A UNITED VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF CITY MARKETING IN EUROPE

June 8, 2017

Posted By: Peter Jordan

TAGS: DMOs, ECM, future

Times are challenging for destination marketing organisations everywhere, but in a pioneering paper produced with European Cities Marketing, Toposophy explains why and how DMOs should assert their role in place building and branding, in order to face the future with confidence.

‘Become the organisation that others come to, in the quest to assemble all the essential elements to a good quality of life’.

This is just one of the recommendations that we’ve given in the new The Future of DMOs: the ECM Manifest, a document that we presented last week to the 200 delegates who attended the 2017 International Conference of European Cities Marketing held in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

A lot has been written about the challenges facing cities today, however so far no one has put them in one place or set out a common, inspiring vision of how DMOs could help to resolve them. That’s why, with our hands-on experience and artful approach to industry education, European Cities Marketing turned to us.

The Manifest is composed of eight key themes: social sustainability, place building and branding, liveability and localism, partnerships, new funding schemes, the sharing economy, security & crisis management and smart cities. We believe that DMOs (or rather, DDDMOs – Destination Development Marketing and Management Organizations) can play a pivotal role in addressing each of these to the benefit of local people and visitors. For each theme we give practical advice on ‘how to make it happen’ explaining how DDMMOs can start taking action today, reasserting their position in the life of their city and ensuring a more relevant role and a stable operating environment for their organisations.

TAKE IT, READ IT, SHARE IT

The Manifest will be useful to anyone who’s interested in place management and marketing and needs a clear vision of where the sector is heading. Like everything we produce, we made sure that it’s readable and offers genuinely useful advice. We know DMOs will find it especially useful in explaining their ambitions to political representatives and industry partners.

The Future of DMOs The ECM Manifest

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To help you further, between now and the end of 2017 we’ll be bringing you deeper insights into those eight key themes, with case studies to illustrate how other cities have made it work - so do stay tuned to our network. We can also present our vision to your industry partners with a tailor-made keynote session or workshop, so contact us today to find out how we can help.