Another event, which took place last week and where a small delegation of the SCITHOS team participated, was the European Cities Marketing Conference on DistURBANce in travel. From the 31st May to the 2nd June, European city managers met to discuss and hear about the future DMOs (new ECM Manifesto), the possibilities of collaborative economies (by Dianne Dredge) and technological developments in tourism. During these days we listened to inspiring presentations about the challenges in city marketing such as over tourism, safety and security and economic disruptions in tourism.
Among destination managers and researchers it was agreed that as urban tourism grows, classical DMOs have to expand their role to destination development management and marketing organisations (DDMMOs, according to TOPOSOPHY) to tackle future challenges with an holistic approach.
We have presented our SCITHOS project and the future serious and simulation game that will be developed in the upcoming year to address the above challenges and engage city stakeholders in deep discussion about transformation towards sustainable city hospitality. We enjoyed the conference and are looking forward to continue the fruitful conversations with city representatives and researchers.