The future of data management for inbound tourism to Germany

I am happy to announce that the German tourism industry’s biggest ever data infrastructure project is now live! Today, in conjunction with all project participants, we finally brought the GNTB Knowledge Graph on stream. Over the past three years, we have put in a lot of hard work – and shown great agility and vision – in order to get this collaborative project up and running. At this point, I would like to thank my team and all the various partners, the 16 regional marketing organisations for the federal states, the Magic Cities marketing association, the travel technology company Amadeus, the German Convention Bureau, representatives from academia and other tourism partners.

My thanks also go to all those who have provided funding and other support for this project, above all the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

Now that the Knowledge Graph has gone live, the critical phase of creating new business models begins. The digital guest in the digital destination will be better informed and will be able to make their trip smoother, more memorable and more sustainable.

I would like to take today’s launch of the Knowledge Graph as an opportunity to share some thoughts on the current state of play, the positioning and the tasks that lie ahead.

1. Strategic positioning

The GNTB is contributing to key areas of action in the German government’s data strategy through the project. It is putting in place high-performance, sustainable data structures, it is making data use innovative and responsible, it is improving data literacy and it is establishing a data culture. The project, part of the German government’s national tourism strategy, will be pivotal to the process of digital transformation in Germany, particularly for the tourism industry and its predominantly SME businesses.

By launching the Knowledge Graph, we have successfully brought the tourism industry’s biggest ever data infrastructure project to fruition. The sharing of data across organisations, federal states and industries using this kind of system can already be seen as a pioneering achievement within the German economy. It is also sending a clear signal as to the innovative capabilities of our sector.

2. Key challenges

Digital touchpoints already feature throughout the customer journey – from the initial inspiration via virtual reality, the research, planning and booking stage (e.g. with the aid of conversational interfaces), to the travel experience itself, with traveller IDs, digital guest cards and real-time management of visitor flows to smooth out peaks during the high season. Digital analysis and the profiling of travellers, on the other hand, are facilitating the development of products for future trips and enabling capacity to be planned in line with demand. And those are just some of a long list of current and potential applications. The proportion of bookings made online by our international guests has gone up from just under 70 per cent to nearly 90 per cent over the past decade. So it is all the more important for destinations to ensure that their data is included on the digital platforms and services where these bookings are made.

The digital transformation is progressing in ever shorter cycles. It took social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram years to become established, for example, whereas technological innovations such as OpenAI’s chatGPT have secured significant market penetration within a matter of weeks. Competitors have recognised this too. The number of AI-supported applications, whether for processing text, generating images or providing customer service, is growing on what seems like an hourly basis.

Of course, you can’t just install AI like an Office programme and leave it to its own devices. To make the most efficient and effective use of AI, we need to have at least a basic grasp of how AI-supported applications work and what the algorithms and learning mechanisms are actually doing.

3. The status quo in June 2023

The Open Data project is our response to the supply- and demand-led disruption of the travel market worldwide. It is enabling us and our partners to tap into the commercial potential of tourism-related data using AI applications.

It should be kept in mind here that the flow of data is more important than the channel used to transmit it. What matters most for the user is that the data they need actually reaches them. The paths it takes are, for them, immaterial.

By focusing our strategy on digital technologies, we are securing the competitiveness of Destination Germany in the international market.

Now that the Knowledge Graph has gone live, all stakeholders – from global sales platforms and tourism service providers to start-ups – have access to more than 200,000 up-to-date and high-quality data sets that are generally available for download. These data sets – as things stand – cover 100,000 tourism assets (POIs, tours, events, restaurants, cafés, hotels etc.) and a further 100,000 infrastructure components. Drawing on tourism data from all 16 federal states, the Knowledge Graph serves as a central database for Germany’s tourism industry. Other project partners include the Magic Cities marketing association, travel technology company Amadeus, the German Convention Bureau and representatives from academia.

The technical infrastructure put in place so far also offers many other partners in both the public and private sectors the opportunity to seamlessly link their reservoirs of data to the Knowledge Graph via their regional marketing organisation.

4. The potential today

A key asset of the Knowledge Graph, besides actually collecting the data in one place, lies in ensuring that the data is structured, licensed, integrated and made accessible in an enhanced form. Data of this unprecedented quality, which is available to all market players, means that even less well-known tourism offerings are able to be found by AI applications. This will allow SMEs and start-ups to develop their own intelligent, customer-centric services and secure a foothold for them in the market.

