'Research Group'

The Research Group team in 2004

Chairman:

Leslie Vella, Malta

Vice-Chairman:

Tom Ylkänen, Finland

Secretary/Co-ordinator:

Lisa Davies, ETC Executive Unit

Leslie Vella

The Research Working Group met six times during the course

High-quality market research and intelligence work is the cornerstone of effective tourism marketing.
ETC recognises this and has, since 1997, invested over €1 million in a research programme drawn up
and managed by its Research Group.

The Research Group consists of the research directors of all

of the year to steer the work programme. These meetings took

33 NTOs in ETC membership. Day-to-day management of the

place in Brussels, Berlin and Paris.

research programme is the responsibility of the Research Working

Group, a small sub-committee of volunteers from the full group.

In November, NTO researchers also attended the World Travel

The quality of the resulting studies and initiatives is recognised by

Monitor Forum in Pisa in Italy. This event, organised for ETC

destination-marketing professionals across the world. The work of

members and other tourism professionals by IPK International,

the Research Group has also played an important part in raising

provides an important annual forum for exchanging the first

ETC's profile with the EU institutions.

available data on tourism performance during the year.

2004 budget

2004 work programme

The Research Group's budget for 2004 was €87,000: €67,000

Handbook on tourism forecasting methodologies

from ETC's central budget and a contribution of €20,000 from

This valuable initiative, funded jointly with the WTO, has been

the WTO.

established to provide NTOs (and many other public and private

sector tourism interests) with guidance on developing and

Meetings in 2004

improving their forecasting activity. It will look both at the

The Research Group meets in February each year to decide its

methodologies used by NTOs currently and at the level

programme for the coming three-year period. In 2004, this annual

of resources needed to support them.

meeting was held in Dresden in Germany. As ever, the meeting

also provided a valuable forum for members to share and

The invitiation to tender for this project was published at the end

exchange experiences.

of 2004 and work got underway in early 2005.

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