Jennifer Axness
The picturesque four-season town of Bariloche, Argentina is building its path toward travel intelligence with the use of air data provided by Amadeus Market Intelligence™.
SETTING THE SCENE
Well known as the gateway to the vast, pristine Patagonia region of Argentina, Bariloche, located at the foot of the Andes, is often used as a convenient starting point for travelers wishing to explore this spectacularly beautiful area. The landscape is full of forests and lakes, and the delightful culinary experiences make it the perfect destination for adventure travelers. Plus, with the largest ski resort in Latin America, Bariloche is a dream destination for winter sports lovers. Its stunning natural beauty and endless possibilities for recreational activities invite you to discover the magic in every season.
EMPROTUR Bariloche – the abbreviated form of “Ente Mixto de Promoción Turística de San Carlos de Bariloche” – is an organization responsible for the promotion and planning of sustainable tourism in this Andean town. Its responsibilities include promoting the area in domestic and international markets and organizing strategic events such as the chocolate festival, beer festival, snow festival, and gastronomy fair.
“We now have clarity of market conditions and how we can grow our position in the travel ecosystem. With Amadeus as a trusted data partner, we have the opportunity to use insights and data to guide our strategic decisions,” says Martina Gelardi, Emprotur Bariloche.
THE CHALLENGE
Although Bariloche is one of Argentina’s top tourist destinations, EMPROTUR Bariloche faces challenges that Amadeus can assist in overcoming:
Challenges related to seasonality. While winter and summer are its strongest tourism seasons, there is a keen interest in developing a sustainable strategic plan to enhance demand throughout the year.
Changes in traveler type. Travelers’ interests have changed, with booking windows appearing to be getting shorter each year and trips shorter in duration. Travelers often choose to visit more than just one destination within one trip, and they tend to prioritize natural environments more than ever.
Changes in traveler points of origin. The domestic market has been strengthened in recent years while some South American countries have consolidated their interest in traveling to Argentina and Bariloche.
Greater competition from competing destinations. Although Bariloche is a small town with less than 200 thousand inhabitants, it has become a traditional tourist destination and managed to position itself in the market alongside some of the most important tourist cities in Latin America.
THE SOLUTION
As a part of their goal of improving their decision-making processes to be more data-driven, EMPROTUR Bariloche partnered with Amadeus to leverage insights for evaluating marketing strategies and informing strategic planning. They approached Amadeus as a technology partner that might help them answer some important questions, prepare research, and act as an advisor to the organization. By being active users and asking smart questions, EMPROTUR Bariloche started using Amadeus’ comprehensive data and insights to make more data-driven commercial decisions.
In the summer of 2023, EMPROTUR Bariloche turned to Amadeus’ Market Intelligence solution and “Top View” tool to help them understand what was happening in the Bariloche market and in other southern Patagonia cities. Market Intelligence provides a high-level overview of data from Amadeus’ air data sets, which include travel agent air bookings, travel agency air searches, air schedules and capacity, and air traffic data, to show travel trends impacting the Argentinian and Bariloche markets.
Key insights provided by Market Intelligence showed that marketing was geared to domestic travel, despite the fact that there was evidence of many searches and high demand from international markets – primarily the U.S., France, and Germany – for travel to the area. There had been an increase in travel after the pandemic, but much of it had been due to an increase in the number of domestic visitors.
The DMO’s challenge was three-fold: how to increase profitability in the region; how to attract more international visitors; and how to increase airline traffic back to the area. What key insights could Amadeus provide? And how could the DMO use Amadeus’ data to demonstrate to airlines and South American travel organizations that they still had potential to grow as a destination – not just as a winter hot spot, but as a desirable summer destination, too?
RESULTS
Using data provided by Amadeus, EMPROTUR Bariloche is now improving in the process of strategically planning its 2024 promotions. The destination has started to view the market more broadly – including the discovery that collaboration with other destinations can provide an opportunity to attract new visitors – and consider the real performance of competing destinations. Air traffic capacity and demand, city-to-city comparisons, insights on strategic markets, and a better understanding of the conversion rate have all become important metrics in its planning.
The organization is also targeting airlines to increase international flights to the area. Amadeus has helped the DMO know how to approach airlines and travel organizations to say, “Bariloche can be a great travel destination for you, and here’s why.”
EMPROTUR Bariloche is improving communications with tour operators, airlines and tourism agencies, proving to be a better-informed partner by basing their analysis on actual data, provided by a reliable data source, instead of just assumptions. The Amadeus team is dedicated to meeting Bariloche’s needs, encouraging improvement, and providing personalized, Latin America-based customer service support in Spanish.
“Partnering with Amadeus was a step towards better understanding for making smarter decisions. All destinations have limited resources, and Amadeus enables us to be more effective. We can enhance the impact of our actions based on tourism intelligence,” says Diego Piquin, Executive Director of Emprotur Bariloche.
