European Cities Marketing announced new President

European Cities Marketing announced new President, Executive Committee and Board Members reflecting on strategic focus on City Marketing

ECM General Assembly last week saw the implementation of ECM Strategy 2017-2020 first steps, with the creation of an additional Vice-President position dedicated to City Marketing.

 

During ECM International Conference in Dubrovnik gathering 200 persons last week, Dieter Hardt-Stremayr (Graz, Austria) was elected the Association’s President for a duration of 2 years. The General Assembly also appointed Petra Stusek (Ljubljana, Slovenia) as Vice-President dedicated to Leisure & Tourism and Eduard Pieter Oud (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) as Vice-President dedicated to City Marketing.

 

The newly elected board members are as follows: Ignasi de Delàs (Barcelona, Spain), Bettina Reventlow-Mourier (Copenhagen, Denmark), Barbara Jamison (London, United Kingdom), Nicolas Lefebvre (Paris, France) and Marta Stawińska (Poznań, Poland).

Bettina Bunge (Dresden, Germany) pursues her role as Vice-President dedicated to the Meetings Industry and Philippe Vignon (Geneva, Switzerland) carries on with his role as Treasurer. Pier Paolo Mariotti (Bolzano, Italy), Erwin Van de Wiele (Ghent, Belgium) and Goran Pavlović (Opatija, Croatia) continue their mandates as ECM Board Members.

“It’s a real honour for me to have been elected ECM President once again. It really shows the trust that ECM members have in me. But this responsibility is also a challenge considering the difficult times and the transformations that DMOs are facing. But I am convinced that our strategic approach focusing on city marketing and the balance between residents, business travellers and visitors will help our destinations in their holistic position to stand still. I am really thrilled to take part in this adventure.” said freshly elected ECM President, Dieter Hardt-Stremayr.

Current ECM Executive Committee:

Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President (Managing Director, Graz Tourist Office)

Petra Stusek, Vice-President Leisure & Tourism (CEO, Ljubljana Tourism)

Bettina Bunge, Vice-President Meetings Industry (Managing Director, Dresden Marketing)

Eduard Pieter Oud, Vice-President City Marketing (COO, Amsterdam Marketing)

Philippe Vignon, Treasurer (General Manager, Genève Tourisme & Congrès)

Board Members:

Ignasi de Delàs, (Deputy General Manager, Turisme de Barcelona)

Pier Paolo Mariotti (Meeting Manager, EURAC Convention Centre Bolzano)

Bettina Reventlow-Mourier (Deputy Convention Director, Wonderful Copenhagen)

Erwin Van de Wiele (CEO, Ghent Tourist Office)

Barbara Jamison (Head of Business Development – Europe, London & Partners)

Goran Pavlović (Head, Opatija Convention and Incentive Bureau)

Nicolas Lefebvre (CEO, Office du Tourisme et des Congrès de Paris)

Marta Stawińska (Senior Project Manager – Tourism Development, Poznań Tourism Organisation)

 

European Cities Marketing

www.europeancitiesmarketing.com

 

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European cities are strategizing the DMO of the future

European cities are strategizing the DMO of the future

At the European Cities Marketing Meeting in Gdansk, February 22-25, 2017, European cities will debate the future role of the City Marketing and Tourism organisation. Industry thought leaders will challenge the attendees. Ideas and insights will be shared on how to create best value for the city, industry partners and the visitors. These experienced city marketing experts will share their most precious insights and learning for a full conference on the future of DMOs.

Speaking about the next ECM Meeting, Ignasi de Delàs, ECM President, said: “Here is the thing: just over the last 10 years, digitalisation and globalisation of travel have forever altered the patterns and the practice of urban tourism. New technology has radically changed the behaviour of consumers and empowered them with a world of insights, resources, tools and experiences that outmatches any old classic tourist information centre. Together we will search for new models and modes of tomorrow. We might not find the silver bullet or a model that will fit all. But we are confident that Strategizing the DMO of the Future is the meeting that will give attendees lots of inspiration and empower them and their team to start their own transformative journey.”

Among key speakers, Frank Cuypers, Senior Strategist at DestinationThink.com and Dr. Roger Carter, CEO of TEAM Tourism Consulting will provide opening keynotes about the future of the DMO. DMOs have to redefine their role and the meaning of marketing in order to stay relevant. But how do DMOs should reengineer themselves in a disruptive marketplace, where the only constant is change?

