CICtourGUNE took an active part at the 2nd International Conference on the Measurement and Economic Analysis of Regional Tourism, MOVE 2011

The Conference built an Exchange of Knowledge Forum between specialists, stakeholders, companies and institutions of the Tourism sector and looked to give recommendations on the diverse issues of special relevance for Tourism from the sub-national point of view.

Three themes were debated: Policies for Seizing the Economic Potential of Tourism Destinations, New Technologies and Innovation for the Empowering Regional Tourism Stakeholders and Linking Regional Economics, Mobility and Tourism in Applied Research. To that end, experts on Tourism from different fields, organizations and countries as Tourism Observatories, EUSTAT, Universities, Research Centers, etc…) participated at the Conference.

The objective of the Conference was to provide those stakeholders with interest both in the management of tourism destinations at regional/local level and in the research of economic impacts and territorial relationships as well as in applications of innovative technology for the measurement of regional and local tourism guidance on the decision making process and the design of effective Tourism policies.

At the opening took part Mrs. Pilar Zorrilla (Vice Councilor of Commerce and Tourism of the Basque Regional Government), Mr. Vicente Monfort (Director of the Tourism Studies Institute – IET) and Mr. Márcio Favilla (Executive Director for Competitiveness, External Relations and Partnerships of the World Tourism Organization).

It is worth highlighting on the first session Mrs. Pilar Zorrilla’s presentation (Vice Councilor of Commerce and Tourism of the Basque Regional Government) on “Trendsetting in the Basque Country: Basque Tourism Observatory” in which the Vice Councilor presented the relevance and the innovative and technological initiative of the new Basque Tourism Observatory, which was set up by her Department at the beginning of September. This Observatory developed in collaboration with CICtourGUNE allows the measurement, the follow up and the analysis of the number of tourists in the Basque Country.

On the second session, the presentation by Jon Kepa Gerrikagoitia (Senior Researcher at CICtourGUNE) on “Hotel pricing dynamics applied to destination management” was taken with great interest by the participants. It pointed out the innovation that implies the possibility to handle a high level of data in real time.  

Finally, after this 2nd Conference celebrated in the Basque Country, it is foreseen new editions in 2012 and 2013 thanks to the agreement signed between the Department for Industry, Innovation, Commerce and Tourism of the Basque Regional Government, The Tourism Studies Institute and UNWTO.

For more information and details on the Conference:

The presentations and papers are available on the Conference website:

http://www.inroutenetwork.org/conference/2011/

You will be able to see also the photos of the event there.