From Competition to Collaboration: Building a WE destination

Moder’s Destination functionality enables different operators using the platform to connect inventory and cross-sell each other’s products. In practice, that means technology can start reducing the distance between businesses, not only between systems.

And in our opinion that matters.

There are good lessons to be found elsewhere. On Svalbard, Visit Svalbard has worked for years to bring the destination together, giving visitors access to bookable experiences from local providers through a common destination platform. The underlying idea is important: make Svalbard easier to buy as one destination, while allowing the individual businesses to remain individual businesses.

Iceland provides another interesting example. Bókun was born there during a period of enormous growth in Icelandic tourism. A central part of its model became connectivity between operators, resellers and experiences, allowing for businesses to distribute and cross-sell rather than remain isolated booking islands. Different destinations. Different systems. But I think there is a common lesson.

The future competition isn’t necessarily Trasti & Trine versus the company down the road.

Alta is competing with Svalbard, Iceland, Finnish Lapland, Norway and with entirely different choices for people’s limited time and money. Perhaps three days in the Arctic versus several weeks somewhere else in the world. That changes the perspective.

If another operator delivers an extraordinary experience in Alta, that strengthens Alta.
If our guest stays another night because we can easily connect them with someone else’s experience, everybody wins. And if another hotel or activity provider can sell something we do particularly well, the same principle applies in reverse.

We still need healthy competition to keep growing and evolving. We should challenge each other on quality, creativity and value. But behind that competition, we need a stronger WE destination. More connected businesses. More cross-selling. Better utilisation of what already exists. Fewer barriers for the guest. And ultimately a destination that is easier to understand, easier to book and easier to experience.

Technology alone won’t create collaboration. But, perhaps technology such as Moder can remove some of the distance that has historically made collaboration unnecessarily difficult.

That is a development I believe Alta should explore.