Balancing visitors and inhabitants | European Cities to share experiences at Gijón Conference

The European Cities Marketing Spring Meeting in Gijón will be held February 4-7, 2015 and will be dedicated to “Balancing visitors and inhabitants”.

Worldwide tourism is growing and the expectations for the next years are a further growth. The booming number of visitors, not only leisure tourists but also business travellers, has a shady side in a growing number of cities: locals are complaining about crowdy spots… Where the marketing organizations in origin tried to get more visitors, they are thinking now about the balance between visitors and inhabitants. That balance is necessary for a liveable city, the most valuable thing for inhabitants and for the economic impact of the visiting industry.

Speaking about the meeting’s subject, Ignasi de Delàs, European Cities Marketing President, said: “This seminar will show that cities take their responsibility and want to prepare as for the future of growing number of visits. With a combination of a theoretical base, practical cases and existing solutions, participants will be provided with food for thought and tools for action for this “luxury problem“.”

Among key speakers, Cinzia De Marzo, DG for Internal market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission will give a presentation on “European Tourism Indicators System for Sustainable Management at Destination Level”. The different case studies will show the experiences from ECM member cities such as Aarhus, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bruges, Dubrovnik and Gijón, in terms of handling the pressure caused by day visitors or spreading international visitors over a greater area. The seminar day will be coordinated by Jelka Tepšić, Head of Communication Department, Dubrovnik Tourist Board.

Vanguelis Panayotis, Director of Development of MKG Group will provide a presentation on “Track the hotel market performance in 2014” in the frame of the Research & Statistics Knowledge Group session.

European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe. ECM provides 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 36 countries.

Contact information
Flavie Baudot
Tel: +33 380 56 02 00