Tourism in Balance: How Destinations Redefine Success

March 5, 202653:0129 views

Summary

This 53-minute panel session at ITB Berlin 2026 explores how European destinations are redefining tourism success by balancing visitor needs against local community wellbeing, ecology, and economic sustainability. Moderated by Dirk Rogl (Travel Commerce GmbH), three case studies are presented from radically different scales.

Bad Hindelang (Bavaria, Germany) — a small alpine municipality of 5,400 residents with 140 sq km spread across six districts at 800–2,600m elevation — generates 1 million overnight stays and 1 million day visitors per year, with tourism accounting for 80% of local value creation. Mayor Dr. Sabine Rödel and Tourism Director Maximilian Hillmeier describe their 'Habited Concept' (Heimatkonzept), developed in 2018 under the brand 'Bat Hindelang 2030'. The strategy emerged from a citizen survey of 3,500 participants and 250 people in working groups. The municipality deliberately stepped OUT of the facilitation process, using an independent moderator so citizens could freely articulate their values. Three goals emerged: (1) protecting the Hindelang Eco Model — an association of 60 mountain farmers cultivating 3,000+ hectares without herbicides, pesticides, or artificial fertilizers, recognized as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2016; (2) sustainable mobility, including the 'Emmy' emission-free electric shuttle launched in 2021, free for guests with app-based virtual stops integrated into local public transport; (3) visitor management to protect the 60% of Hindelang territory within the Allgäu High Alps Nature Reserve. A 'Hindelang Plus' guest card offered by 220 hosts gives visitors access to authentic local experiences, making tourists 'temporary locals' while directly funding local value creation. Bad Hindelang was awarded UN Tourism 'Best Tourism Village' — the first in Germany alongside Schiltach. Rödel is emphatic: 'Tourism without acceptance by the locals won't work.'

Austria's Living Space Concept (Lebensraum-Konzept) is presented by Florian Größwang of TourCert Austria, who led the Austrian Destination Network's 'Living Space Lab' founded two years prior. Austria recorded 157 million overnight stays in 2024 — a record. Globally, the UN World Tourism Organization projects 2+ billion arrivals by 2030. Größwang outlines a framework evolving DMOs from 1.0 (tourist info) → 2.0 (marketing) → 3.0 (process management) → 4.0 (Living Space perspective). Challenges cited include over-tourism at Hallstatt (UNESCO site, 1.2 million annual visitors in a village of 700 inhabitants), public referendums blocking new ski infrastructure in Murau, land-use conflicts in Salzburg, climate-driven decline of low-altitude skiing, and critical labor shortages forcing Alpine huts to close not due to lack of guests but lack of staff. The RAID (Regional Information and Monitoring System) dashboard covers all 2,100 Austrian municipalities with tourism intensity, traffic, and social data. Key insight: DMOs are skilled at outward marketing but lack skills in internal communication, mediation, and conflict resolution with their own residents — new competencies urgently needed.

Palma de Mallorca (Spain), presented by Pedro Homar Oliver (Managing Director, Fundación Turismo Palma de Mallorca 365 — a 50/50 public-private entity he has managed for 13 years), operates at a completely different scale: 6.5 million tourists to Palma annually, 15 million to Mallorca, 20 million to the Balearic Islands overall. Palma has 45,000 licensed tourist beds; Mallorca has 485,000; Balearics total approaching 750,000–800,000 including Airbnb. Palma has 438,000 residents. The data point driving urgency: resident satisfaction with tourism dropped from 71.4% in 2018 to 42% in 2024 — a 29.4 percentage point decline, despite tourist expenditure rising 16%. Oliver attributes this partly to a strategic mistake: repositioning Palma as an 'upscale cosmopolitan' destination raised property values and cost of living, effectively 'colonizing' the city with non-residents and pricing locals out. Measures taken include daily cruise caps, car caps for protected areas, pedestrianization of the city center, and a 20-year-old environmental tax now funding 256 recovery projects (seabed restoration, agricultural landscapes, historic palaces). New initiative for 2025: 'This Is My Palma' — free, resident-only experiences hosted in tourist venues (hotels, museums, restaurants) with the private sector absorbing costs. Monthly neighborhood walking tours led by architects invite residents to critically assess tourism's impact on their neighborhoods, concluding at the main tourism office (Plaça d'Espanya). A second project planned for 2027 will further close the gap between tourist and resident daily life. The session closes with a Q&A including a delegation from Latvia asking for advice on attracting tourism from a position of under-tourism due to proximity to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Key Takeaways

•Resident satisfaction in Palma de Mallorca collapsed from 71.4% in 2018 to 42% in 2024 — a 29.4 percentage point drop — despite tourist expenditure rising 16% in the same period. Pedro Homar Oliver identifies the root cause as a strategic repositioning toward upscale cosmopolitan tourism that drove up the cost of living and effectively displaced residents from their own city.
•Bad Hindelang's tourism economy rests on a rare ecological foundation: 60 mountain farmers cultivating 3,000+ hectares under the Hindelang Eco Model (founded 1986) without any herbicides, pesticides, or artificial fertilizers — recognized as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2016. Rödel argues without the mountain farmers, the tourism would not exist at all.
•Austria recorded a tourism record of 157 million overnight stays in 2024. The UN World Tourism Organization projects over 2 billion global arrivals by 2030 — yet Größwang frames this growth not as a cause for celebration but as the context for urgency in adopting a living space perspective.
•Bad Hindelang's participatory strategy process involved 3,500 residents in a municipal survey and 250 citizens in working groups. Critically, Mayor Rödel says the municipality deliberately stepped out of facilitation: 'We organized it but we didn't have a voice in it at the beginning. We said we have a moderator and the moderator discusses with the citizens what they want.'
•Hallstatt, Austria — a UNESCO World Heritage village of only 700 inhabitants — receives 1.2 million annual visitors, representing one of the starkest over-tourism ratios in Europe. Größwang uses it as a primary example of why Austria needs the Living Space Lab framework.
•Größwang frames balanced tourism as fundamentally a social contract: 'Tourism in balance is a social contract. It's not a technical problem. It's first a political choice but it's also a cultural negotiation.' He argues the core question every destination must answer is: 'What kind of tourism and how much do we want and for whom?'
•Palma's environmental tax — introduced 20 years ago — is now funding 256 active restoration projects including seabed recuperation, agricultural landscape recovery, and historically protected palace restorations. Both tourists and residents pay this tax. Oliver holds it up as a long-term model but notes it alone is insufficient to address the sense-of-belonging deficit.

Transcript

Well, ladies and gentlemen, with our next session, we are diving straight into the heart of destination development, exploring how regions can achieve growth without losing their soul by balancing global reach with local roots. to guide us through these practical approaches and diverse perspectives. Please welcome our session moderator. He's a renowned analyst, a media expert and advisor in travel, transport, and e-commerce. Please welcome Dirk Ro. >> Thank you so much, Julian. a little bit more...