Team Off-sites: an Opportunity for Destination Growth in the Off-season?
Summary
This ITB Berlin 2026 Deep Dives session examined how team off-sites, workation, and coworkation can drive destination growth during the off-season. The session opened with a keynote by Veronika Engel, Managing Director of CoworkationALPS e.V.
, an interdisciplinary network founded before COVID that brings together accommodations, co-working spaces, and destinations across the alpine region. Engel outlined three distinct but related concepts: workation (combining work and vacation at tourist-relevant locations with work-friendly infrastructure), coworkation (adding a community aspect with temporary working groups), and team co-workation (company-organized trips for teams or departments focused on collaboration, creativity, and common goals). She emphasized that remote work is no longer a trend but infrastructure — 'the new normal' — and that the market remains 'unsorted' after seven to eight years of development, making now the time to establish standards, models, and offerings.
CoworkationALPS is preparing a quality seal and launching a book on the subject in March or April. An ongoing study with a Munich university on regional value creation by coworkation found that accommodations offering workation or coworkation concepts achieve approximately one additional night of stay duration compared to comparable hotels, with benefits including higher year-round occupancy, lower fluctuation than weekend tourism, and diversification beyond classic holiday peaks. Christopher Pomeroy, Global Head of Tourism at Hopscotch Groupe with 30+ years and 50+ destination engagements, framed off-sites as a product born from a 'sociological change in attitudes to work' and argued that every destination strategy requires an endgame, management, and measurement — none of which currently exist for this segment.
He highlighted that most destinations have two chronic pain points — regional spread and seasonal spread — and sees coworkation as a way to 'spread the gain and not the pain.' Christiane Seelgen, VP Business Development at Wiesbaden Congress & Marketing GmbH (located 20 minutes from Frankfurt Airport), described growing corporate demand for intimate, nature-adjacent off-site venues for one- or two-day transformation workshops, with companies explicitly seeking alternatives to traditional hotel meeting rooms. Moderator Frank Grafenstein challenged the panel on whether off-sites genuinely attract new visitors or merely generate repeat visits from existing tourists with different intent, noting accessibility and awareness as the primary barriers for lesser-known regions.
The panel debated the tension between 'communation' (fully offline retreats with no devices) versus digitally connected workations, sustainability trade-offs of off-site travel versus daily commuting, the risk of gentrification of alpine communities from over-tourism, and how to balance resident and visitor needs. Pomeroy closed with a pointed sustainability caution, warning that without measurement, destinations risk 'undressing a saint to dress another' — solving one problem while creating another.
Key Takeaways
- •Remote work is now infrastructure, not a trend. Veronika Engel stated plainly that 'remote work is no longer a trend — it's infrastructure, it's the new normal,' and that workation and coworkation are 'developing into a structural part of the new way and world of work,' shifting the opportunity from niche lifestyle product to mainstream destination strategy.
- •The coworkation market remains unsorted after 7-8 years, making standardization urgent. Engel noted that CoworkationALPS has been working on the topic since 'before COVID, so seven or eight years,' yet definitions and quality standards are still unclear. The association is addressing this with a quality seal, a new book launching March or April, and frameworks for regions to implement consistent offerings.
- •Coworkation accommodations achieve approximately one additional night of stay per booking. An ongoing study by CoworkationALPS in partnership with a Munich university found that hotels offering workation or coworkation concepts record 'about one night more' in average duration compared to comparable non-participating properties, alongside higher year-round occupancy and lower fluctuation than weekend tourism.
- •Every destination strategy for this segment requires an endgame, management, and measurement — which are currently absent. Christopher Pomeroy of Hopscotch Groupe argued that 'any strategy requires an endgame, management will require measurement,' and emphasized that none of these fundamentals are currently in place for the coworkation segment, making investment in data collection a precondition for sustainable growth.
- •Two chronic destination pain points — regional spread and seasonal spread — can be addressed by coworkation. Pomeroy noted that across more than 50 destinations in over 30 years, these two issues recur constantly, and he believes coworkation offers the potential to 'spread the gain and not the pain' by distributing visitors across geography and calendar.
- •Destinations do not necessarily need new infrastructure to enter the coworkation market. Engel highlighted that coworkation 'requires not much but a bit' and can use vacant buildings and existing regional infrastructure without new construction, making it 'really interesting for touristic areas' and especially viable for rural and alpine regions seeking economic diversification.
Transcript
The my sector is under profound transformation. Offsides, covocation and retreats um offers new opportunities. Um we will start with an impulse with a keynote this panel discussion. Um our keynote speaker is a project manager for new work at Rio from Uber Bayion and managing director of cocation Alps. EO cocation Alps is an associ association based network for co-ocation in the Alpine region. Please a warm welcome to Veronica Engel. [applause] >> Thank you Felix and welcome. So my name is Veroni...
