ETOA Successful Tourism Charter

Our friends at ETOA have just launched a Charter for Successful Tourism in conjunction with European Cities Marketing (ECM) and the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and warmly welcomed by the tourism industry and government alike. At a meeting in Brussels the ETOA brought together several industry groups and Brian Simpson, chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism, for the first time.

The charter sets out a code of best practice for welcoming and managing tourist groups and covers issues such as coach access, capacity planning, changes to regulations and prices, creation of intelligent systems, and collaboration of the various interest groups. It was drawn up to address a number of issues that have been the cause of logistic challenges in cities and to encourage greater collaboration between government and industry on marketing and planning.

Tourism in Europe accounts for over EUR 320 billion in revenue. Seven to eight million jobs depend directly on tourism and 20 million jobs indirectly.
Group tourism accounts for many of the tourists from long-haul destinations, as well as many intra-European tourists. Around 13 percent of European tourism arrivals are from outside the EU, and in theory, this segment of the market represents substantial opportunities for valuable future export growth.
However, Europe’s tourism success is under threat. Its share of global tourism has declined, as measured by international arrivals, from 60 percent of the global total in 1990 to 53 percent in 2008 (source: UNWTO).

In this context, representatives of industry and government (on both local and European levels) were keen to endorse an initiative designed to stimulate closer collaboration to attract tourists and improve the experience of those visiting Europe.

Brian Simpson said that he was very pleased to welcome ETOA’s Charter because it provided a number of practical steps that would help underline the key goals of his committee, in particular promoting Europe as a destination, developing the competitiveness of the European tourism industry, and ensuring the sustainability of the sector.

Tom Jenkins, executive director, ETOA, added: “Groups represent all that is good about tourism. They are sustainable socially, economically, and environmentally, but they are not always well-regarded, and they are not always well-treated. That is caused by misperceptions, and this charter is the start of a dialogue that should dispel misunderstanding.”

Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, president, European Cities Marketing, said: “The charter represents a helpful step forward in the dialogue between the industry and local government. Cities will stay in the lead for group tourism, and we will deal with the group tourism sector as professionally as we do with all other sectors.”

Yves Mannaerts, vice-chairman, IRU, concluded: “Coach tourism is the cleanest travel option in all travel scenarios. Tourists traveling by coach spend 40 percent more at their destinations than other tourists.

"Promoting group tourism by coach is, therefore, a commendable goal from a public interest point of view. However, to realize the full potential of coach tourism, local authorities, coach operators, businesses, and tourist attractions must work in partnership and provide conditions in which coach travel can prosper. Adequate parking facilities, pick-up and drop-off points, together with suitable access to amenities, are essential if authorities want to make their localities even more welcoming to coach parties. Yet, something else is also urgently needed from the outset, and that is the creation of a pro-coach societal and political framework, in which bus and coach services can thrive.”

ETOA’s Charter for Successful Tourism can be viewed at:

http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/etoa2010/2/

Taking the Water in Bulgaria

The town of Hisar, in Bulgaria, boasts one formidable collection — hundreds of kidney-, bladder- and gallstones which have been expelled after treatment with water from the 22 mineral springs in the region.

"We use the water as medicine," says Doctor Svetya Tuzharov from the rehabilitation hospital in the town, where spa and wellness hotels have mushroomed in recent years.

Hisar, founded by the Romans and once surrounded by high walls to protect the healing springs, is among dozens of resort towns in the Balkan country trying to revive their traditions in balneotherapy and attract well off tourists.

From the Black Sea resorts of Albena and Pomorie in the east to Velingrad and Sandanski in the southwest, new luxurious hotels have already gained a reputation among Bulgarians and foreigners alike for the high quality of their services.

Tourism, which accounts for about eight percent of GDP, remains one of the few sources of foreign revenues for the poorest European Union nation, whose economy shrank five percent last year and is expected to stagnate this year.

Revenues from international tourism were roughly unaffected last year at 2.6 billion euros ($3.46 billion).

Officials registered an annual 7.8 percent increase in visitors to ski resorts in the first two months of this year. Early bookings for the summer season were on the rise, too, with more visitors expected from Germany, Russia and Israel.

Before the fall of communism in 1989, people from Scandinavia, the former Soviet bloc and the Middle East were regular guests in Bulgaria's spas which specialized in treating medical conditions varying from gout to sterility.

But in the past decade, Bulgaria marketed itself almost entirely as a cheap destination for summer and winter holidays, turning its back on its varied natural resources.

Still, the negative consequences of rampant construction in popular ski and Black Sea resorts have forced the Balkan country to find new ways to attract tourists by bringing its spa resorts and historical heritage into the limelight.