The next day Chris Fair, President of Resonance Consultancy will explain in his keynote what he believes in: DMOs need to morph to DMMOs – Destination Marketing and Management Organisations in order to align with the trends that will shape travel and tourism tomorrow.

See how Tel Aviv decided to put technological innovation at the heart of the city’s destination strategy. How Copenhagen rebooted its DMO. The Polish strategy for CVBs that consists in Creating Value & Business! Or Germany‘s example of collaboration with neighbour cities and their joint benchmark initiative and market approach to international markets.

Also, participants will get the latest from Aalborg, Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Ghent and Dublin in our series of City Showcases where ECM colleagues share their answers and offer all the inspiration needed.

The conference will be moderated by Philippe Vignon, CEO of Geneva Tourism & Conventions.

More information and programme can be found on: http://www.europeancitiesmarketing.com/

European City tourism to resume positive growth in 2014

European City tourism to resume positive growth in 2014, bolstered by international bednights and the recovery of traditional markets

European Cities Marketing (ECM), the network dedicated to increase competitiveness and performance of leading cities in Europe, releases its annual ECM Benchmarking Report later this year. Preliminary figures for 2014 indicate positive increase in bednights hosted by European cities with an impressive intensification of the Chinese market and the recovery of long-established source markets like Italy or Spain.

Comparative data for an initial sample of 63 cities shows 4.3% increase in international bednights since 2013. International bednights continued to grow at a faster year-on-year grow rate than domestically-sourced nights (+4.3% vs. +2.9% respectively), representing just over 65% of total bedights (235.1 million in 2014). The European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report, the reference for urban tourism in Europe is to be available next June and will show data of more than 110 cities.

London and Paris once again claimed the highest number of international bednights with small positive increases over the previous year. Other top ten cities made more notable leaps in internationally-sourced bednights; four of the top ten cities hosted between 4% and 6% more international bednights since 2013, while Berlin showed impressive growth by 6.4% and Amsterdam greatly increased international bednights by 10.4%.

The USA, Germany, and the UK provided nearly a quarter of the international bednights spent in European cities in 2014. Each of these source markets increased by between 4-6% since 2013. Spain and Italy resumed positive growth rates as source markets after continual decreases in number of bednights spent in European cities over the past few years.

The 2013 star growth market, China, showed impressive growth by 13.2% in 2014 to make up about 1% of bednights spent in European cities. In 2013, the Chinese market was already growing by 11.4%.

Japan, however, continued to show a decline in bednights since the previous year (-4.1%) and Russia decreased even more with -7.9% after having grown by an impressive 9.4% in 2013. The decline of the Russian source market was expected due to the decrease in the oil prices, devaluation of the ruble, and sanctions taken against Russia because of the country’s conflict with Ukraine.
“These results provide crucial insights into European city competitiveness and competitor sets”, declares Ignasi de Delàs, President of European Cities Marketing. He continues: “Internationalisation is one of the key-words in the tourism-development of many countries. The ECM Benchmarking Report clearly shows that the continuous success of city tourism in Europe is based upon a rich mix of source markets.

In 2014, international bednights grew about 1.9 times the rate of domestic tourism growth in European cities. Bednight numbers representing tourists from China, one of the BRIC markets, are still growing tremendously over the previous year. However, with an average of 65% of international guests, European cities can cope with negative growth of markets like Russia or Japan, thanks to the recovery of the Spanish and Italian markets.

Despite all economic or political factors, it is proven that the cities’ strategic focus on international visitors is the main reason for the triumph of the cities, which gives City Tourism Managers every reason to be confident in the strength of the European tourism industry.”

European Cities Marketing, the network of leading city tourist offices, convention bureaux and city marketing organisations, reports on the state of the European tourism industry with its annual issue of the ECM Benchmarking Repot. Data is provided by the cities themselves and compiled by MODUL Research. Early data from a sample of 63 cities show healthy overall growth in the European city tourism industry.

The 11th edition of the annual European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report will be presented during ECM Annual conference in Turin on June 3-5, 2015 and will be available on www.europeancitiesmarketing.com.

If you are interested in further information about the ECM Benchmarking Report, would like to join the annual conference, retrieve latest data on the development of European Cities or quarterly predictions of Europe’s tourism professionals on the expected tourism performance, please get in touch with Flavie Baudot from European Cities Marketing.

