Mair extends contract: Black Forest tourism to the next chapter!

Mair extends contract: Black Forest tourism to the next chapter!

Hansjörg Mair remains managing director of Schwarzwald Tourismus GmbH (StG) for another six years. Since its takeover of the post in September 2017, Mair has made a decisive contribution to developing the Black Forest as an attractive travel destination. Under his leadership, the STG implemented innovative marketing strategies and focused on topics such as internationality and digitization. With its contract extension, the success story of the region is to be continued and the position of the Black Forest as a top tourism region in Europe is to be strengthened, such as Black Forest-Aktuell reported.

Among the projects that Mair initiated are the "Competence Center Tourism in the Black Forest", the Kuck-Kuck campaign to revitalize tourism after pandemic and the culinary Black Forest Award "Kuckuck". The Architecture Route Black Forest and the "Black Forest Sneaker Collection" are also part of the Agenda in cooperation with Puma. Digital projects such as the Black Forest Marie, a AI-based service offer, were also realized under his leadership.

tourism figures and developments

The region recorded a pleasant recovery in tourism in 2022. From January to November, around 7.5 million guests were counted in the Black Forest, which means an increase of 61 percent compared to the previous year. The number of overnight stays climbed by 42.5 percent to around 20.1 million. However, these positive developments could not hide the fact that the numbers are still below the level before the pandemic, such as LifePr reported.

The increase in foreign guests was particularly striking, who, with around 4.3 million overnight stays, recorded more than twice as many as in the previous year. Almost 91 percent of overnight stays from abroad come from Europe, with Switzerland as the largest market share of 34.9 percent. Domestic guests have booked around 15.75 million overnight stays in the same period, which corresponds to an increase of 31.1 percent.

challenges for the industry

Despite these positive numbers, there are challenges. Many companies fight with shortened opening times and closures due to lack of employees. The industry in particular is under pressure on the training and promotion of the staff. The Black Forest Award Kuckuck 2023 is awarded to a company that is particularly important for this important task. Managing Director Mair is optimistic for 2023, but sees the need to make the added value from tourism usable for the region to ensure long -term stability and growth of the sector.

Overall, the current developments in the Black Forest offer both opportunities and challenges, whereby the renewed contract extension of Hansjörg Mair can be seen as a sign of continuity and engagement for the future of the region.