Strong network, strong brand, strong stories

While 2020 at LFT was all about content innovations, this year will without a doubt focus on expanding the digital operational framework. A strong (digital) network, a strong brand and numerous powerful stories should contribute to offering new perspectives for the Luxembourg tourism sector in the near future.

A starting point is the national tourism brand’s new (and first) brand book. It defines a new directional impetus through which LFT hopes to bring people from all over the world closer to unique, multi-faceted Luxembourg in the future. More emotions, more authenticity, more Luci Spirit. The pandemic has shown us how important it is to view tourism marketing and destination management from a more homely perspective, with importance placed on local life and attitudes.

A leap of faith for the destination Luxembourg

Thanks to its close links with lifestyle and consumer topics, tourism is set to provide impetus as a future-shaper. New forms of work and travel require tailored concepts in both the travel offer and marketing. However, the crisis has also proven that some things remain constant: brand studies have revealed that Luxembourg as a destination, with its Visit Luxembourg tourism brand, is crisis-resistant. Customers view Luxembourg positively in terms of safety and trust – two important criteria when deciding where to go on holiday. Therefore, any subsequent value orientation should also serve as a basis for future market orientation.

In 2021, LFT will continue working on new perspectives for tourism in Luxembourg, highlighting development pathways and encouraging people to see the “boundaries” of tourism in a new light. This all results in new encounters: above all, people and places should enjoy new connections through fresh stories and digital innovations.

Collaborative possibilities for partners

The Covid crisis has served as a booster for innovation and for accepting global digitisation. With this in mind, in 2021 LFT will undertake three major projects that offer real added value. Firstly, a thorough shake-up of the database is planned. LFT’s new open content and service database will gather swathes of relevant tourist data in one place, ensure higher quality and provide partners with endless new possibilities to benefit from LFT’s content in an automated manner. All necessary booking platforms can be linked to the database and displayed on any digital channel. The database is flexible for connected users to operate, and can be expanded in a number of ways.

This database will give rise to LFT’s new national tourism app, the launch of which has already been announced by the Minister and will be available in early summer 2021. In addition to all the functions expected as standard nowadays, the app will include innovative highlights and create new ways for travellers, residents and tourism stakeholders alike to get to know the destination. Then, towards the end of the year, Visitluxembourg.com will come back online as a new, future-proof, digital tourism portal. After nine years, this successful tourism website (with almost 4 million visits in 2020) is in need of an extensive revamp. The future portal’s infrastructure will both inspire users and provide them with all the functions they need to plan a trip seamlessly from the comfort of home.

Brand anchoring and content strategy

Alongside the digital projects, there are two additional project focuses, which should put the knowledge gained from the past year into practice: more firmly anchoring the Visit Luxembourg brand on the market, and drawing up a comprehensive content strategy.

The power of the Visit Luxembourg brand must be brought onto the street and the market. As the national tourism brand, Visit Luxembourg is not only closely linked to the ‘Luxembourg’ brand, but also brings added value through close customer communication relationships with tourism partners. However, this requires values, stories and performance to be aligned. LFT is ready and prepared for enhanced consultation in the future in this regard.

This also involves providing the right information to the right person at the right time. A priority in the development of the new content strategy is to guarantee customer- and value-based communication across all channels. LFT would like 2021 to be the year in which the ‘Story Network’ makes big strides.

Contact:

Dr. Sebastian Reddeker

CEO

Sebastian.Reddeker@lft.lu