourism Clients, PwC; and John Urdi, Executive Director, Manmoth Lakes Tourism, and Innovative Ski Pass Programs, presented by Daniel Brauer, Senior Director, Marketing, Vail Resorts; Bohus Hlavaty, CEO, Tatry Mountain Resorts; Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia; and Urs Zurbriggen, COO and Deputy CEO, Saas-Fee, as well as Promotion + Product = Sales featuring Mario Bradie, CEO, VALAIS – Matterhorn Region AG, Sion; and Trevor Crist, CEO, Inntopia.
There were a whole of Destination Marketing Success Case Studies featured, with Cristina Cerruti from Torino Turismo, explaining how Torino came from an Industrial City to the Olympics and then to A Tourism Partnership. This was followed by another great presentation on by Luca D’Angelo on how Dolomiti Paganella created a biking destination in the Dolomites and positioned themselves as THE capital of Mountain Biking. The Tirol Tourism Board on the move was the case presented by Josef Margreiter, of Tirol Werbung Innsbruck, and a demonstration of the technology used by St Moritz and Engadin to provide better customer experience with their ski and mountain maps was presented by Prof. Dr. Florian Siegert of 3D RealityMaps GmbH and Stefan Sieber of St Moritz and Engadin. During the afternoon, there was also a presentation by Thomas Aichner of IDM Südtirol on how IDM Südtirol is more than just a marketing organisation and how they have a linking image in all their products, not only tourism, but land produce, to identify the region.
The closing session, titled How Using Data, Insights and Consumer Data Can Drive a Winning Business, featured speakers Brad King, Vice President of Marketing & Vertical Sales, Sojern and Reto Gurtner, Chairman/CEO, Weisse Arena Gruppe and Laax and was a favorite of the audience.
“All of the content delivered over the last day and a half at EMTS was of high quality and it was relatable to people in both North America and Europe,” said John Frasca, Vice President, International, Ski.com. What we heard on stage was extremely diverse. The speakers kept us thinking and engaged. And the caliber of those in the audience lead to increased levels of participation.”
Functions hosted by ADARA, Crans-Montana Tourism & Congress, SKIDATA and Sojern allowed for networking and building relationships.
“The level of interaction we saw from attendees was outstanding,” said Michael Pierson, Managing Director, European Mountain Travel Symposium. “Because the content covered at EMTS is so relevant, attendees left the conference with actionable items to bring back to their businesses as well as new business relationships.”
EMTS is produced by Mountain Travel Symposium (MTS), the longest running and largest gathering of mountain tourism professionals. MTS will be held in Heavenly South Lake Tahoe, April 8-14, 2018. For more information about the event, visit www.mtntrvl.com.
You can read why going to the Mountain Travel Symposium (MTS) is a sound investment for your company here.
Also the article we’ve written about EMTS before the event.
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Featured Image: Crans Montana photo- copyright: The-Ski-Guru- EMTS 2018
