TRAVELSAT© Competitive Index: The first global, independent and standard measure of tourist satisfaction!

TRAVELSAT© Competitive Index is the reference global independent survey benchmarking international tourists’ satisfaction and trip quality in a standard way for all destinations, markets and traveller segments. It provides an unrivalled instrument to tourism decision makers willing to evaluate, to benchmark and to improve efficiency of their marketing and public policies, in a global and complex competitive environment. Designed from its origin as a fully international and independent multi-client research tool, TRAVELSAT© has been developed by experts in opinion and satisfaction measure, and validated through a long collaborative process with DMOs from various sizes and regions. It provides:

1. A detailed diagnosis on 80+ indicators driving travellers’ satisfaction
2. A innovative benchmark system segmented on markets, trip motivations and seasons
3. A visitor feedback collected shortly after full experience of the destination
4. A robust benchmark covering destinations representing over 80% of the Euromed market
5. Multiple customised applications in marketing, policy making and communication
6. A competitive fee guaranteeing a high return on investment to subscribers.

A need expressed by all tourism stakeholders...TRAVELSAT© fills the gap! Today nearly 30% of travellers’ choices for a destination are prompted by friends and relatives recommendation…For any destination, attracting new visitors with appealing branding and ad campaigns is essential but make their visitors happy with their experience is even more crucial as it impacts both visit repeat and destination reputation! Acting in a highly competitive context more and more Destination Management Organizations and related stakeholders have expressed a need for a global, independent and professional benchmark instrument to evaluate hospitality and service quality provided to their visitors…TRAVELSAT meets their needs establishing a reference standard measure! Who is TRAVELSAT© designed for? TRAVELSAT© is both a strategic tool and a data gold mine for all tourism stakeholders engaged in the monitoring and improvement of hospitality and service quality provided to their visitors, especially:

• Destination Management Organisations
• Public Tourism Authorities: Municipalities...
• National and international Federations acting in hospitality business, transportation, heritage & culture, restaurant industry, leisure, shopping and craft industry

…and all organisations looking for reliable and segmented demand data Multiple Applications, 100% customizable!

• Marketing: - competitive analysis - segmentation - benchmarking - profiling - repeat visit and loyalty analysis - satisfaction drivers analysis, SWOT...
• Policy making: - evidenced-based policy making / Policy evaluation - data based dialogue with tourism industries - long term improvement objectives - complaint reports...
• Promotion and communication (under conditions) - targeted press release - data based communication...

A standard and robust methodology The TRAVELSAT© methodology ensures the highest level of quality and standardization with:

• A fully standard questionnaire available in 15 languages
• A multi-source recruitment process combining face to face intercepts at destination and web based recruitment
• A robust sampling reflecting main markets and trip purposes
• An interview carried out shortly after full trip experience
• A continuous data collection capturing seasonality variations

And get answers to questions like…Which accommodation types generate the highest and lowest satisfaction levels? Do satisfied visitors envisage coming back to the same region or exploring other areas? Which destination offers the best level of satisfaction for Spa/Wellness segment? What is the main issue with our TIC? Personnel efficiency? Number? Opening hours? How different are my first stay visitors from repeat visitors? Is my destination delivering expected hospitality standard on AB+ frequent travellers? And vs my main competitors? Does my destination fulfil honeymooners’ expectations? How to better perform on this target? What impact most Russian tourists satisfaction and how far do I meet their expectations? Does my destination offer a competitive value for money perception amongst budget travellers? Are the complain level of MICE visitors related to taxi service in line with the regional norm? And which destination achieves the best performance in this area? Who are the segments spreading good reputation of my destinations? And who are my detractors? How do I perform on quality criteria related to sustainability and environment? … A standard and robust methodology The TRAVELSAT© methodology ensures the highest level of quality and standardization with:

• A fully standard questionnaire available in 15 languages
• A multi-source recruitment process combining face to face intercepts at destination and web based recruitment
• A robust sampling reflecting main markets and trip purposes
• An interview carried out shortly after full trip experience
• A continuous data collection capturing seasonality variations
• A sensitive index scoring providing powerful and segmented benchmark analysis.

[slideshare id=5094988&doc=travelsatslideshow-100831050108-phpapp01] TRAVELSAT© Standard Destinations (Included in the main sample - provisional list for 2011) Countries

• Austria
• Belgium
• Cyprus
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Egypt
• England
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Morocco
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Scotland
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Wales

Tourist Sub-Regions & Cities France:

• Paris area
• Normandy
• Brittany
• Loire valley
• Atlantic coast (Bay of Biscay, Basque country, Charentes…)
• Dordogne, Périgord
• Massif Central, Auvergne, Cantal
• Pyrenees
• Langedoc Roussillon (Nîmes, Cévennes, Carcassonne, Cathares…)
• Provence, Cote d’Azur (Canne, Avignon, Marseille, Nice, Luberon, Verdon…)
• Corsica
• French Alps, Rhone valley
• Bourgogne (Dijon, Vezelay, Jura, Besançon…)
• Alsace and Lorraine (Strasbourg, Colmar, Vosges…)
• Champagne Ardennes (Reims, Troyes, Sedan, Soisson…)
• Nord Pas de Calais, Picardie (Amiens, Chantilly, Baie de Somme, Dunkerque, Lille…)

Germany:

• Berlin and Brandenburg area
• Munich and Bavaria area
• Rhenanie (Köln, Aix la Chapelle, Mayenz…)
• Northern Germany (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein…)
• Hesse (Frankfort, Wiesbaden…)
• Mosel and Saar (Trier…)
• Neckarland-Swabia
• Black Forest area
• Baltic sea
• North sea
• Main Taunus area
• Frisian Islands
• Rhine valley
• Eifel area
• Saxony area (Leipzig, Dresde…)
• Constance lake, Baden Würtenberg area

