20 milestones for 2021

A 2-YEAR RECOVERY PLAN TO REBUILD SCOTLAND’S TOURISM INDUSTRY

In Q2, we had the honour to work closely with the Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group (led by the STA) and partners to build a two-year recovery plan for the country’s tourism sector. Through extensive consultations with tourism stakeholders from across Scotland and a selection of truly transformational projects, our plan is set to put the country back on track to become a 'leader in 21st century tourism’.

DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT FRAMEWORK & BUSINESS PLAN FOR ATHENS’ FIRST-EVER FOOD HALL

An emblematic building in the most upcoming neighborhood in the center of Athens and a delicious concept introduced to the city for the first time, combined with our expertise, are undoubtedly the perfect ingredients for the successful launch of the first-ever food hall in Athens, in the Arsakeio Megaro. Working with Legendary Food, we’re bringing everything together into a coherent framework to elevate the customer experience, with the Food Hall expected to open at the end of 2022.

‘STAY IN ATHENS’ CELEBRATED ITS 2ND EDITION AND BROUGHT VISITORS BACK TO ATHENS.

The 2nd edition of ‘Stay-In-Athens’ came right when we needed it the most. After a long stay at home, visitors returning to Athens and the city’s residents were invited to spoil themselves with exclusive offers in high-end accommodation and exquisite experiences, in partnership with Mastercard and ‘This Is Athens’. It was our way of helping visitors to get the most of their stay in Greece, and of supporting the city’s visitor economy.

SYROS 2025 VISITOR ECONOMY & PLACE BRANDING STRATEGY

It’s been refreshing for us to work with the stunning island of Syros. Keen to capitalise on the island’s many attractions, while ensuring that tourism is developed responsibly, the Municipality of Syros-Hermoupolis has commissioned us to produce a holistic destination visitor economy and place branding strategy for the years to come. Read more here.

WE GUIDED EUROPE’S TOURISM SECTOR ACROSS THE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LANDSCAPE

We know that definitions, guidelines, quality assurance systems and everything related to Sustainable Tourism can easily become confusing for consumers and businesses. TOPOSOPHY came to the rescue with the ‘Handbook on Encouraging Sustainable Tourism Practices’ that we produced for the European Travel Commission. A practical tool for NTOs and DMOs on how to encourage businesses and visitors to make more responsible choices.

WE NAVIGATED THE ‘NEW NORMAL’ FOR HOSPITALITY IN EUROPEAN CITIES WITH HOTREC

Now in our 6th year of partnership with HOTREC, the umbrella association for hotels and restaurants in Europe, we delivered a popular webinar with expert practitioners in European urban tourism and hospitality, unveiling the latest innovations in European city placemaking and exploring the role that the hospitality industry can play in rebuilding local communities in the post-Covid era. You can watch the webinar again here.

GEORGIA TOURISM MARKETING RECOVERY PLAN

Georgia is without doubt one of Europe’s gems waiting to be explored, and we are proud to have worked on the plan that will bring visitors to discover the country. Our Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing Plan included a comprehensive benchmark review of national tourism marketing strategies, a competitor analysis and a detailed action plan to help mobilise the country’s tourism sector to promote the country with pride in the years to come.

AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN VISITOR ECONOMY STRATEGY

We’re supporting tourism stakeholders across Ayrshire and Arran, on Scotland’s west coast, to develop a visitor economy strategy that will help to mobilise the public and private sectors, to ensure that tourism is meeting the region’s wider economic and social goals. We’re bringing the best of our global expertise to inspire business and political leaders to take action, once the strategy is released in early 2022.

PLACE MARKETING SUPPORT & NETWORK DEVELOPMENT FOR SOUTH EAST ENGLAND

We’re supporting three counties in South East England, Essex, Kent and Sussex, to coordinate local stakeholders around a new place-based approach to marketing the region as a great place to live, work, invest, study and visit. We’re delivering place marketing workshops to over 80 stakeholders from across the southeast region, with the aim of supporting broader Covid-19 recovery goals to help get the region’s places back on their feet.

TUNISIA DOMESTIC TOURISM MARKETING STRATEGY

Our ongoing work for the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy of Tunisia draws insights from a comprehensive benchmarking review of similar strategies and best practices, and illustrates the importance of domestic tourism at the regional and local level based on the most recent international and national trends. Next steps in 2022 involve stakeholder consultation towards the development of a holistic, actionable strategic plan that will allow Tunisia to achieve its goals in a sustainable way.

