Impressions from ADM 2018 (St.Gallen)

The fourth Advances in Destination Management Forum convened 36 international tourism experts from June 12.-15. in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Alongside classic destination marketing and management topics, overtourism and digitalization were key issues discussed throughout the forum. Discussants and an expert panel concluded that digital business models in tourism have been foremost data-driven rather than sustainability-focused to address pressing concerns. While digitalization contributes to a richer landscape of available data, there are still limits as to how data is used and understood to produce actionable advice.