Call for Participation: ECM City Break Shopping Barometer
In 2009, the Research & Statistics Group initiated a project aimed at benchmarking city tourism destinations in Europe based upon a price level, the ‘City Break Shopping Barometer’. The aim of the project is to shed light on the cost differential that exists across cities in Europe by collecting publicly available data for a specific set of items commonly consumed by visitors.
ECM’s Research and Statistics Working Group invites all ECM members to contribute holiday price-related data to the City Break Shopping Barometer on TourMIS.
The data also has very practical uses. For example, the data is used in Vienna to prepare a price comparison of transport costs from the city centre to the airport of selected cities. The analysis looks into the price in € for a single ticket in relation to the distance in kilometres and is used in discussion with public transport stakeholders.
How to read the chart: In this case the airport of Munich is 38 km away from the city center. The transport cost by taxi is €60 compared to the express train at €10.5 and the cheapest option of €10.4 for public transport. Calculating the price per kilometre allows cities to be benchmarked against each other.
The end goal of the project is not to rank destinations according to their costliness, but to gain a deeper insight into visitors’ perception of this aspect of their experience in a city and provide ECM members insights which support their destination management activities.
All ECM members are encouraged to participate in the project. Only those with TourMIS data input rights may enter data into the system and view the resulting shopping barometer analysis. These rights are obtained by making contact with MODUL University and requesting access. A simplified manual has been created to ease the data entry process.
If you are interested and would like to know more about the project, please contact Dr. Irem Önder at irem.onder@modul.ac.at or Elizabeth Shanaman at elizabeth.shanaman@modul.ac.at.
Survey items and their specified metrics are:
| Shopping Barometer Survey Items | |
| Food & Beverage | Beer, 0.33l or medium, in a Pizza Hut restaurant |
| Big Mac meal at McDonalds incl. 1 Big Mac, French fries, no special offer | |
| Business lunch, 3-course, no drinks, in a 4 star hotel restaurant | |
| Coca Cola, 0.33l or medium, in a Pizza Hut restaurant | |
| Dinner, 3-course, no drinks, in a 4 star hotel restaurant | |
| Espresso in lobby bar of a 4 star hotel | |
| Pizza, medium size with 2 toppings, in a Pizza Hut restaurant | |
| Entertainment | Main museum, permanent collection, entrance of 1 adult (standard price) |
| Classical concert, 1 ticket in 5th row middle (general price) | |
| Opera (Classic), 1 ticket in 5th row middle (general price) | |
| Zoo, entrance of 1 adult (standard price). If no zoo available, similar attraction | |
| Sightseeing, hop-on hop-off, 1 adult (standard price) or similar sightseeing tour | |
| Local transportation | Public transport one day ticket |
| Taxi from airport to city centre (individual) | |
| Train or bus from airport to city centre (2nd class train ticket or public bus ticket) | |
At a Glance:
Who: all ECM members registered on TourMIS (www.tourmis.info)
What: request for data entry into the City Break Shopping Barometer for 2014
Where: the data entry portal for the Shopping Barometer can be found on TourMIS. Specific instructions for data entry can be found in the Simplified Data Entry Manual.
Why: the City Break Shopping Barometer project seeks to shed light on the holiday cost differential across cities in Europe.
How: if not already obtained, data input rights can be obtained by contacting Dr. Irem Önder at irem.onder@modul.ac.at or Elizabeth Shanaman at elizabeth.shanaman@modul.ac.at.