This is a response to Bernadett Papp’s article: The application of experiential marketing in destination management -Recommendations for an integrated e-marketing strategy to promote Europe in Canada
The European Travel Commission (ETC) would like to thank Bernadett Papp for her valuable contribution aiming at increasing knowledge and driving innovation for the European tourism sector.
The ETC is the non-profit organisation responsible for the promotion of Europe as a tourist destination in third markets. Together with our 32-member National Tourism Organisations, ETC’s mission is to strengthen the sustainable development of Europe as a tourist destination and to increase competitiveness, through knowledge gathering, sharing amongst members and lobbying, as well as by establishing a professional marketing platform for the successful promotion of member countries in overseas markets. Our four key overseas markets include Brazil, Canada, China and the United States of America.
The gathering of market intelligence and evaluation of key performance indicators are two important pillars of ETC’s research activities. The goal of these initiatives is to help the organisation and its members to better understand the business environment, identify new growth opportunities and formulate suitable promotional strategies. Bernadett Papp’s Master thesis provided new insights on the Canadian outbound travel market. Amongst our four key markets, travel from Canada has been volatile in the past few years. With some forecast 4.6 million Canadian arrivals in Europe in 2016, the market should not be overlooked in formulating Destination Europe’s strategy, however.
Following a deep analysis of attitudes towards Europe, Bernadett Papp’s thesis provided actionable recommendations on how to market Destination Europe to prospective Canadian travellers. The analysis shed light on undiscovered themes that appeal to the market. Bringing insights and methodology together, the integrated e-marketing strategy structured adequate marketing activities that foremost focused on experience dimensions. With her contribution, Bernadett Papp helped bringing key priorities to ETC’s attention that may foster capturing the interest of a new generation of Canadian travellers driven by the unknown, novel and exciting.
