Zug / Bern, 19.07.2023. Away from the big tourist crowds, the Swiss region of Zug has a name above all as a business location in the top international league. In addition to business travellers, Zug's tourism managers want to increase hotel occupancy at weekends and encourage holidaymakers to stay longer. Zug Tourism is striving to be the first tourism organisation in Switzerland to cooperate with the ticket app FAIRTIQ and introduce a digital guest card.
Overnight guests receive the "ZugCard" from their host from the first night. It offers discounted access to attractive leisure activities in the region and in the future will enable the free use of public transport. The offer is financed primarily by the visitor's tax which has been increased to two francs.
Pilot project for the Zug Guest Card
"In order to be able to secure the financing of a free public transport service as part of the guest card, we need a meaningful calculation for the negotiations with the Zug transport companies," says Joel de Buren, Head of Marketing at Zug Tourism.
What the tourism experts want to know is: How often, when and where is the "ZugCard" used for journeys on boats, (mountain) trains and buses in the canton?
The answer to this question is within the precise data on user behaviour. FAIRTIQ can provide this anonymised data with its check-in/check-out technology - and at the same time enable guests to travel easily, spontaneously, without cash or paper in the holiday region. "Thanks to the exact recording of journeys by the FAIRTIQ app, Zug Tourism can analyse the use of public transport by guests - naturally in compliance with data protection regulations and without being able to draw conclusions about individual people," says Bruno Rohner from the FAIRTIQ team.
Six hosts in the Zug region are taking part in the pilot phase, including the Parkhotel Zug and City Garden Hotel Zug, both in the 4-star superior segment, which with their approximately 400 rooms account for almost half of the overnight accommodation capacity in the city of Zug.
Personal codes for the free ride
FAIRTIQ provides the participating businesses with personal promo codes that are entered by the "ZugCard" guests into the FAIRTIQ app. "Once guests have entered the code into the app, all journeys within the Zug tariff association and on Lake Zug and Lake Aegeri are automatically registered and charged to Zug Tourism - passengers travel for free," Rohner explains the concept. If guests travelling with "ZugCard" leave the tariff area, they will be treated like any other FAIRTIQ user and be charged the best fare for their journey.
Strengthening the Zug brand with automatic ticketing
Currently, overnight guests stay in Zug for an average of 2.36 nights. The goal of the new tourism strategy is that by 2025, this number should increase to 2.5. The digital guest card solution via the FAIRTIQ app will contribute to this. "Guests can thus experience the attractions of the Zug region without worrying about fare zones and fares," says Rohner.
July 19, 2023
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