Entrepreneur Korbinian Kohler explains the changing meaning of holidays over time in an interview with Rolf Westermann.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Korbinian Kohler, the desire to travel has returned. People are once again seeking experiences beyond their own four walls. Is tourism a megatrend that will never come to an end?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
I am convinced of it. Human beings have a primal drive to discover the world and gather new impressions. In addition, after the stress of the past two years and the concerns about what lies ahead, the need for recreation is particularly great right now.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Hotels are among the oldest businesses in the world. As early as 705, the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan hotel opened in Japan. Many inns can be found on the list of historic companies. What does that say about this branch of industry?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
When people change their location, they need accommodation and food. From a certain level of civilisation onwards, that happens in an inn and no longer in a field or forest. At least as important is the hotel as a social meeting place, both for strangers and locals. During the Corona lockdowns, this could be observed almost like in a gigantic field experiment. Hotels fulfil an important social function.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
The oldest hotel has belonged to the same family for 1,300 years. How important is continuity, and what significance does family tradition have?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Especially the soft factors of social cohesion can be lived much more convincingly by tradition-rich family hotels. Why do we all prefer to go on holiday to a privately run hotel rather than a chain hotel? Because only there can one feel the personal, the human element.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
People have always travelled for different reasons. In Germany, the first hotels were founded along trade routes and pilgrimage paths. But holidays for everyone are a fairly recent invention. How are holiday trips changing?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
I believe that holiday and leisure travel is becoming increasingly individual and target-group-specific. It is clearly evident that for more and more travellers, nature and sustainability play an enormously important role.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
After destinations such as Rüdesheim and Ruhpolding in the 1960s, for a while the focus was on discovering foreign worlds as cheaply as possible. Are home regions now making a comeback?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Very clearly. People long for safety and a sense of belonging, which in this case means home. In addition, they have become more environmentally conscious. If I may refer here to our region – Lake Tegernsee: in terms of basic needs, it is extremely safe here, we have the best hospitals at world-class level, and the transport connections are excellent. The climate is very pleasant and healthy; we have several climatic health resorts.

But at least as important is the fact that there are still some owner-run businesses that authentically convey the Tegernsee way of life. And when guests jump into the lake after a mountain hike, eat a grilled fish on a stick at one of our forest festivals in the evening and drink a Tegernsee beer, then they will happily leave every lobster and every champagne aside – although, of course, we have those too.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Lake Tegernsee has also had its ups and downs.

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Yes, in the 1990s, the Mallorca wave hit us. Many guests who had previously come to Lake Tegernsee suddenly went to Mallorca, for example, because from the Rhineland you could get there just as quickly and it was hotter there. In addition, at that time municipalities and hoteliers were no longer investing. Many thought Lake Tegernsee is so beautiful, people will come of their own accord. Around the turn of the millennium, that came back to haunt us badly. But the tide has now completely turned again, and today Lake Tegernsee is probably more popular than ever before, with the side effect that property prices have multiplied.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
What kind of holiday is in demand today?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
That cannot be answered in general terms. I would even say that the trend is that there is no general social trend.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
World events are exciting enough. Is there nevertheless a hunger for experiences?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
I am not sure whether the hunger for experiences is greater today than it used to be. On the contrary, it is often the return to nature that is sought. When I look at my children, for example, they love going up the mountain or swimming across Lake Tegernsee with me. When we were young, we would have found that extremely boring.

Recently, I cycled with my youngest son from Lake Tegernsee to the Marche region in Italy. Actually, totally conventional, but it was one of the coolest things we have ever done. So I do not see a trend towards an ever greater hunger for spectacular experiences.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
You are known for your love of the region. What is the relationship between home and cosmopolitanism?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
These two poles have always played an important role at Lake Tegernsee. This is mainly connected to Tegernsee Abbey, which in the Middle Ages was one of the most important cultural and intellectual centres in Europe. Even then, people came to Lake Tegernsee from far away and connected with the down-to-earth character that we also love and value here very much.

When the royal family took over the monastery to turn it into a summer residence, this phenomenon remained. In that sense, I too am a typical example of someone from Lake Tegernsee. I grew up here, later went abroad for several years to study and work, and then returned home.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Does the trend towards regionality exclude global thinking?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
We are all internationally interconnected. Through the internet, smartphones and social media, we cannot think only locally. As the saying goes: “Think global, act local.”

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Among the megatrends driving change worldwide are health, gender shift, individuality, connectivity, globalisation and urbanisation. What influence do these factors have on travel?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Despite the desire for belonging and safety, in Western democracies we want to live and be perceived more and more individually. Logically, this is also reflected in travel. Therefore, in my perception, hotels are increasingly designed more specifically for certain target groups, for example.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Mobility is also a megatrend. Is the journey the destination?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
For campers, pilgrims and cyclists like me: yes. laughs

ROLF WESTERMANN:
What role does luxury play, and how is it defined today?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
In any case, individually. For one person, it is classic indulgence – treating oneself to things one would not normally afford. For another, it is having time or enjoying a special experience. The traditional view of luxury as it used to be no longer exists today.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Many products and economic segments have their era and then disappear again. Conventional colour films have long since been digitalised, telex and fax are things of the past, coal mining is coming to an end, and soon the combustion engine will probably also have had its day. How must the hospitality industry change in order to keep up with a changing world?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
I primarily see the issue of sustainability and the need to develop an attractive employer brand. Both are also connected to the question of meaning. Young talents are finally respected very differently today than they were in the past. And I no longer believe that it makes much sense to fly to the Maldives just to go swimming. Guests and employees alike need to see meaning in what they are doing.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
According to an Australian study, global tourism is said to be responsible for eight percent of climate-damaging emissions. How can the industry reduce this?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Here I can only speak for our Bachmair Weissach businesses. This autumn, we are switching largely from gas to a biomass power plant and are equipping our roofs with photovoltaic systems, so that by next year at the latest we will be climate-neutral, if not perhaps even climate-positive. These are major investments, but we are making them with full conviction.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Are travel and holidays in contrast to environmental protection?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Strictly speaking, that is still the case at present. But one must also say that our sheer existence is currently at odds with environmental protection. So the question here is one of proportionality. I believe we cannot and should not stop existing, and therefore also stop travelling. But in future, we will certainly look much more closely at the ecological footprint of our trips and holidays.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Do you fear travel restrictions in the future?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Not for our properties at Lake Tegernsee. As far as the transition to climate-friendly hotel operations is concerned, I believe that together with some of our colleagues, we have taken on a pioneering role.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
Which factors are personally important to you when you go on holiday yourself?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
Peace, nature, being together with my family.

ROLF WESTERMANN:
What is your vision of travel and holidays in 2035?

KORBINIAN KOHLER:
I believe that we will get the climate crisis under control more quickly than we currently assume, because technological developments in this field are advancing enormously. Nevertheless, we must act extremely sustainably now, because otherwise we will cross irreversible tipping points. That is why I find it difficult to foresee what our lives will look like in 13 years. In any case, different.

ROLF WESTERMANN, Editor-in-Chief of ahgz