Spa tourism has attracted some $5.4 billion in investment in the past five years, according to data by the Bulgarian Union for Balneology and Spa Tourism. Companies from Israel, Russia, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman have already invested or shown interest.

Finns Hejari-Hashemi and Jukka Yrjola, who stayed in a five-star hotel in Velingrad — a charming mountain town that boasts 80 mineral springs — said they were particularly attracted by the warm climate and affordable prices.

"We are both at the age where we enjoy these kinds of spa services," Hejari-Hashemi, 54, quipped. "This is my first time here but not the last for sure."

With Europe's aging population on the rise and the availability of spa services all the year round, government and industry officials hope spa tourism could be the sector's driving force with an annual growth of 10 percent.

"What we can offer as competitive advantages are the uniqueness of the mineral waters, the ecologically clean locations, the good price-quality balance," Deputy Economy Minister Ivo Marinov said. "The potential is huge."

The industry is now advertising itself at fairs in Germany, the Balkans, Israel and Russia.

But to lure tourists away from the Czech Republic and Hungary, Bulgaria's biggest spa competitors in Eastern Europe, the government must start spending more on marketing and revamping Soviet-era potholed roads, railway and bus transport.

Sigrun Lang, president of the European Spas Association, says Bulgaria's rich natural resources, long-term traditions in balneotherapy and well-qualified specialists in the sector may come to nothing if the country does not market itself.

"It is a country of many opportunities," Lang told Reuters. "Marketing is most important because if nobody knows that you have great locations, people cannot come."

Visitors from the West are amazed to discover that Bulgaria has 220 km (137 miles) of Black Sea beaches, and its mountains boast 130 peaks over 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) with excellent skiing and hiking as well as more than 600 mineral springs.

Mention Bulgaria and many in the West will list associations with corruption, but few know it is one of the oldest countries in Europe teeming with Thracian tombs, golden treasures and valleys of roses.

The new center-right government, elected last July, remains oblivious and has allocated a meager 2 million euros for tourism advertising this year. This compared with 12 million euros earmarked by debt-stricken, neighboring Greece — one of the world's most visited destinations.

The industry has managed to change the common misconception at home that spa resorts are beneficial only to the elderly who complain from pain in the bones. Bulgarians account for some 80 percent of the visitors in the high-end wellness hotels.

People in their 30s and 40s who once went to "to the baths" with their grandparents or on organized school trips are now coming back to take advantage of the remedies and keep fit.

"Friends recommended it. We haven't been here since we were kids," said dentist Ivanka Ivanova, 33, speaking near the pool of her Velingrad hotel. "We like it. The landscape is great."

The big share of Bulgarian tourists seems paradoxical for a country where the average monthly salary is about 250 euros and the economic crisis is at its peak. Hotel managers say their clients are mainly people of means, whose numbers rose earlier this decade during six or seven years of booming growth.

The spa industry union says tourism's share of GDP could double in the next three years if Bulgaria established itself at the European market as a full year destination betting on spa and cultural tourism which can be easily combined together.

"With what it has, Bulgaria can turn into a mecca for balneology," said Rumen Draganov, head of the Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism. "But it needs a strategy." Now's there's an idea........!

Montenegro benefits from .me registrations

As fans of Montenegro, we have been following developments since the country separated from Serbia. Following their independence, the .me domain was launched for the country. Today, it is the fastest-selling country domain on the planet.

“From the beginning it was clear that .me would have its share in the market, and a lot of the .me names are actually selling post-purchase at auction for figures like US$10,000-$15,000,” said Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .me registry in Montenegro. Due to their universal appeal and quality to be easily remembered .me names have become essential online branding tools.

.Me names are short, personal, popular, and very rememberable – with generic names like sell.me, kiss.me, marry.me, insure.me, etc. Travel and tourism is also starting to embrace the name with a Queensland entrepreneur grabbing the fiji.me name last year, which now competes against the fijime.com FVB Internet site.

With the now ubiquitous use of text messaging, the integration of ‘4’ for the word ‘for’ is also becoming a predominant part of domain name branding, particularly with .me travel domains.

Names such as travel4.me, rentalcar4.me airfares4.me, are all on offer on the secondary market. All the major online brands now have .me sites in the pipeline (microsoft.me) with Yahoo recently revealing that it had purchased the 'me.me' domain for its new messaging service called MEME, which is designed to compete with twitter.

WTTC asks for Government Action

We see the The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is wading in and demanding action to safeguard the health of the travel and tourism economy in light of continued travel disruption caused by volcanic ash.

