European Cities Marketing - Annual Conference 2010, Las Palmas

Researchers from MODUL University Vienna participated in this year's European Cities Marketing (ECM) annual conference held from June 9 to 12 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Participation in expert groups and workshops indicates the well-established cooperation between ECM and MODUL University Vienna, based on over 13 years of involvement by Prof. Karl Wöber in the organization. Now more than ever, in particular the tourism and hospitality faculty of MU Vienna provides technical advice for research projects undertaken by ECM. We are especially proud to announce the latest product launch of the joint European Cities Online Benchmarking Tool project (further details about the project are explained below).

The topic of the conference "Social Media – a hot topic, but does it really deliver visitors and revenue for city tourist organisations and convention bureaux?" proved to be the perfect platform for sharing expertise between the scientific community and the industry. Christoph Berg (MODUL University Vienna Student) and Clemens Költringer presented a study co authored by Mohammed Ahmed (MODUL University Vienna Student) about the Success Factors in Social Media Marketing - state of the art. The presenters gave hands on advice about how to best apply social media marketing in order to achieve the goals set according to according to one's business objectives.

The following sections provide a short overview of the presentations made at this year's conference. In case you would like to learn more about the joint activities of ECM and MU Vienna, follow this link.

Success Factors in Social Media Marketing - state of the art

Social media has been revolutionized as the new phenomenon of web 2.0. It provides customers the opportunity to share travel related information among each other and supplies businesses with new challenges and opportunities to increase their sales volume and attract customers. Thus, managers of Destination Marketing Organizations seek new ways to promote their destination through state-of-the-art marketing tools which could help them to reach these goal. The study, which was presented, investigates the success factors of social media marketing. A Social Media Controlling Framework has been developed to measure the indicators of success, helping us to understand the progress toward reaching organizational goals, and thereby our business objectives.

Furthermore, Berg and Költringer presented three szenarios: how Destination Management Organizations of different size and expertize can apply social media marketing and implement customized strategies accordingly. The video of the presentation is available at this page.

Further details about the ongoing joint activities of European Cities Marketing and MODUL University Vienna can be found here.

Contact:

Dr. Irem Arsal, MODUL University Vienna, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Am Kahlenberg 1, 1190 Vienna, Austria
irem.arsal@modul.ac.at | www.modul.ac.at

Clemens Költringer, MODUL University Vienna, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Am Kahlenberg 1, 1190 Wien, Austria
clemens.koeltringer@modul.ac.at | www.modul.ac.at/koeltringer