Implementing solutions to control mass tourism

Implementing solutions to control mass tourism, a challenge for European cities

Worldwide tourism exponential growth (+276% international travellers in 30 years) leads European cities to face an increasing number of visitors and crowded spots, thus disturbing the tourism model and its public perception. During last European Cities Marketing meeting in Gijón this month, European cities discussed how to regulate visitors’ flows without destroying what made a city attractive at first: its uniqueness!

Keynote speaker, Stephen Hodes, co-founder and partner at LAgroup, particularly captured the audience attention regarding development of worldwide tourism and set the context. From 1980 to 2010, the number of international travellers worldwide has grown from 250 to 940 million and by 2030 this figure will double. While managing the growth of crowded touristic cities, several possible solutions were suggested throughout the day: quotas, creation of new attractions to spatial dispersal, temporal dispersal, limitation in hotel growth, pricing and ticketing of former free attractions… In order to face this challenge, Amsterdam came up with its new campaign to give tourists reasons to go out of the city, highlighting 16 characters to improve the product. And to market Amsterdam abroad, a layer of 6 themes was introduced.

Positive perception of cities is what brings results, Gijón Ambassadors programme showcased by Carolina García, Convention Bureau Coordinator at Gijón Visitors & Convention Bureau, is a good example. The “Inhabitants as ambassadors” programme consists in celebrities born in Gijón singing praises of their hometown. Several surveys show that the credibility and welcoming nature of Gijón citizens is what people appreciated the most during their stay. ECM members experienced this convivial nature during their stay in Gijón thanks to Gijón Visitors & Convention Bureau’s hospitality.

Five member cities: Aarhus, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bruges and Dubrovnik outlined their different experiences in terms of managing visitors flows in conjunction with their sizes, their environments, etc during the afternoon dedicated to best practices sessions.

Speaking about the meeting theme, Ignasi de Delàs, European Cities Meeting President, said: “Exchanges between members are at the heart of European Cities Marketing and this meeting was no exception with presentations and case studies on how cities handle visitors’ flows. It’s obvious that cities need tools to regulate tourism impact and avoid coexistence problems.”

The next ECM meeting will take place in Turin, June 3-6, 2015 and the theme will be “Creating the city – how events and infrastructure projects can change the image”.

*European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe by providing a platform for convention, leisure and city marketing professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their network to build new business. European Cities Marketing is promoting and linking the interests of 110 members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries.

European Cities to share experiences at Gijón Conference

Balancing visitors and inhabitants | European Cities to share experiences at Gijón Conference

The European Cities Marketing Spring Meeting in Gijón will be held February 4-7, 2015 and will be dedicated to “Balancing visitors and inhabitants”.  Worldwide tourism is growing and the expectations for the next years are a further growth. The booming number of visitors, not only leisure tourists but also business travellers, has a shady side in a growing number of cities: locals are complaining about crowdy spots… Where the marketing organizations in origin tried to get more visitors, they are thinking now about the balance between visitors and inhabitants. That balance is necessary for a liveable city, the most valuable thing for inhabitants and for the economic impact of the visiting industry. Speaking about the meeting’s subject, Ignasi de Delàs, European Cities Marketing* President, said: “This seminar will show that cities take their responsibility and want to prepare as for the future of growing number of visits. With a combination of a theoretical base, practical cases and existing solutions, participants will be provided with food for thought and tools for action for this “luxury problem”.” Among key speakers, Cinzia De Marzo, DG for Internal market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission will give a presentation on “European Tourism Indicators System for Sustainable Management at Destination Level”. The different case studies will show the experiences from ECM member cities such as Aarhus, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bruges, Dubrovnik and Gijón, in terms of handling the pressure caused by day visitors or spreading international visitors over a greater area. The seminar day will be coordinated by Jelka Tepsić, Head of Communication Department, Dubrovnik Tourist Board. Vanguelis Panayotis, Director of Development of MKG Group will provide a presentation on “Track the hotel market performance in 2014” in the frame of the Research & Statistics Knowledge Group session.

*European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe by providing a platform for convention, leisure and city marketing professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their network to build new business. European Cities Marketing is promoting and linking the interests of 110 members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries.For more information and pictures, please contact:Flavie Baudot, press@europeancitiesmarketing.com, +33 380 56 02 00