The Knowledge Graph provides a basis for developing innovative applications that utilise the power of AI. Such an application might analyse, forecast and manage visitor flows, for example, helping to avoid congestion, relieve the pressure on tourism hotspots during peak times, protect sensitive natural habitats and ensure a better quality of stay.

We can use open data to which semantic meaning has been added to accelerate the learning capabilities of voice and other virtual assistants. The number of these virtual assistants is already growing at an exponential rate. From the navigation systems found in cars to the self-learning chatbots used in customer service hotlines, conversational interfaces are increasingly becoming the norm in more and more parts our lives.

The effects are also being felt in the world of work. The shortage of skilled workers will likely only get worse thanks to demographic change. But if AI-driven systems are able to take on routine tasks on a 24/7 basis, skilled employees will be able to spend more of their time on specialist or complex tasks.

5. Open data is a collaborative matter

At the go-live, the Knowledge Graph presents itself as a federal project coordinated by the GNTB and supported by all federal states. To mark the occasion of the go-live, the managing directors of the 16 regional tourism organisations have reiterated this commitment.

Andreas Braun, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing GmbH Baden-Württemberg

The rapid progress of artificial intelligence has highlighted how fast technology is evolving and changing our lives. AI applications are also an example of how important digitalisation and structured data are to our industry. The onus is on tourism organisations to tackle this development at all levels to ensure that they do not get left behind. At TMBW, we are stepping up our work in this area, establishing a team for data management and digitalisation, and pressing home the importance of this topic with our destinations. After years of demanding preparation, the launch of the Knowledge Graph is a milestone for tourism in Germany.

Barbara Radomski, Managing Director of Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH

We are on the cusp of a fundamental change in the existing commercial dynamics and models, and there is no reason to believe that this change is still some years away. That is why the digitalisation of destination must become a mindset, starting with the service providers and the tourist information offices all the way to the destination management organisations. Properly structured data, data management, well-equipped tourist information offices and a digitalisation budget are the essentials for the future. To this end, we have formulated an open data strategy for the whole of Bavaria and developed our own technology platform, BayernCloud Tourismus. In this context, the most valuable asset is not access to a lot of data, but to a semantic data pool such as the one offered by the GNTB’s Knowledge Graph. Companies and destinations have to make the move to open data and AI in time if they want to be successful in the future.

Burkhard Kieker, Managing Director of visitBerlin Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH

The GNTB’s Knowledge Graph is very important to Berlin. As an organisation that is establishing a municipal tourism data hub, we know how crucial it is that data is available and linked. Structured data, to which the project is facilitating access, plays a major role in providing tailored information for travellers. visitBerlin firmly believes that technology can enhance the visitor’s experience on the ground.

Dieter Hütte, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing Brandenburg GmbH

“The Knowledge Graph is the central source of all tourism-related data sets from across Germany. Together with the data standards, which the tourism industry has agreed on for the first time, the graph establishes a common ground for a free digital market. It also offers huge potential for the development of artificial intelligence. We know from experience that structured data is key to the kind of clear and reliable information that users of AI tools expect. We are delighted to have been part of the process and to have had the opportunity to add our own expertise.”

Oliver Rau, Managing Director of WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH

“The digital transformation has had a profound impact on tourism, and AI is adding previously unimaginable dimensions to the possibilities of digitalisation.

The availability of open data allows travellers and tourism companies to customise their trip and enhances the travel experience. It also increases efficiency in the tourism sector. We are merely at the beginning of a very interesting development. Our task is to put all our effort into supporting it and, where appropriate, implementing it. It is too early to say where the journey will take us, in no small part due to the rapidly evolving nature of AI applications.”

Michael Otremba, Managing Director of Hamburg Tourismus GmbH

“The world is facing rapidly evolving challenges. Digitalisation and AI are making processes more efficient and changing the way we work, live, and receive and share information. It is crucial that we learn to understand these vast volumes of data and derive knowledge from it. But ultimately, it is about what motivates us: our desire to be exceptional hosts and to give people wonderful memories.”

Herbert Lang, Head of Tourism, HA Hessen Agentur GmbH

“It is essential to tourism in Hessen that we engage with artificial intelligence. We are joining the digital revolution with our content hub, which is a module of Tourismus-Hub Hessen. Processing the data is essential to our ability to increase value creation across our region through groundbreaking digital projects. Together with the content hub, the Knowledge Graph is a key channel for raising the international profile of tourism offerings in Hessen.”

