1. DANTE transnational German-Dutch Project
Workshop 2, 4. July 2012
Landsichten.de –
An innovative marketing tool for medium-
sized hosts in rural areas
Inken Garbe
Federal Labour Society for farm holiday and tourism in rural areas of
Germany e.V.
garbe@landsichten.de, Tel. 030 / 28 44 41 19-0

2. Structure
► Starting point
► Farm holiday one current trend
► Situation for hosts
► Development of Landsichten
► Starting point
► Reasons for a new system
► How does Landsichten work?
► Advantages for hosts
► Advantages for guests

3. Farm holiday one of the current trends-
An analysis of travel business by BMELV
2011
(May 2010-May 2011)
► 6% of all domestic travels are farm holidays (in a broader sense)
► 4,5 million guests with 5,1 million farm holidays in Germany
► About 24,4 million overnight stays
► Every second farm holiday is a short stay (max. 4 days)
► Average payment for bed and board 33,50 Euro per person and day

4. Farm holiday one of the current trends-
An analysis of travel business by BMELV
2011
(May 2010-May 2011)
► The average guest of farm holiday:
► 41 years old
► Has Abitur and university graduation
► Net income of 2.666 Euro
► Farm holiday-makers (especially of short holidays) are compared to the
total population often male (61 %)
► 1/3 of farm holidays with children; seniors have the longest stays
(average stay of 7,1 days)
► Federal state of origin: most are from North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria
or Baden-Württemberg
► Some are from Brandenburg and Schleswig- Holstein (travel in their
own federal state?)

5. Growth potential and special wishes of the
guests
Activities:
► 1. Animals (cows, cowshed, pigs,…)
Family holiday
2. Enjoy regional specialities
► Relaxation holiday 3. Walking
► Beach holiday 4. Shopping in farm stores
► Natural holiday 5. Swimming in lakes/ sea
► 6. Natural attractions
Health holiday
7. Cycling
8. Barbecue, campfire
9. Sauna
10. Health offers
11. Driving tractors, doing farm work
12. Sledging
13. Beauty/ Wellness
14. Cultural and historic sights
15. Organized meetings with locals
16. Festivals and other happenings (rifle club
festival, farmer`s market)

6. Situation of the hosts
► Federal Labour Society for farm holiday and tourism in rural areas of
Germany e.V. holds a seasonal survey every year to analyze the level
of the farm accommodation`s occupancy and the contentedness of the
hosts

7. Average occupancy of the holiday flats
and cottages
Belegungstage
► Half of all farms had a occupancy of more than 160 days per year. Clear
growth in high occupancy segments

8. Average occupancy compared to last year
► 44 % of all farms are running better or much better to capacity, 44%
have a stable capacity.

9. Development of the average days of
occupancy (mean values)
Holiday flats/ cottages
guestrooms
► The average days of occupancy show a positive development since starting the
survey.

10. Seasonal occupancy of 2006 to 2011
Easter Whitsuntide Summer Autumn Intermediate
Christmas, Winter
holiday holiday holiday season
New Year`s holiday
Eve
► Especially the travel periods at Easter and Whitsuntide show the
positively developed occupancy and the constant increase

11. Development of Landsichten

12. Starting point
► Federal Labour Society as the holding association with 12 federal
state associations
► 5.000 characteristic hosts in rural areas (holiday farms, wine-grower
farms, riding farms, hay inns, country hotels)
► Well linked in rural areas by sponsor members

13. Starting point
► Marketing of hosts only by federal state associations (online and
offline)
► 12 different catalogues
► 12 independent databases and internet portals
(different technical standards)
► the Federal Labour Society concentrates on:
► Linking to internet portals of the federal state associations
► Passing on the requests of catalogues (online/ offline)
► Little synergy in the cooperation of the federal state associations

