The report includes the latest figures for the performance of European cities in 2009 and illustrates the main trends in city tourism between 2004 and 2009 of 101 European cities.

According to the results of the 5th European City Tourism Monitor, 89 city tourism professionals from 68 destinations expect bednights to grow in the 2nd quarter of 2010, compared with the same period in 2009. Domestic markets and the leisure segment seem to account for much of this optimism. In terms of international source markets, experts are most confident about growth in the Italian and German markets and little confidence is expressed for growth from Great Britain.

Dear friends, dear colleagues, I had the honor of being elected chairman of the Working Group “Research & Statistics” during the meeting and General Assembly of our organisation which recently took place in Las Palmas.

During the spring the ECM Research & Statistics Working Group conducted a survey among the 120 member destinations in order to monitor background variables of product sales and to monitor the development of online sales. The results were presented at the Annual Conference in Las Palmas, 9th - 12th June, which focused on social media and the “hot” topic of if it really delivers revenue for DMO’s and CVB’s.

6th TourMIS Users’ Workshop and International Seminar on Demographic Change and Tourism,16th – 17th September, 2010. Organised by the European Travel Commission, UN World Tourism Organization, European Cities Marketing & MODUL University Vienna. The event will take place at MODUL University Vienna.

A new handbook from the European Travel Commission is in production and will focus on product development. As in the near future this will be of increasing importance to DMO’s in developing tourism to their destinations, ECM will support the project enthusiastically.

After conducting a survey among ECM members in 2009 about their interest in analysing cities‘ statistics about the Meetings Industry (or MICE), and the way the data is collected in each destination, ECM Research & Statistics Working Group agreed to conduct a pilot phase of the project, analysing statistics from a group of volunteer cities.

Dear friends, dear colleagues, I had the honor of being elected chairman of the Working Group “Research & Statistics” during the meeting and General Assembly of our organisation which recently took place in Las Palmas.

“The ability to think differently today from yesterday, distinguishes the wise from the stubborn” John Steinbeck (1902-1968). How right he was. Learning from each other, sharing expertise and thinking differently is ...