Tobias Woitendorf, Commissioner for Tourism of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Managing Director of Tourismusverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V.

The current debate around AI shows that building up our open data technology and expertise as part of the GNTB’s Knowledge Graph project is the right way to go. It also shows that we are merely at the beginning of a new development. The insights gained from ‘Modernisierungssprint’, a major digital project in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, show that – in addition to the much-discussed use scenarios for visitors – these systems have considerable potential to help the industry to meet the challenges it is facing, such as the shortage of staff. Over the coming years, we hope to give more service providers and tourism partners the skills to make the most of these digital possibilities, and we have identified great potential when it comes to automating services.

Meike Zumbrock, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing Niedersachsen GmbH

The Niedersachsen Hub already contains more than 12,000 open data sets, and that number is steadily growing. The first applications are already online and accessing this data, for example NaturTrip Niedersachsen and UmweltNAVI Niedersachsen. We are delighted to have worked so closely on the development of the Knowledge Graph over the last few years, and that we can make structured, quality-optimised open data content from the Niedersachsen Hub available. We are also looking forward to the developments in the realm of open data and ChatGPT, as a structured data header without any human input highlights the importance of providing uniformly structured and open content.

Dr Heike Döll-König, Managing Director of Tourismus NRW e.V.

Inbound tourism to Germany now has an overarching data management system in the shape of the GNTB’s Knowledge Graph. This sounds simpler than it is. After all, this achievement is based on the switch from content marketing to content management, on the construction of a coherent data infrastructure for a complex stakeholder landscape, and on the opportunity to shape – at domestic and international level – what we want to say about the destinations in our federal states. From AI to the coexistence of green transformation and digitalisation in a smarter form of tourism, we are now able to take the next steps together.

Stefan Zindler, Managing Director of Rheinland-Pfalz Tourismus GmbH

Our actions at all levels are based on data. Working with real-time data, we hope to gain more and more knowledge about our visitors and use it to efficiently reach them and provide value-adding services along the customer journey. That is why we consider the use of AI as a great opportunity to generate knowledge, simplify workflows and provide innovative services for visitors. The GNTB’s Knowledge Graph project gives us a platform through which we can test these innovations and offer services.

Birgit Grauvogel, Managing Director of Tourismuszentrale Saarland GmbH

The go-live of the Knowledge Graph represents an important milestone that enables global players and start-ups to use the data and create invaluable use cases. It will allow us to make Destination Saarland more visible online, and it will encourage our partners to continue to manage and improve their data, and to make it available. The final point is particularly important to us, as this will enable us to meet the growing expectations people have of digital offerings by leveraging the power of AI applications, for example.

Veronika Hiebl, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing Gesellschaft Sachsen mbH

“Tourism is undergoing constant change brought on by the digital transformation. Data is the gold of our times, and AI applications are the key technology in mining and refining it. Working in partnership with the destinations in Saxony, we have created a platform for innovative data management in the shape of SaTourN (Sachsen Tourismus Netzwerk), the state-wide digital architecture for tourism data.

The Knowledge Graph is one of the key use cases for SaTourN. We hope the go-live will provide a considerable boost to data management across our region. This is a huge incentive for our partners to categorise their data even better.

We expect the Knowledge Graph to be a big draw for global players, who will use existing and new applications based on the open data to raise Saxony’s profile as a travel destination around the world.”

Dr Robert Franke, Managing Director of Investitions- und Marketinggesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt mbH

The launch of the GNTB’s Knowledge Graph is an important step in preparing the marketing of Germany as a tourism destination for the future, and places the focus on the interests of visitors to Germany. Saxony-Anhalt is part of this network, and the SAiNT open data portal we launched in 2022 provides structured data from our federal state. SAiNT is ready for AI-based assistants and digital visitor management, and appeals to an even broader target group by integrating location data that could potentially be commercially valuable.

Bettina Bunge, Managing Director of Tourismus-Agentur Schleswig-Holstein

“The GNTB’s Knowledge Graph open data project collates, categorises and dynamically links data that is standardised across the region. This makes using data more efficient for our agency too. The graph database is laying the foundation for the development of applications for our visitors and for the tourism industry as a whole. This will lead to an improved travel experience for all. Only by working together will we be able to shape the rapid development of technology, and thus boost the competitiveness of Destination Germany and of Schleswig-Holstein.”