WE PUT OUR EXPERTISE TO GOOD USE, FOR THE NORTH EVIA WILDFIRES RECOVERY

After being deeply touched by the huge environmental and financial impact of North Evia’s wildfires in August ’21, we are proud to participate in the efforts of the Recovery Committee established by the Greek Prime Minister, by working on a benchmarking report on the recovery of tourist destinations after natural disasters, using both primary and secondary research.

BACK IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

Our take on the challenges faced by the city of Amsterdam and its tourism sector at the most complex post-pandemic era, was featured in an article by the New York Times! Our work for amsterdam&partners on mapping the future of the city’s visitor economy was published last December and is included in ‘Vision 2025 | Redesigning the visitor economy of Amsterdam’.

BUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR THE GLOBAL YOUTH TOURISM SUMMIT 2022

We are thrilled to be supporting UNWTO’s efforts in championing young people as leaders of post-Covid-19 global tourism recovery, through thoughtful and impactful content. Our first report provides an overview on ‘The impact of Covid-19 on Youth’ with a focus in Asia and Italy, and highlights key areas to be addressed in the GYTS in June 2022, with more reports to be published within the year.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD OF THE DIGITAL NOMAD

A whole ecosystem has sprung up globally around the digital nomads. But who are they really? Who are digital nomads and how could cities tap into this source of travelling global talent? Our groundbreaking report for European Cities Marketing was released in December and presented live at an ECM webinar. You can read the full report here.

SETE CONFERENCE 2021 - TOWARDS A NEW MINDSET THAT WILL TRANSFORM GREEK TOURISM

The SETE Conference, the country's most influential tourism & hospitality gathering, is back and set to shape the agenda and enable change, towards a new mindset that will genuinely transform tourism in Greece. We worked with SETE as content curators and speakers’ recruiters, for a conference that highlighted the importance of comprehensive planning and stakeholders’ engagement for the future of Greek tourism.

WE INSPIRED OUR PARTNERS AND AUDIENCES TO LOOK TO TOMORROW

COVID-19 and global travel restrictions haven’t stopped us from sharing our insights and inspirational ideas with audiences around the world. In fact, demand for our keynote presentations and workshops is greater than ever before. With eye-catching content and thought-provoking data, we’ve helped people to think differently about measuring city tourism success and where next for hospitality in European cities, and showed what lies ‘beyond sustainability’ and how does GenZ differ from Millenials.

A NEW WAY TO MEASURE SUCCESS FOR EUROPEAN CITIES: PEOPLE EMOTIONS

This year’s European Cities Marketing Autumn Conference was all about stepping out of your comfort zone, taking inspiration from outside your normal circles and thinking differently. With our presentation ‘Turning Emotions into Place Progress’, we dived into the world of Place Analytics with some inspiring examples of how to measure what really matters to the people in our cities.

OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS IS GROWING

At TOPOSOPHY we work hard but we play hard too. And we are always looking for passionate, talented and creative people to join our team’s roster. This year alone our family has grown by 6 new members - senior experts in sustainable tourism, food tourism, destination marketing & branding from the UK, Denmark, Spain and Greece and we couldn’t be more excited. Welcome onboard Toposophers!

DINE ATHENS & TASTE OF ATHENS EVENTS TO BE RELAUNCHED IN 2022

The Dine Athens Restaurant Week and Taste Of Athens, the largest gastronomic festival of the Greek capital, are coming back in 2022 for all the foodies who had missed them. Get ready to discover new flavours and enjoy upgraded culinary experiences. We hope you are as hungry as we are!

MOVING ONWARDS TO 2022

What a year it has been! But after these 12 turbulent months, we can confidently say there are plenty of reasons for optimism. After all, this is what we do best: shaping strategies in somewhat uncertain circumstances. This means that we ‘ll be refreshing our brand, tapping even more into original content creation, and we’ll be expanding our services just to name a few of the highlights in our calendars. Keep your eyes and… ears open ;)
2022, bring it on!

Want to know more about what we’ve been up to? Don’t forget to stay up to date by following us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, or ask us a question anytime at info@toposophy.com!

Finally, to everyone who has followed and supported our work, please accept our warmest wishes and season’s greetings. Join us, as we continue onwards and upwards for 2022!