REIMAGINING A NEW TOMORROW
As COVID19 put nearly all tourism to a halt in mid-March 2020, European Cities Marketing (ECM) and Group NAO partnered to launch the “A New Tomorrow” initiative. Conceptualised and curated by Group NAO, the initiative wants to empower a new conversation between Europe’s city DMOs – sharing ideas, challenges, finding inspiration in new practice and different approaches. In this time of crisis, the initiative brings ECM members together to jointly explore a new future of destinations rebuilt and tourism reimagined – a new tomorrow of DMOs repurposed.
The series of “A New Tomorrow” includes multiple webinars with expert presentations, updated data and perspectives of Europe’s destination leaders, including interviews and panels with DMO CEOs of Helsinki, Vienna, Madrid, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris and more. The series also includes a Long Thinker panel with articles by leading forward-thinkers within the experience and visitor economy, including Laurent Queige of Paris Welcome City Lab, author and father of the Experience Economy B. Joseph Pine II, award-winning destination marketer Elke Dens, Future Tourism lead at Simpleview David Peacock, German Convention Bureau forward-thinker Matthias Schultze, CEO at Meet4Impact Genevieve Leclerc, leading sustainable tourism experts Guy Bigwood, Jeremy Smith and Jeremy Sampson.
Group NAO has curated, edited, programmed, moderated and researched the many different elements of the series, which has also included a members only newsletter of next practices and inspirational cases.
With the goal of empowering an ongoing and inspiration conversation between DMOs, “A New Tomorrow” has also carried out ongoing polls among ECM members – this has provided an ongoing temperature on the direction and mood among European DMOs: After the summer of 2020 with first a small return in travel, then re-introduction of COVID-19 restrictions and decrease in tourism, 73% of DMOs reported that their outlook for the coming year had changed for the worse. Nearly 4/5 of the DMOs have changed their long-term marketing strategy to have a more domestic focus and innovation has become important priority with 75% of DMOs incorporating transformation projects as part of their recovery strategies.
Explore the many different elements of A New Tomorrow Series on the website of European Cities Marketing here.
