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Challenges & Opportunities For 'Destination Europe' |
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E-marketing, market intelligence, operational excellence are the keys to the success of European tourism in the years ahead. |
Outlining his vision for the European Travel Commission, the organisation’s new President, Arthur Oberascher, CEO of the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO), emphasises innovation as vital for marketing Europe to potential guests around the world.
“I am tremendously excited about selling the world’s greatest product - Europe” says an enthusiastic Oberascher, who quickly adds that “even the greatest product doesn’t sell itself”.
Selling Europe as a tourist destination requires getting closer to the customer. This means finding out what customers want, what attracts potential guests to Europe. Getting closer to the guest also means exciting them, motivating them, and delivering the information they are looking for.
Oberascher points to three areas - e-marketing, market intelligence and operational excellence - on which ETC has to focus in order to market Europe effectively, and to provide added value for its members.
Tourism is an information and knowledge-intensive industry. Electronic marketing, and the internet have revolutionised the tourism business. Other new media promise to do the same in the future. Today, the world-wide web is the most important channel for tourism marketing, because it brings products and services straight to the potential guest’s desktop. The internet will thus be at the centre of the ETC’s activities.
The ETC is currently engaged in an ambitious project to develop a new European tourism portal visiteurope.com, known officially as the ’European Tourism Destinations’ portal. The development phase of the project started in April of this year. Development and construction of the portal is being funded by the European Union, through its IDA Programme. ETC will take over operation of the new visiteurope.com site when it goes online in late 2005.
The portal will become the centrepiece of ETC’s marketing efforts, giving it the capacity and flexibility both to target established markets, and to develop the markets of the future. This is something the ETC could not achieve by relying on conventional marketing instruments and its modest budget. “The new visiteurope.com will allow us to become a ‘virtual organization’ with a global reach”, says the ETC President.
Market intelligence is essential for tourism as an information-based industry. The ‘Image of Europe in North America’ study is an example of the relevant, timely market intelligence research conducted by ETC. More market intelligence along these lines is needed to learn about customers’ conceptions, wishes and expectations. This applies equally to established markets such as the US and Canada or Japan, and to markets of future promise. Oberascher cites in particular the new markets for European tourism that are opening up in China, East Asia and India, as well as in Russia and the Ukraine. Developing these opportunities is crucial to realising the strategic objective of increasing Europe’s share of the global tourism cake.
Promoting operational excellence means helping member National Tourism Organisations enhance their areas of core competence - for example, in using information and communication systems, developing national brands, as well as encouraging the exchange of marketing and management know-how and experience among NTOs. Practice–related projects in these areas will make the ETC a vital organisation, and help give member NTOs more added value.
An essential component of ETC’s marketing efforts must be to develop ’Brand Europe’. Europe already has an identity - as is reflected in the ’Image of Europe in North America’ study - but this not the same as being a brand. Developing a brand identity requires defining what makes Europe different from other holiday destinations: what themes or values characterize ’Brand Europe’, what Europe’s unique selling proposition (or USP) is. Developing ’Brand Europe’ goes to the core of motivating and exciting potential guests. And a strong brand identity will imbue ETC marketing efforts with greater impact and consistency.
Summing up his view of the tourism industry, Oberascher says, “some people in the business worry about risks and threats; I prefer to think in terms of challenges and opportunities”. The ETC President is confident that “through innovation - information & communication technology, market intelligence and operational excellence - we can master the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities to make the European Travel Commission a platform for the success of European tourism”.
European Travel Commission (ETC)
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