PROFESSIONAL/ The Boom of City Tourism

The past six decades saw the burgeoning expansion and diversification of the tourism industry, unarguably, one of the world's primary economic drivers in recent times. New exotic destinations are constantly popping up, even dwarfing the usual tourist magnets in both North America and Europe. The industry seems to have been blessed with the gift of longevity, and the numbers themselves showcase the fact. From a mere 277 million international tourists in 1980, to 528 million in 1995, and to 983...

Although public transportation is not foremost on a tourist's list when deciding on a travel destination, easily accessible public is valuable to any traveler. A new, yet already popular form of business is shared information, such as real-time 3D travel map apps, and combination packages, like those that combine accommodations with bike swaps and rentals, improve the traveler's experience and influence his or her choice of city destination. The inconvenience caused by a growing amount of tou...

European Cities Marketing (ECM) which is a network dedicated to help bolster competitiveness and increase performance of the major cities in Europe, at the beginning of June released its yearly ECM Benchmarking Report. Initial figures for 2014 show tremendous upsurge in bednights hosted by the European cities with increased growth of the Chinese market as well as the revival of the already established source markets for example Spain and Italy. Comparative data collected since 2013 indicate 4...

“UNESCO labels old cities that have survived wars, vicissitudes of history, earthquakes and pestilence as World Heritage Sites for humanity’s benefit in good faith humanity, but they often wither away, become less populated and get reduced to just theatrical backdrops,” says author Marco D’Eramo. In these heritage sites that once throbbed with life, according to him all you get to see today are similar types of stalls that sell muslins, cottons, batiks, bracelets, beach wraps and other quaint sp...