Christoph Gösel, Managing Director of Thüringer Tourismus GmbH

Digital technologies are playing an increasingly important role in the future of tourism in Thuringia. The rapid pace of development and the related change in customer behaviour are requiring us to rethink how we deal with tourism-related content. Data is being generated, stored, analysed and linked with new information on an almost continual basis.

Our Thuringian Content Architecture for Tourism, or ThüCAT for short, was a first step toward managing this, and so it made complete sense for us to contribute our experience and our expertise to the Knowledge Graph project. After all, only by integrating our data into this centralised resource can we work together to drive digital tourism forward, showcase the diversity of our region in innovative ways, provide visitors with customised, up-to-date information and thus hold our own in the global market.

The Knowledge Graph will add real value to the tourism experience in Thuringia and across Germany and help develop tourism on a sustainable basis. Let us harness the potential of the digital revolution and use these innovative technologies to position Thuringia and all other federal states as attractive places to visit.

6. Next steps

I cannot stress highly enough that today’s launch should be seen as a milestone in our digital journey, not the end point. The associated technological leap will enable us to open up more and more content-based dialogues with the guest at increasing numbers of touchpoints.

To achieve this, we have set out key tasks for the GNTB over the coming weeks and months. And we are not alone. Many tourism partners have also recognised the opportunities and challenges presented by the project and are forging concrete plans for their own next steps.

I am pleased to be able to share with you here some of the initiatives that are planned and what they will be doing with the data.

Meanwhile, we at the GNTB will be redoubling our efforts on the data distribution side by building and expanding contacts to potential data users.

Rail services are also planning to provide data for the Knowledge Graph, which will help others to improve their services along the customer journey. And by promoting train travel as a climate-friendly transport option, we are clearly addressing the need to make tourism in Destination Germany more sustainable.

We will also be using data from the Knowledge Graph to train our AI-assisted chatbot Anja at www.germany.travel.

7. A look ahead to the future

The Knowledge Graph facilitates a level of innovation that extends far beyond the day-to-day business of the tourism industry. Among other things, this is drawing back the curtain on the increasingly close relationship between a destination’s appeal from a tourism perspective and its appeal as a centre of commerce and industry. In an increasingly agile and mobile world of work, digital nomads are already leading the way here.

On the academia and research side, open data and the interoperability of the data model will allow stakeholders to use tourism data to develop and implement visitor management systems. This data is also a boon for the design of smart cities. We are already engaged in intensive dialogue at various levels, and the networks we are building to this end are growing steadily in both reach and granularity. Going forward, we will need to engage in closer dialogue with representatives from academia and with others such as the chambers of industry and commerce in order to initiate appropriate training programmes and set up research projects.

The question of data sovereignty is often brought up in this context. Here too, the Open Data project can be seen as a positive development. After all, the destinations and service providers at the various levels retain control over their own data and content and can still use it for their own purposes. They decide how the data is collected, stored, processed and used. This gives them greater autonomy over the delivery of services and/or offerings that are based on their data and over the visibility of their own products and services.

The portability of the data is a closely related topic. Having an independent data management tool means that data can be transferred much more easily between different systems, platforms and applications. The destinations are therefore able to move their data from one service provider or product vendor to another or to put it to use in other spaces, such as smart city projects, without loss or restriction. This gives them the freedom to choose service providers and distribution channels that will make best use of their data in related areas and prevent them from becoming overly reliant on individual providers. It will also be important to link up with the many digital projects at European Level such as the European Data Space for Tourism (DATES).

Technological innovations in data management go hand in hand with criteria such as data protection, data sovereignty, data ethics and data culture. The launch of the Open Data/Knowledge Graph project is a milestone in making international tourism – and therefore inbound tourism to Germany – sustainable, competitive and fit for the future.

The regional marketing organisations are also telling us about projects that make specific use of the Knowledge Graph and that are set to be implemented over the course of this year. Here are some examples from our project partners in the federal states:

Bavaria
Barbara Radomski, Managing Director of Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH

“We will soon have access to a range of sensor data that can deliver real-time information about capacity utilisation and facilitate forecasts. We are also working on attractive modules, covering aspects such as winter sports and events, that will enable us to offer our guests the best possible information. Services via BayernCloud Tourismus, including widgets that provide a website construction kit and a bespoke app, will add value by making the best use of the available information.”

