Today (13 September), tourism experts from across Europe have joined forces to launch International Tourism Group (ITG); a new multi-national agency that aims to drive the recovery of global tourism through innovative campaigns and exclusively owned data-led platforms.
The new organisation is the fruit of 18 months of “collaborative innovation between leading tourism experts in six countries,” the new organsiation said in its launch statement.
The new agency believes that the COVID 19 crisis has forced the global tourism industry to become more efficient in the short term and more sustainable in the long term.
It also believes that old models were no longer suitable for new circumstances.
According to Gaël de la Porte du Theil (France), President of ITG, “COVID 19 was the catalyst needed to provoke a powerful and transformative reaction between some of the most stable elements in European tourism marketing”.
Guy Chambers (UK), ITG vice president adds “The events of the past two years only accelerated the change already taking place within travel and tourism.
“New distribution channels, super-charged adoption of digital media and rapidly changing technology have disrupted how the business of travel was ‘done’.”
ITG vice president Dorothea Hohn (Germany) stressed the importance of being able to adapt strategies across different markets to leverage both the synergies of a group and the local expertise in each market.
Dorothea comments “much has changed but Europe continues to be the most valuable tourism source market in the world and will be key to the recovery and sustainable growth of the global industry.
“Our clients know that we have the best relationships with the media and the travel trade in each market but now we also have the technology, method and the means to apply this local expertise to pan-European strategies”.
A Major Tourism Player
According to the World Bank, Europe accounts for 50% of international travel and 35% of global tourism expenditure.
This compact region, when considered as a single market, is without doubt the priority for any tourism destination or brand.
Until now, it has been impossible for travel and tourism marketers to approach Europe as a single market because each country has different attitudes to travel, different legislation, currency, intermediation, distribution channels, languages, seasonality, media consumption, air routes etc.
By pooling the resources, experience, and propriety tools of the founding agencies, ITG wants to give global destinations and brands a powerful marketing partner in Europe, with the human and financial resources to cost-effectively influence 50% of the world’s travellers.
According to Chris Pomeroy (Spain), an ITG Director, “The enormous challenges facing the industry require a new approach and a concerted effort to lead change through innovation.
“An association, network or consortium could never invest enough to anticipate the future needs of travellers and travel brands and deliver services and innovative solutions on a European level so ITG needed to be an entity in its own right, albeit jointly owned by the leading agencies in Europe”.
As well as providing full PR, advertising and representation services ITG launches with a unique, integrated, suite of solutions, developed and owned by its founders including: its own traveller intelligence and profiling platform, travel agency engagement, a loyalty and learning platform, its own e-workshop/online events platform, and even an exclusive digital marketplace for destinations.
With offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Milan, Frankfurt, Lisbon and London; International Tourism Group provides flexible access to the European market, unrivalled intelligence and an efficient way to reach the world’s most valuable travelling audience.
