Discover how Visit Düsseldorf use data and content to personalise visitor experiences and turn events into catalysts for accessibility improvements.
Explore how Visit Düsseldorf, the city's tourism organisation, leverages large-scale events to create a lasting impact. Discover how they use data and content to personalise visitor experiences and turn events like the Invictus Games into catalysts for accessibility improvements.
Explore how Visit Düsseldorf, the city's tourism organisation, leverages large-scale events to create a lasting impact. Discover how they use data and content to personalise visitor experiences and turn events like the Invictus Games into catalysts for accessibility improvements.
Franziska Sunderland, Data and Content Manager at Visit Düsseldorf, unveiled the strategies used by the DMO to leverage large-scale events.
Visit Düsseldorf serves as the city's official tourism organisation, promoting Düsseldorf as a destination both domestically and internationally. In close collaboration with local, regional, national and international partners, it presents the destination effectively in relevant source markets through up-to-date travel event information.
Düsseldorf is conveniently located, with one of the major pull factors for visiting the city being its impressive connectivity - a 1 hour flight from all the major German cities and within 2 hours of most major European cities. Its location is a unique selling point, especially when marketing large-scale events.
2023 was a successful year for the tourism industry in Düsseldorf. Overnight stays hit a record high, reaching 5,412,525 - an increase of 8.2% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Although the main market is the domestic market, Düsseldorf is now seeing a slow but steady rise in international visitors, specifically from the Netherlands, the UK and the US. Notably, the MICE sector comprises approximately 10% of visitors and has a higher contribution to spending within the destination. This is perhaps unsurprising with Germany being one of the major MICE destinations in the world.
Diversity is key to having a well-rounded events programme. Until 2022, Visit Düsseldorf organised large-scale events, such as Japan Day and the Christmas Market. However, the municipality is now in charge of organising regular events, with Visit Düsseldorf focused on improving communication with visitors about events and developing thematic tours and offers.
Visit Düsseldorf aspires for its events to have a strong legacy, focused on three major pillars:
Düsseldorf's regular event calendar offers a variety of cultural events. For example, 'Carnival' celebrates local traditions with a procession through the city. Similarly, leveraging its status as Europe's third-largest Japanese community, Düsseldorf also hosts the annual Japan Day, attracting 650,000 visitors. The Christmas Market also brings together local vendors and attracts international visitors, with over 230 bus tour operators transporting visitors from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.
Additionally, trade fairs and conventions focused on niche audiences offer a direct approach to specific target groups and share tailored experiences. For instance, DoKomi, a cosplay event focused on manga and anime, attracted 150,000 attendees.
Alongside regular events, Visit Düsseldorf prides itself on hosting special events. Among notable previous events used to leverage data and visitor habits, there has been:
UEFA Euro 2024 is one of the major large-scale events in Düsseldorf and throughout Germany and gives football fans the experience of local life and tourist attractions within walking distance. Despite not being the organiser for the UEFA Euro 2024 games, Visit Düsseldorf has a strong influence in communicating the event, working in tandem with the other 9 German cities taking part. Visit Düsseldorf's website serves as a central hub, offering high-quality information on accommodation, restaurants and even unique camping options, catering to diverse visitor preferences.
The city focuses on two key areas: infrastructure support and local engagement. A key initiative is promoting sustainable transportation options such as encouraging public transport use to reduce car traffic, with branding strategically placed on these vehicles to further promote their use. Visit Düsseldorf actively involves locals in UEFA Euro 2024 by encouraging them to become volunteers for the event and city-wide programmes.
Looking ahead, Visit Düsseldorf will further solidify its position as a major sporting event host by welcoming the FISU World University Games in 2025, one of the largest sporting events worldwide.
Visit Düsseldorf's strategy acknowledges the importance of the synergy between data and content. Content, such as descriptions and restaurant names, is a key component of its structured data. This data is combined with insights gathered from visitor data, informing decisions around content publication.
The 'Letting Fate Decide - Inspiration Düsseldorf' campaign is a prime example of this data-driven approach. This initiative uses analogue cards with a gamified element, giving visitors the flexibility to personalise their journey and giving them real added value for their city trip and also serving as memories.
Additionally, Visit Düsseldorf places a high value on open data. It believes in making its structured data readily available for integration into other platforms and apps, further enriching the visitor experience.
Visit Düsseldorf saw the value of Generative AI and has integrated it into its website, through a chatbot providing 24/7 support. As the AI constantly analyses the questions asked and integrates the results back into the website interface, Visit Düsseldorf was able to leverage the data once again to improve the visitor experience. The DMO demonstrated how it used AI to create a perpetually evolving stream of fresh content.
Franziska Sunderland is currently the Data & Content Manager with Visit Düsseldorf, where she is continuously pushing towards a digital and data driven future whilst remaining in touch with reality. In this role she attempts to combine inspiring destination marketing with the ability to analyse the data derived there from.
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Designed to teach you how to master must-have tools and acquire essential skills to succeed in managing your destination or organisation, be ready to challenge all of your assumptions.
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