The European Travel Commission is a non-profit making organisation which has 39 National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) as its members. The role of these NTOs is to market and promote European tourism as well as domestic tourism within each of the member countries. The Reports & Studies section of the website is particularly useful for tourism research and includes a range of online reports, handbooks and market studies of countries worldwide. There are also archives of European Tourism Insights, the Research Highlights Newsletter and the Quarterly Reports. You will also find links to further online materials such as Tourism Trends and Market Insights, as well as to statistics, events, climate change and sustainable tourism. Some of the listed publications are for purchase only and will have 'saleable' next to the title.
Birmingham has taken an historic step by becoming the first city to sponsor two of its local football clubs - Aston Villa and Birmingham City. Marketing Birmingham have signed a 3 year contract with the teams in a project which will promote the visitbirmingham.com brand, in order to boost tourism in the city. The Chief Executive of Marketing Birmingham Neil Rami commented, "Football has a global audience of 3.13bn and is a major influence on tourism, helping to shape people's perceptions of a city, particularly with international visitors...it's the first time that a city has supported its football clubs in this way and we're very excited about the project." more...
Marketing Birmingham produce statistics following various surveys they carry out relating to tourism in Birmingham. The latest hotel occupancy report for the first quarter of 2008 is now available. The Birmingham Perceptions Survey has gathered people's views of Birmingham as a place to visit and to do business. And good news for retail - Birmingham is still second to only London's West End in terms of retail expenditure as illustrated in the the 2007 CACI Retail Ranking Results.
