1st ECM TIC Hostmanship Award rewards best service offered to visitors
David Arlandis getting his Award from Richard Windischbacher
For the first time, European Cities Marketing organised a friendly competition based on best service in TICs. The winner has been revealed during ECM TIC Expert Meeting held in Dublin mid-October.
Prior to this year’s edition of the TIC Expert Meeting, ECM members were asked to nominate a member of their TIC staff who gave added value to their work on customer services. Among 10 applications, the TIC Knowledge Group jury voted for David Arlandis from Valencia Turismo & Convention Bureau who won the 1st ECM TIC Hostmanship Award.
As a prize for this award, David Arlandis was granted free access to this year’s TIC Expert Meeting and a 3 days experience at Dublin’s TIC before the meeting: “The TIC Hostmanship Award has been for me a very valuable experience. During the three days I spent working at the Dublin Visitor Centre, I saw for myself that there are a lot of similarities regarding methodologies, products and services, customer questions… I also realized about the high potentiality of exchanging knowledge between TIC. We can learn a lot from each other and improve the way we work in order to give better service to our visitors. The TIC Expert meeting has been a nice opportunity to meet good professionals from all over Europe. It has been really interesting to see all those bright people sharing knowledge and thinking together about the future of TIC. Regarding the award, it is a pleasure for me to represent Valencia and all those tourist information agents who work at the front line, trying to give their best”, said Mr Arlandis.
Richard Windischbacher, TIC Knowledge Group chairperson and TIC Manager at Graz Tourismus explained: “We decided to launch this award to value members of our TICs’ staff because they are the most important part of our TICs: they are the first interlocutors for the tourists in the cities they visit and it’s really important that they give their best to give a good image and experience of the destination they represent.”
The application for the second edition of the ECM TIC Hostmanship Award will be sent during fall 2017 and the winner will get the opportunity to work 3 days in Budapest TIC and free access to the next TIC Expert Meeting in Budapest on October 26-27, 2017!
European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe. ECM provides 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 members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries.
ECM Knowledge Groups are expert teams focusing on specific aspects of city marketing and urban tourism development. They discuss issues, share best practices, prepare reports, conduct surveys and, in certain cases, undertake joint marketing activities.
TIC Knowledge Group aims at strengthening city tourism by sharing knowledge on Tourist Information Centres, boosting the efficiency in TIC daily work and delivering better services to the traveller. The Group also brings together experts working in the field to exchange on best practices within the TIC Expert Meeting held once a year.
Contact information
Flavie Baudot, press@europeancitiesmarketing.com, +33 380 56 02 00