Digital hotel steles boost tourism in Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe, October 10, 2025 - One touch and off you go on a digital journey through Karlsruhe: with the presentation of one of the 40 interactive hotel steles at Hotel Santo on October 2, the city of Karlsruhe is launching a new innovative project to strengthen city tourism. The project is part of a joint initiative by the city administration, KTG Karlsruhe Tourismus GmbH, the DEHOGA Karlsruhe district office and the Karlsruhe Chamber of Industry and Commerce. It is the first cooperation project to be financed by the new city tax (overnight tax). The campaign was presented by First Mayor Gabriele Luczak-Schwarz, Pascal Rastetter, Managing Director of KTG, and Patrick Seiffert, Deputy Chairman of the Tourism & Hotel Industry Section of DEHOGA Karlsruhe.

Intuitive touch operation on the steles ensures user-friendly interaction, while a structured network of data in the background provides guests with the latest information in a matter of seconds. First Mayor Luczak-Schwarz explains: "With the hotel steles, we are creating modern access to Karlsruhe's tourist highlights and events - right where our guests arrive. The project shows how digital innovation and tourism promotion go hand in hand."

Over the course of September, the 40 steles were set up at the hotel partners and now provide information on site about the wide range of offers in the fan-shaped city. Pascal Rastetter explains: "The steles are more than just information screens - they are digital showcases for Karlsruhe. Anyone who wants to spontaneously go on a discovery tour will find inspiration and specific offers here that can extend or enrich their stay. This is an important aspect, especially with regard to business travelers and trade fair participants, who we would like to motivate to come back to Karlsruhe as private travelers - perhaps even with the whole family."

The idea for the joint project was born against the background that Karlsruhe, as a successful trade fair, congress, business and science location, also has an extensive range of tourist attractions.

Patrick Seiffert explains: "Providing comprehensive and easily accessible information about events, congresses and trade fairs and linking this with references to the enormous range of tourist attractions in Karlsruhe shows our guests that Karlsruhe has far more to offer than they might think at first glance. Easily accessible information from different areas enhances the "guest experience" and makes it clear that all players in Karlsruhe, whether from tourism, trade fairs or the hotel industry, are pulling together and focusing on the guest."

Open data solutions for digital inspiration where you are

It was a long road to the "go-live" of the screen steles at the end of September 2025, with coordination with potential providers for realization and technical implementation taking several months. The choice fell on two project partners who jointly provided a complete solution for hardware and software: netvico GmbH from Stuttgart and TourComm Germany GmbH from Weinheim. Together they developed a digital infrastructure that draws data from the central database for German tourism, the GNTB Knowledge Graph. This enables the content of the steles to be generated automatically and constantly updated in the same way as the www.karlsruhe-erleben.de website with events, guided tours, city experiences and excursion tips.

Scalable content, feedback loops with partner companies and open data structures ensure the long-term, sustainable development of the steles. For example, depending on requirements, further topics could be displayed on the steles or other foreign languages could be implemented in addition to English and French.

Further information can be found at www.karlsruhe-erleben.de.