Brussels, 25 November 2009 – More than 30 key players of the European destination marketing industry gathered last month in the vibrant and modern city of Glasgow, Scotland to attend DMAI’s Leadership Forum – Europe.
This unique interactive platform brought together CEOs, Presidents, and Executive/Managing Directors of Convention Bureaus and Tourism Boards from throughout Europe to meet, discuss, and exchange strategic views and ideas on the challenges affecting the industry as well as share best practices and proven solutions for attracting new business to their destinations.
This year, key topics such as “Coping in Recessionary Times – Prioritizing and Managing Budgets”, “Making the Most out of Limited Marketing Budgets”, and “Executive Compensation and Performance Management” were covered in open forums moderated by Paul Flackett, IMEX Managing Director. Participants actively took part in exchanging solutions and ideas in small groups before sharing with the rest of the group.
Two additional high-quality presentations gained the audience’s full attention: Michael Priem, COO of USDM.net explained “How Technology is Changing the Marketing and Advertising Landscape” and Konstanze Auernheimer, Director of Marketing of STR Global explored “Emerging Trends Facing the Hotel Industry“.
A featured European Policy Environment workshop was introduced for the first time this year, providing valuable insights on how European Union institutions work and how EU policies and regulations actually influence the destination marketing industry. The subject was lively debated and some very positive conclusions came out of the discussion as many attendees discovered the threats and opportunities that the EU presents and how the actors of the industry can influence these by joining forces and receiving appropriate EU information.
Following the workshop, Michael D. Gehrisch, President & CEO of DMAI, pledged that DMAI was ready to take a leadership role in Europe stating that “DMAI is fully engaged in the fight for the importance and relevance of the tourism and travel industry. Our ‘Futures Study’ report has provided industry leaders across the globe with a strategic framework to plan for the future and tools to help them understand and respond to the global strategic trends and developments impacting the industry.”
The forum had a very positive impulse, as actions were taken immediately after the event. Charles-Eric Vilain XIIII, Chair of the DMAI European Advisory Council, took on the responsibility to meet with other stakeholders within the meeting industry to put together an action plan for representing and lobbying towards the EU institutions.
For more information about DMAI in Europe and the Leadership Forum – Europe, visit www.destinationmarketing.org .
