At first glance, the Viennese software company nista.io is not associated with the topic of tourism, as it primarily offers an analysis tool for energy managers. This makes it possible to set targets in the area of energy efficiency as precisely as possible. But now this system will lead the domestic tourism industry to new shores and help it to become much more sustainable and energy-efficient.
The reason for this is a new partnership between nista.io and Österreich Werbung (ÖW), Austria’s national tourism marketing organization. The process is managed by the newly founded innovation department of the ÖW. Its mission is, among other things, to increase the productivity of the industry with innovative products, services and strategic partnerships.
First pilot project at St. Martins Therme & Lodge in Burgenland
nista.io examines sensor data from energy systems using artificial intelligence instead of laboriously analyzing all metrics individually. In this way, energy managers should be able to research their own technology and savings potentials without programming skills. The focus at nista.io is on feasibility and user-friendliness. The young company’s system offers concrete insights that make it easier for customers to face the issue of energy efficiency. The Viennese startup has already celebrated many successes with this concept. This includes, among other things, winning the înno up Challenge 2022 of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. It was precisely at this event that the partnership with the ÖW came about.
At the end of 2022, nista.io and the ÖW officially started a pilot phase to help tourism businesses become more sustainable and work more efficiently during the energy crisis. Everyone benefits from this; Companies operate more cost-efficiently, guests vacation more sustainably and new entrepreneurial innovations are used in tourism. The first pilot operation comes from a division that has particularly high energy costs, namely thermal baths. The St. Martins Therme & Lodge in Frauenkirchen in Burgenland is to gain significant energy efficiency with the help of nista.io and the ÖW.
Analysis of nista.io already works with little data
“The topic of energy consumption, energy reporting and load data management has been with us for a long time and has become even more intense in recent months. We have taken many measures in recent years to act more energy-efficiently, for example by pool covers or a photovoltaic system. Nevertheless, it is important to us to further optimize our load data and energy management,” explains Martin Adelwöhrer, Director of Operations at St. Martins Therme & Lodge.
nista.io actively supported the facility in expanding energy efficiency. First, the startup got a picture of the thermal baths by analyzing the available data from the existing systems and the consumption data from the network operators. “Thanks to our platform, this works very easily and without manual effort,” says nista.io founder Benjamin Mörzinger. By using the analysis algorithms, the first savings could already be found, although comparatively little data was available in the first step.
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“Savings four times as high as the expenses”
“After the first screening, we were able to establish that St. Martins Therme & Lodge is already doing a lot to use as little energy as possible. Nevertheless, thanks to our data analysis, we were able to find savings that were four times higher than the expenses. Above all, we now know where we need to dig deeper and can define further measuring points in a very targeted manner. We see very high potential here and in the next step we will roll out a monitoring system that will help us to generate a reliable database on the energy flows to the most important main consumers,” says Mörzinger.
The role of the ÖW is to enable innovations and knowledge transfer and to network the actors with each other. The ÖW’s expertise is particularly important for nista.io, since the start-up has comparatively little experience with the tourism industry. The ÖW, on the other hand, knows the needs of the industry companies and helps nista.io to respond precisely to the pilot companies. ÖW is now looking for suitable partners for pilot projects. Other companies in the tourism industry that are interested in working with the ÖW can contact Vittorio Bianchi, Project Manager at the ÖW, (
[email protected]).