European Cities Marketing (ECM) provides greater insight into visitor experience through a partnership with TCI Research

ECM, the European network of city tourist offices and convention bureaux, has just signed a partnership contract with TCI Research, a global innovative and independent market research agency.

TCI Research aims to help tourism stakeholders improve their performance and competitiveness through a better understanding of traveler’s opinions and expectations. TCI Research collects comparable international data -combining advantages of traditional and digital approaches- to provide independent and professional analysis with a special focus on the competitive environment of its clients.

Under the deal, TCI Research will provide ECM member cities with accurate and timely data highlighting city competitiveness issues based on city brand experience, with a different and special focus covered in each report. Research will cover specific sectors (Accommodation, Transportation, Shopping, Tourist Info Centers … ), special motivations and segments (MICE, Spa/wellness, Gastronomy, Culture, VFR) and specific markets or topics (sustainability, accessibility, digital hospitality, value for money… ).

In welcoming the new partnership, the President of European Cities Marketing, Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, commented: “In the past few years, the need for data has intensified and ECM progressively extends the range and quality of its market intelligence tools incorporating data on the visitors’ experience. Thanks to TCI Research, we can now further improve our research and benchmarking activities, with regular ‘barometer’ type readings – both for individual cities and for city tourism hospitality in Europe as a whole.”

Commenting on the partnership agreement, TCI Research CEO Olivier Henry-Biabaud added: "We are delighted to partner with ECM for measuring a key dimension of European cities’ competitiveness: the visitors’ experience. Today 40% of first time visitors choose a destination based on friends & relatives recommendation, it has become essential to measure and benchmark brand experience for improving CTO/CVB marketing and management while worldwide competition is getting increasingly intense.”
 

The topic of hospitality will also be covered in ECM next annual conference to be held in Copenhagen on June 5-8, 2013. In a truly competitive environment great hospitality is much more than just a smile. It is the key to competiveness as it can be the factor that can ‘make’ or ‘break’ your business.

 *ECM (European Cities Marketing) improves the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe by providing 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 110 members from more than 100 major cities in 32 countries.

For more information and pictures, please contact:
Flavie Baudot, press@europeancitiesmarketing.com,
+33 380 56 02 00

*TCI Research is a global innovative and independent market research agency headquartered in Brussels, specializing in the public and private tourism sectors. TCI global specialized team made up of tourism research experts offers a unique range of surveys for working along with tourism destinations and travel industries on issues related to travelers’ experiences and satisfaction, destination quality, reputation management, branding and communication. TCI Research works with a select range of international partners involved in data collection and advanced consultancy to help its client benefit both from international benchmarking and local proximity and knowledge.
TCI Research is the first research company awarded by the UNTWO for its TRAVELSAT Competitive Index program. It is also Member of the UNWTO Knowledge Network, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA Europe) and the Mediterranean Travel Association (META).

Contact information
Olivier Henry-Biabaud, olivier.henry-biabaud@tci-research.com, +32 476 70 11 25