The times are a-changin’: TourComm merger with MAQNIFY

How it all began...

It's Tuesday, 5 October 2021 and I'm taking the train to my first ‘live event’ after 1.5 years of the pandemic. I'm really looking forward to the ‘Smart Destinations’ event in Düsseldorf.

And not for nothing: great insights and best-practice examples (thanks to Tourismus NRW, thanks to Heike Döll-König!).

Not only are the presentations exciting, but one exhibitor also impressed me with his products: easy-to-implement digital city tours and an app to explain what's behind the brown signs along the motorway. I meet Dominic Fischer from MAQNIFY, who has already included all the brown motorway signs in his free experience guide app for Tourismus NRW. He started with the ‘tourist information boards’, as the brown signs are called in officialese, in Baden-Württemberg and has since added the LMOs in Hesse and recently in Bavaria.

Not only is the idea great, it also works! On various car journeys, I have now become aware of the brown signs through the app and have been given plenty of impetus to take a detour from the motorway.

Dominic and I quickly got back in touch. Not only because I am interested in the potential usability of the experience guide app for international guests; Dominic also needs the support of the language and translation agency Com-Unic, which has been part of TourComm for more than two years.

It goes even further: we are developing an interest in each other's business models. And we get to know each other better, the human aspect also fits.

To make a long story short: MAQNIFY, TourComm and Com-Unic are joining forces.

You will already see us together at one or two events (e.g. at DestinationCamp in Hamburg this week) and at one or two Zoom meetings...

Without a veil but just as enthusiastic as at our photo shoot.

From 1 July 2022, the three brands will formally merge under the umbrella of TourComm Germany GmbH & Co. KG and Dominic Fischer and I will manage the joint company as equal managing directors.

The colleagues from MAQNIFY, TourComm and Com-Unic are also looking forward to the joint future. Not only will both locations, Emmendingen and Weinheim, be retained in the long term, but there was also a great spirit of optimism at the first joint team event recently and new ideas were developed.