Wilder Kaiser, Austria, has been recognised as a best practice by the Sustainable EU Tourism project for its attractive working environment and promotion of young talent. 

The widespread shortage of skilled workers in the tourism industry challenges the quality of tourism products and services and has pushed destinations to find long-term solutions. After an unsuccessful attempt with a recruiting coach (2019-2022) to support companies in recruiting staff, the DMO pursued two strategic approaches that proved to be effective: 

1. creating an attractive working environment, with the focus on employee retention rather than constantly hiring new seasonal employees;
2. promoting young talents to become tourism professionals in the region through information and education. 

Among the measures, they founded the employee community “Happy Working Family” to build a stable social network of employees, developed a training and continuing education programme and a job platform, and organised one-day onboarding and offboarding events for interns. 

The case of Wilder Kaiser demonstrates how destinations can successfully make their tourism working environment more attractive by adopting sustainable strategic solutions. For more details on the key challenges the destination has faced and the solutions implemented to address them, please refer to the attached document.