(Photo: Archive TVV/S. Theil) Advertisement
Auerbach. From May 1, 2023 to May 20, 2024, a nationwide guest survey was carried out on behalf of Thüringer Tourismus GmbH (TTG), which included the Vogtland travel region as a cross-border destination with both the Thuringian and the Saxon parts. The company Benchmark Services, which has many years of experience in this field and has carried out extensive measures to ensure data quality, was commissioned to implement the survey.
Overnight guests aged 15 and over who spent a privately motivated tourist stay in the region between January 1st, 2023 and May 20th, 2024 were surveyed. The written survey was carried out using online and print questionnaires and extensively promoted by the Vogtland Tourism Association (TVV) with the support of the Vogtland tourist information offices and hosts. The aim was to create a nationwide data pool of guest feedback that offers players at all levels of tourism an up-to-date basis for decisions and new ideas in tourism as well as important insights for offer development and marketing. Detailed results of the nationwide survey can be found in the Thuringia Tourism Network.
463 respondents took part with a balanced spatial distribution from the Thuringian and Saxon Vogtland, which exceeded the target value of 400 by 15% to ensure representativeness. 96.9% of the guests surveyed who were on holiday in Vogtland live in Germany. 45% of those surveyed come from Saxony or Thuringia, which reflects the ongoing trend towards vacationing in their own (federal) state. At 59%, Vogtland has the highest proportion of guests from the new federal states compared to all other Thuringian destinations. The Vogtland has a high proportion of new customers (25.7% who were here for the first time) and at the same time many repeat visitors (39.5%) who come here regularly every 1 – 2 years or even several times a year. Nationwide, Vogtland has the highest proportion of families (29.2%) as guests. In terms of length of stay, short trips dominate (46.2% with 1 – 3 nights); the average length of stay is 5.6 days, which is slightly above the Thuringia average (5 days). The Vogtland region is perceived as particularly close to nature, varied, authentic and friendly and, compared to other destinations, as particularly cozy and well-kept.
The three most frequently mentioned travel motivations for the region were rest/relaxation, being in nature and spending time together. The most important activity is hiking, and family-friendly and wellness/health tourism offers are also being increasingly noticed.
When it came to travel inspiration, the Internet and relatives/acquaintances were mentioned particularly frequently (33.9% and 31.6%). Similar high values can be seen for travel information before departure, where the websites of the holiday destination and the region are in the first two places (43.6% and 40.4%), followed by relatives/acquaintances (32.7%) and the Property website (31.3%). Accordingly, the association’s marketing measures, which are already highly digitally oriented, will be further expanded, partners’ digitalization measures will be supported and innovative options for recommendation marketing will be developed. Almost ⅔ of guests book their vacation in Vogtland directly with the host (65.8%) or on online booking platforms (26.7%). Increasing the online discoverability and online bookability of hosts remains an important focus.
In Vogtland, 33.9% of holiday guests stay in holiday homes/holiday apartments, which is more than twice as much as in Thuringia as a whole, while 24.4% stay in hotels, almost half of the Thuringia average, which reflects the accommodation structure of the rural area reflects. The guests surveyed were also asked about the attractions they visited and, fortunately, Vogtland attractions, such as the Zeulenrodaer Meer or the Klingenthal ski jump, took places 2 to 5 and are therefore located directly behind the Krämerbrücke Erfurt.
Significant offer factors were rated excellent on average on a scale of 1 to 6 and are well above the national average, e.g. hospitality (1.5), price/performance (1.8), offers for families (1.8), intact landscape and Nature (1.7) and bad weather conditions (2.2). For these five supply factors, Vogtland achieved the best results in the country. The assessment of satisfaction with the leisure activities provided a similarly pleasing result. The region even achieved top marks in six categories: nature and landscape experience (1.2), swimming pools/thermal baths (1.6), natural bathing opportunities (1.5), leisure/adventure facilities (1.4), playgrounds (1 .5) and drama/cabaret (1.5). These strengths should be further expanded and used primarily in guest communication. Weak points, ie factors with the lowest level of satisfaction, became apparent, such as mobility offerings, missing/too few vegetarian/vegan food offerings and missing cycle paths, which should be taken up in dialogue with tourism service providers in future product development. When evaluating the accommodations, the results were in a good range, cleanliness was rated best (1.4), while design/ambience scored the lowest at 1.8, all of which are slightly above the national average. The catering offering was also assessed and is also in the good range, with cleanliness rated the best (1.6) while the opening times were rated at the lower level at 2.4 and are therefore below the national average.
In summary, there is a very positive result for the Vogtland travel region, as overall satisfaction (1.6), intention to visit again (1.6) and likelihood of recommendation (1.4) received excellent ratings. From the detailed survey results, the tourism association derives various starting points for practical work in the region. District Administrator Thomas Hennig, Chairman of the Vogtland Tourism Association, is very pleased with this positive assessment from the guests and would like to thank the entire Vogtland tourism family for this outstanding achievement. These results are an optimistic signal for cross-border tourism in the Thuringian and Saxon Vogtland and emphasize the good conditions for the successful further development of the travel region.
Contact:
Vogtland Tourism Association
Göltzschtalstraße 16
08209 Auerbach
Telephone: 03744 18886-0
[email protected]
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