14. Pressure of acting
► High pressure of innovation in online marketing
► High need for investment in professional databases and internet
solutions (independent of the number of hosts)
► Heterogeneous stucure of hosts and commitment to members
► Marketing of tourism in rural areas has to be refered to a topic;
destination is (more or less) second-rate; federal state often unimportant
for guests
► Perceptible from catalogue requests
► Consequence: purely federal state specific marketing of land tourism
leaves high potentials unused

15. Catalogue requests (example: North
Germany)
Distribution of combination of incoming requests
„Sea or Lower Saxony
mountain“
60% search for
destinations by
themes (throughout
all federal states!) Only 40 %
determined to
„Sea“
one federal
state
Mecklenburg-
West
„Baltic Sea“ „North Sea“ Pomerania

16. Decision in 2009/10
► Time for online marketing initiative throughout the whole of
Germany instead of ealier work on federal state level
► Carried together by all federal state associations
► common database, common technology
► Clear allocation of tasks: federal state associations remain only
contact partner for members
► Make a search for accommodation throughout all federal states
possible and save regional identity of the hosts as well as of the
federal state associations
► Let (hopefully all) hosts be able to use the most modern
technologies (online marketing, host management)

17. The project Landsichten
► 2010 founding of Landtourismus Marketing GmbH for the development
and the running of the homepage www.landsichten.de
► Together with the German farmer`s association as the 2. shareholder
► Online-start in June 2011
► Now: about 2650 hosts!

18. How does landsichten work?
1 Federal Republic of Germany and 12 federal state
homepages

19. Lower Saxony – front page

20. Brandenburg – front page

21. Bavaria – front page

22. Principle of the Landsichten network
► Host gets one firm contact partner of his federal state association for
all technical questions, incl. consultation and education
► The host is marketed on Germany- and his federal state homepage of
Landsichten.de
► On request also marketing in more distribution channels (federal
marketing organization, regional platforms, commercial holiday flat
portals – bestfewo.de, Casamundo.de) – without extra data
management!

23. Principle of the Landsichten network
► Subdivision of the Landsichten homepage into topics and natural
landscapes (also throughout all federal states)
► Broad search possibilities based on a detailed data base (about 500
features)
► Host not only gets a marketing platform, but also a solution of
organization especially for small and medium-sized firms, that gives
additional benefit and makes daily work easier .

24. Subdivision into regions

25. Subdivision into topics

26. Service for all hosts
► Optimal presentation on the internet (basic pay scale)
► independent data management in password-saved login rooms
► Pictures, texts, calendar of occupancy, prices, features, location,...
► On request: online-booking and and use of more distribution
channels without extra data care
► Additional option: „free of care- packet“ (premium pay scale)
► Guest administration software
► Newsletter-dispatch
► Homepage- construction set
► Calendar of occupancy linked on own homepage
► Consultation, education, manual, ...

27. Clearly structured hit list

28. Search for host with special features
possible
► Every firm is in categories of different features (all together 500 features
in the database)
► Creterions can be filtered – flexible hit list for each input
► example: Type of farms, living units, catering, classification, location,
furnishings, attractions for children, service for guests…
► Special creterions for main topics: children, riding, wine…

29. Searching the ideal farm – for
individualists

30. Optimal presentation in the host entry

31. Login area as a control centre:
paste pictures and texts

32. Login area as a control centre :
put bookings into the occupancy calendar

33. Online booking - Channelmanagement

34. Newsletter dispatch to regular customers

35. Newsletter dispatch to regular customers

36. Construct the homepage

37. Construct the homepage

38. Construct the homepage

39. Outview – future challenges
► Perception of daily offers, popular destinations, farm cafés, direct
sellers, tours etc.  possibility of a total planning of the holiday for the
guest
► Increase synergies, avoid doubled work  improve internal structures
► Competition with federal marketing organizations political lobbyism
► Decrease of public development funds  reaching for financial stability
► Structural change in agriculture and rural areas  qualification, develop
new target groups

40. Thank you for your attention