Baden-Württemberg
Andreas Braun, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing GmbH Baden-Württemberg

“We are currently looking at how AI can simplify data management in our mein.toubiz system, and are continuing our training programme of webinars, discussions and specialist seminars on legal matters. We hope this will dispel any doubts, enable us to keep any barriers to adoption to a minimum and encourage those responsible for data to make it available. One way of achieving this is by including topics that are relevant and current in our database, such as mobility, sustainability and accessibility.”

Hessen
Herbert Lang, Head of Tourism, HA Hessen Agentur GmbH

“This year, we will be rolling out our content hub as part of the modular Tourismus-Hub Hessen, a central database for all non-bookable tourism information from Hessen’s ten main destinations. The technology allows the various players to collate and link tourism-related data, such as content on points of interest, places to visit and places to eat, and make it available in one central location. Data from across Hessen is pooled in the content hub, either by entering it directly or via an interface with an existing destination database system. The graph-based database allows for the information to be passed on to the GNTB’s Knowledge Graph.”

Lower Saxony
Meike Zumbrock, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing Niedersachsen GmbH

“We plan to link more databases – including TOMAS for accommodation providers, plus experiences and guided tours – in order to expand our range of data. We are also looking into linking open-data content from the Niedersachsen Hub via the Knowledge Graph with data sets that are not directly related to tourism, such as traffic and infrastructure data, real-time geo data, public transport timetable information, parking space availability, POI capacity, information on nature conservation areas, real-time water quality and levels, air quality and more. This will establish the Knowledge Graph as the central repository for tourism-related open-data content in Germany, and enable many useful applications that offer added value for visitors.”

North Rhine-Westphalia
Dr Heike Döll-König, Managing Director of Tourismus NRW e.V.

“We aim to improve the quality of the data in the Data Hub NRW by the end of the year by adopting the standards of the Open Data Tourism Alliance and tightening our quality criteria. Working with data users, we will identify new use cases and develop innovative solutions. We will also press ahead with skills training in order to promote a broad data mindset across the North Rhine-Westphalia tourism landscape. Adding sustainable travel experiences and transport options will also allow us to further customise and expand our tourism offering.”

Saxony
Veronika Hiebl, Managing Director of Tourismus Marketing Gesellschaft Sachsen mbH

“We have launched a new ‘Open Data Offensive’ format with our DMOs to support the transfer of knowledge and the implementation in collaboration with data managers across Saxony. The two-hour webinar was launched in May as a joint event with Tourismusverband Erzgebirge, and we now plan to roll it out to other regions in Saxony.

We are also working on expanding the stationary and mobile use cases for our SaTourN system. In May, two further output channels from Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH were added to SaTourN, the state-wide digital architecture for tourism data in Saxony. These two digital information terminals and a number of displays in Leipzig’s main train station and the refurbished tourist information office provide travellers with recommendations and information on places of interest, offers and events for their stay in Leipzig. The data relating to Leipzig is delivered to a progressive web app via the SaTourN system and displayed in German and English at the information points and on the displays.”

Thuringia
Christoph Gösel, Managing Director of Thüringer Tourismus GmbH

“With the help of funding from Thuringia’s State Chancellery, we have established three interactive digital exhibitions – one in Weimar, one at Wartburg Castle and one as part of the German National Garden Show in Erfurt – to provide information about leisure activities in Thuringia. The exhibitions use data from ThüCat and thematic links to promote Thuringia’s tourism hotspots in an engaging way. They have been designed to inspire visitors and locals to explore more of Thuringia. After its stint at the German National Garden Show, the exhibition in Erfurt will move to Altenburg. The modular construction of the stands ensures that their use is sustainable.”

International

As a member of the Open Data Tourism Alliance (ODTA), the GNTB is stepping up its international dialogue aimed at developing further common tourism data standards. Three national tourist organisations and 20 partners at federal level are already on board.

The ODTA uses the experiences we have gained from our use cases, among other things, in its work on data ontology. This ensures that the data standards needed in tourism are continuously refined and submitted to the schema.org consortium by the ODTA.

8. Conclusion

The delivery of the Open Data/Knowledge Graph project is of huge significance from a political, economic and technological perspective, and also in respect of more sustainable forms of tourism.

We have put ourselves on the right track for the future with our launch today. It is now a question of gaining momentum so that Destination Germany can continue to stand strong in the international market for many years to come.