“While public safety must be paramount, decisions must not be made lightly as they can have serious impact on the $5.75 trillion travel and tourism economy,” said Jean-Claude Baumgarten, WTTC’s president and CEO. “Although it represents 9.2 percent of world GDP and employs 235 million people worldwide, its influence on nearly every facet of our lives is rarely appreciated by governments until a crisis occurs. A coordinated approach to assessing the situation and implementing recovery measures is crucial for the sake of travelers and business alike.”

Baumgarten called for more attention to aviation, which is just beginning to recover from 9/11 and the global recession. Airlines face the double whammy of loss of business coupled with compensation costs for stranded passengers. Baumgarten said it is too early to know the full extent of economic damage the volcano has caused airlines. He said that a series of events -- 9/11, SARS, swine and avian flu, tsunamis, earthquakes and now a volcano -- have affected travel in the past decade. And legislation that could help the industry recover its losses is controlled through many different places and sometimes restricts trade rather than benefits it.

Governments must now intervene as the financial burden of the current crisis is too great for the private sector to bear, Baumgarten said. “It is time for governments and organizations such as the United Nations, European Commission, G8 and G20 to re-examine the way policies that affect global travel and tourism are coordinated and implemented,” he said. An important step forward, said Baumgarten, would be the introduction of centralized air traffic control for the whole of Europe, which could reduce the need for blanket bans on flights in the future.

Now the bankers are sitting pretty again and rebuilding their balance sheets, it's time to help the travel business which has for too long been ignored by the EU and Governments alike.

Train not plane...

Luck was certainly on our side last week when, unusually, we had decided to to take the train to our meeting in Glasgow rather than fly! This was initially an experiment, since our research suggested that it would actually only take an extra half an hour to take the train door to door.

Relief all round then when news emerged of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption and our sympathies to everyone caught up in the ensuing travel chaos.

Luckily we don't have any clients directly affected by the flight ban but the financial implications for the airlines and other operators really the last thing they need at the moment..

And the train? Perfect in every respect..just over four hours from London Euston to Glasgow central which gives plenty of time for work, a stroll to the buffet car and a cup of tea arriving in Glasgow fresh as a daisy!

TOP TEN CITIES FOR 2011

FES have been conducting our own research recently, with our clients, colleagues, associates and suppliers and we have identified our TOP TEN city-break predictions for 2011!

In no particular order then...

1. Chisinau (Moldova)
2. Minsk (Belarus)
3. Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
4. Skopje (Macedonia)
5. Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
6. Podgorica (Montenegro)
7. Kiev (Ukraine)
8. Zagreb (Croatia)
9. Belgrade (Serbia)
10. Tallinn (Estonia)

Increasingly, city breakers are looking for destinations that can still provide the charm of 'old Europe' yet with the an infrastructure to accommodate visitors on a short stay vacation - and our favourite, here? Probably Podgorica.

Arcelor Mittal Orbit Mistake?

We have our doubts about the economic benefits that the LONDON Olympics are supposed to bring in the form of tourism and certainly research by the ETOA (European Tour Operators Association) suggests that every city that has hosted the games has suffered a DOWNTURN in tourism as s result of the games rather than the opposite.

And now the new Arcelor Mittal Orbit Tower does seem to be a grand folly thrown atop. Dreamed up by the mayor of London this grand tower (or giant Mr Messy) will grace the Olympics and serve as a monument to a country 'coming out of recession' (Boris Johnson).

The name Arcelor is derived from a combination of letters from various steel companies: the first two letters come from Arbed, a Luxembourg steel company (Acieries Reunies Burbach-Esch-Dudelange) formed in 1911 from three smaller companies with origins in the late 19th century. The next three letters, c, e and l, are taken from Aceralia, a Spanish steel company which grew out of another early 20th-century amalgamation, this time of three blast furnace businesses in Bilbao. A hundred years ago it was Spain's biggest company; its later career is complicated by many takeovers and reorganisations and its acronym less easily explained than Arbed's, but by the year 2000 it was its country's leading steelmaker. The 'or' is from Usinor, the French steelmaker formed in 1948 by a merger of two old companies (the important one, acronym-wise, is Les Forges et Aciéries du Nord et de l'Est). In 2001, Arbed, Aceralia and Usinor came together to form the pan-European Arcelor.

And Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Europe and the fourth or fifth richest in the world, with personal wealth estimated at more than £19bn. After Mittal Steel bought out most of Arcelor's shareholders in 2006, he became chairman and chief executive of the world's biggest steel company. ArcelorMittal has 250,000 workers at plants in 60 countries that together produce 8% of global steel output and last year earned revenues of around £44bn.

Arcelor Mittal has no steel plants in Britain and so the tower, ostensibly built to symbolise the regeneration of Britain for the olympics, will be made from steel imported from abroad where cheaper manufacturing processes have been sought.

Not quite right is it?