Italy:

• Rome / Lazio
• Venice / Veneto
• Toscana (Florence, Siena…)
• Sicilia
• Sardegna
• Valle dAosta
• Trentino, Alto Adige, South Tyrol, Dolomites
• Friuli (Trieste, Udine, Gorizia, Pordenone…)
• Piemonte, Turin
• Lombardia (Milano, Bergamo…)
• Liguria (Genoa Imperia, Savona, La Spezia…)
• Emilia Romagna, Bologna
• Marche, Ancona
• Umbria  and Perugia
• Abruzzo (Aquila...)
• Campania and Naples
• Basilicata (Potenza, Matera…)
• Puglia / Bari
• Calabria / Catanzaro

Spain

• Madrid
• Barcelona
• Andalusia (Cordoba, Seville, Granada…)
• Canary islands
• Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Mallorca…)
• Santiago de Compostela
• Costa Brava
• Costa del Sol
• Costa Dorada
• Costa Blanca
• Zaragoza
• Salamanca
• Castile / La Mancha (Toledo…)
• Valencia
• Bilbao
• Pyrenees
• Green Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Basque Country…)

Portugal:

• Lisbon
• Algavre
• Porto / North
• Centre of Portugal
• Alentejo (Marvao, Castello de Vide…)
• Madeira
• Azores islands

England:

• London
• East Midlands
• East of England (Cambridge, Norwich…)
• North-West of England (Liverpool, Manchester…)
• Heart of England (Worcestershire, Birmingham…)
• North-East of England
• South-East of England (Kent, Wight island, Oxfordshire…)
• South-West of England (Bristol, Gloucestershire, Bath…)
• Yorkshire

Scotland:

• Edinburgh
• Glasgow
• Shetland
• Orkney
• Ayrshire & Arran
• Dumfries & Galloway
• Scottish boarders
• The Outer Hebrides
• Highlands & Moray
• Aberdeen
• Angus & Dundee
• Perthshire
• Argyll, Loch Lomond, Stirling

Ireland:

• Dublin
• Northern Ireland / Belfast
• Cork, Kerry / the South West
• North West (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monoghan, Sligo…)
• The East Coast & Midlands
• The West (Galway, Mayo, Roscommon…)
• Shannon Region
• The South East (Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford)

Poland:

• Warsaw
• Lesser Poland (Cracow…)
• Mazury (lakes region)
• Greater Poland (Poznan…)
• Sub Carpatia
• Silesia
• Pomerania (Gdansk…)

Hungary:

• Budapest
• Puszta & Lake Tisza
• Balaton
• Eger-Tokaj Wine Region
• Pannonia

Czech Republic:

• Prague
• Bohemia
• Moravia
• Czech Silesia

Netherlands:

• Amsterdam
• Rotterdam
• Maastricht
• The Hague
• Zeeland
• Friesland

Belgium:

• Brussels
• Flanders (Bruges, Gent, North Sea coast…)
• Wallonia
• East Belgium (German speaking region)

Switzerland:

• Geneva
• Zurich
• Valais
• Grisons
• Fribourg
• Bâle
• Eastern Switzerland
• Bernese Oberland
• Jura and Neuchatel
• Leman
• Tessin

Austria:

• Vienna
• Salzburg
• Tyrol

Turkey:

• Istanbul
• Antalya
• Cappadocia
• Aegean coast

Greece:

• Athens
• North Greece
• Peloponnesian
• Greek islands

Egypt:

• Cairo
• Nil Valley, Nasser lake
• Red sea / Sinai
• West & South (Oasis)

Croatia:

• Split
• Dalamatia (Dubrovnik, Split…)
• Slavonia (Zagreb…)
• Istria

Morocco:

• Marrakech
• South Atlantic coast (Essaouira, Agadir…)
• North Atlantic coast (Casablanca, Rabat…)
• Mediterranean Morocco
• Atlas mountains
• Saharan Morocco (Ouarzazate…)

Tunisia:

• Tunis area
• Djerba
• South Tunisia (Tozeur…)
• Carthage area
• Hammamet, Nabeul area
• Monastir area
• Desert Tunisia

Ad hoc & Boost sampling for evaluating specific destinations The TRAVELSAT methodology can be applied to any destination of all sizes with boost or ad hoc samples Example of “boost sample”: Sicilia is already included in the standard sample but wishes to boost the annual number of visitor interviews from 400 to 1000 for increasing segmentation possibilities: TCI Research can organize a “boost sample” in this purpose. Example of an “ad hoc sample”: Lyon city is currently not listed individually in the standard questionnaire and wishes specific results about Lyon visitors only: TCI Research can build an ad hoc sample applying the same methodological toolbox (similar sampling methodology, questionnaire and index calculation) in order to ensure a complete comparability with the benchmark database. Progressive expansion in other world regions TRAVELSAT plans to progressively expand the standard list of destinations included in its sample, covering main destinations in North America, Asia Pacific, LATAM and MEA. The program extension is planned to start in the course of the second semester 2011 About TCI RESEARCH TCI Research is a newly formed independent company based in Brussels, specializing in survey-based research and evaluation in the public and private tourism sectors. Our mission is to help tourism stakeholders improving their performances and competitiveness through a better understanding of traveller’s opinion and behaviours. We collect reliable data based on surveys and observations to provide independent and professional analysis, with a special focus on the competitive environment of our clients.  We develop a unique range of methodologies measuring travellers experience, destination performance and reputation, branding and communication.

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