Eddie Friel is a native of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. After nearly forty year experience as a city marketer, he has become a renowned presenter, writer, broadcaster and consultant. In 2004, he received the award of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Scottish tourism, especially the city of Glasgow.
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He is now an “expert in residence” at Niagara University and is really looking forward to seeing former friends and colleagues at the ECM Spring Meeting in Sofia. He will soon be “crossing the pond” to
headline the ECM seminar whose theme is “Financing Europe’s City Tourist Offices and Convention Bureaux – Threats, Opportunities and Solutions”. As ECM’s next keynote speaker, we wanted to get to know him better and give all of you a bit of a preview of the man himself…
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What do you see as your biggest achievement while you were working in Glasgow (1983-2004)?
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I served two terms as Chief Executive of Glasgow’s tourism; the first from 1983 to 1991 when I started with ‘a blank sheet of paper’ and established the first destination marketing organisation for the city. We moved from being perceived as an industrial, violent city that most people chose to ignore to being designated the Cultural Capital of Europe in 1990. I believe that winning the designation and subsequently delivering it so that it was way in excess of anyone’s expectations was the ‘tipping point’ in Glasgow’s regeneration.
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I was invited to return in 1997 where the situation was very different. The massive impact of technology on the tourism industry required a re-alignment of our marketing strategy and the associated systems and process. This led to the creation of our website www.seeglasgow.com
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How did you become involved in ECM at this time? What did you get out this ECM experience?
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I was a very committed member of ECM and served on the Board as I believed very strongly in the principle that the unit of analysis of economic performance in the 21st century global economy would be cities. I perceived the 3 emerging major economic regions to be Europe (East and West combined), the Americas, and the Asia and the Pacific Rim. However, each of these regions is very different and I felt it was important that we, as destination marketing professionals in Europe, should address the issues that would provide us with a distinctive competitive advantage. I believed ECM was an ideal mechanism to allow that discussion, debate and development. I also wanted to benefit from the collaborative process of working with professional, creative people who were engaged in finding solutions to the specific issues that cities face.
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I am actively engaged in helping to develop an effective ‘Town and Gown’ relationship where the intellectual capital of the university can be employed in addressing the social and economic issues of the community we serve. I also teach classes on International Destination Marketing and Conventions and Events.
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Which projects are you involved in through your consultancy “Eddie Friel Associates”?
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My consultancy group provides a range of services to a number of municipalities and State agencies in New York State and Southern Ontario in Canada, ranging from the role of tourism in economic development to the creation of effective destination brand strategies. We also work with a number of European consultancies in the U.K and Ireland.
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What does it feel like to be ‘crossing the pond’ and returning to Europe to see so many former friends?
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I am genuinely excited at the prospect of meeting a lot of my old friends and to be engaged once more with ECM. I believe the preservation of our unique European history, heritage and culture is of critical importance and the work of ECM in developing the professionalism of European city marketing agencies is critical to that endeavour.
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