Dear friends and colleagues,

Dear friends and colleagues, Sharing our experiences and increasing our knowledge of developments in city tourism are especially important in times of crisis or unstable economic conditions. Once again, several projects and surveys that have been carried out by the Research & Statistics Working Group support this idea. This newsletter gives an overview of our latest research interests.

Sharing our experiences and increasing our knowledge of developments in city tourism are especially important in times of crisis or unstable economic conditions. Once again, several projects and surveys that have been carried out by the Research & Statistics Working Group support this idea. This newsletter gives an overview of our latest research interests.

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The 5th European City Tourism Monitor showed that tourism experts expect bed nights to grow in the 2nd quarter of 2010, compared with the same period in 2009. Does that mean that European city tourism is on the road to recovery? Every participant in the survey receives a full report with the results, so be sure to participate – the invitation for the next wave has just been sent out!

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Analysing statistics about the MICE sector was identified to be of great interest among ECM members and thus lead into a pilot project where a group of volunteer cities provided their meetings data and methods. Initial findings were presented in Las Palmas and attracted much attention, so over the coming months steps will be taken to refine the survey and to include more cities in it.

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When conducting the Online Sales and Marketing Survey, the ECM Research & Statistics Working Group’s aim was to monitor the development of online sales at a time when the internet has become more and more important in business. It showed that this topic is highly interesting but at the same time very complex. It also became obvious that member participation and willingness to share data is  is a key condition for our network to be valuable and effective.

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As in previous years, ECM members are invited to the TourMIS Workshop and Seminar, which will take place on 16th – 17th September, 2010 at MODUL University Vienna. It will feature a TourMIS workshop for both beginners and experts on the first day and the International Seminar on Demographic Change and Tourism, organised by ETC and UNWTO, on the second day.

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ECM Research & Statistics Working Group would like to recommend some interesting reports, studies and handbooks published by ETC. Thanks to our co-operation with ETC, members of ECM are able to obtain the reports at a special rate. Further, the forthcoming ETC handbook will focus on product development and will be supported by ECM. ECM members are invited to share their best practice examples and thus contribute to the case studies intended to be included in this handbook.

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During the ECM meeting in Las Palmas, some personnel changes were made within the Research & Statistics group. We are pleased to announce Olivier Ponti (Amsterdam) as our new chairman, supported by Henrik Jutbring (Gothenburg) as new vice chairman. We would like to express our warmest appreciation to Hans Dominicus, who has lead the group over the past few years, for his permanent efforts and valuable contribution to the R&S Working Group.

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The 6th edition of the European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report was officially launched during ECM Annual Conference in Las Palmas. The report includes the latest figures about the performance of European Cities in 2009 and illustrates the main trends in city tourism between 2004 and 2009 using data gathered from 101 European cities. It is available free of charge to ECM members.

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Doreen Gruber

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Market Research & Event Projects, Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH

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