How an entire region is going digital

The "Free Holiday Republic of Saas-Fee" is considered a top ski destination in Switzerland and offers sporty, family-friendly and adventurous vacation experiences in four regions (Saas-Fee, Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen) with around 700 service providers (hotels, restaurants, vacation apartments, ski schools, cable cars, etc.). The digital transformation presents the Free Holiday Republic of Saas-Fee with new challenges in terms of research and booking processes for vacation apartments. Thus, the region had to forfeit a 400,000 overnight stays. 40 percent of the vacation apartments were not bookable online. In addition, the target group is always difficult to reach offline. Therefore, Saastal Marketing AG acted and developed a strategy in cooperation.The technical solutionThe central element of the digital strategy is the website. This must be both responsive and multilingual. The solution sought was a system that would work for all service providers. The decision was made in favor of a cloud solution from Facelift. All 700 service providers can control their digital activities via this solution. All channels, i.e. the websites, mobile apps, stores, CRMs and social media, run via it. Two steps were crucial for smooth operation:1. One login for all systemsAn Open ID interface was created for this purpose. This enables users to log into their portal with a one-time registration and use the cloud at the same time.2. User data in real timeA module of the cloud enables the creation of interactive landing pages for publication on the web or on social media without any technical background. Sweepstakes, voting or contests are particularly popular. The aim is to create interaction-promoting measures without external resources and thus to draw the attention of the target group to one's own offer. The decisive factor here is that user data is collected as part of the campaigns.Better positioning with new activitiesIn addition to a new solution, other measures are to take place to position the region more attractively.