World Tourism Day
Photo source: UNWTO.org
Traditionally, every year World Tourism Day is celebrated September 27, and its topic this year will be "Tourism and Community Development". Emphasis will be placed on the potential of tourism for promoting the possibilities for communities worldwide, but also on the role communities have in promoting sustainable development of tourism. The official celebration of this year's World Tourism Day, and accompanying conference, will be held in Guadalajara (Mexico). Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Taleb Rifai, invited member countries and associate members of the UNWTO to mark that day this year with the designated topic, and said that tourism can only develop if the local population is respected and included in the development. He invited all those interested to join the discussion on how tourism has promoted or demoted local communities and to write about how they will celebrate that day.
Photo source: www.lvcva.com
www.unwto.org
Increase of mobile travel reservations to 2017 According to forecasts from one of the worlds' largest travel companies, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), over the next two years, there could be twice as many mobile reservations of business trips, and in 2017, they could account for more than 25 percent of all online corporate reservations. Also, CWT predicts a strong growth of mobile reservations of business trips over the next ten years, which will also change the way that companies and managers control their employees' travel programs. They also have great expectations from more sophisticated mobile applications for travel and travel services, and a decrease in the cost of travel. It is estimated that now an average of 62 percent of business travelers carry a smartphone given to them by their company, and that 56 percent of companies either give their employees phones, or plan on giving them phones.
The EC launched a Tourism Business Portal
Las Vegas' new campaign for business congresses
The European Commission (EC) launched a Tourism Business Portal with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness of small and mid-sized businesses, announced the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia on their web site in early July 2014. The goal of the portal is to help entrepreneurs in tourism from their establishment, management, and promotion to expansion of their business throughout Europe, as well as on other international markets. The portal is developed by the European Commission as one of the elements of the ICT in tourism initiative, which has the goal of improving innovations and boosting the potential creation of new jobs in the tourism sector. The portal offers, amongst other things, links for information on the possibilities of financing and employment.
Las Vegas, one of the congress capitals of the USA, with more than 22 thousand congresses, conferences, and business meetings annually, launched two new marketing campaigns to attract congresses and similar gatherings. The first campaign is called "Entertain You", and is primarily aimed at high-positioned decision makers in corporations. The campaign aims to show the target group everything Vegas offers, the total yield (ROI) of the organization's corporate happenings in that city. The second, complementary campaign, called "Neon Signs" is aimed directly at the B2B segment, that is, the professionals in the event and congress industry. www.croatiameetings.com
www.mint.hr August / September 2014
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