Happy New Year and best wishes for a prosperous 2012!

It’s an exciting time for us as we look towards the year ahead and continue to grow and adapt while remaining flexible, motivated and responsive. Although our industry is confronting a time of many global changes, we are confident that by working together we'll continue to find ways to maintain our competitive stance as innovators within the field.

Most of our members and World Affiliates will be meeting this month in Aqaba, Jordan to discuss the year ahead. This location was selected as a symbol of our solidarity in regards to the situation in the Middle East.

Season's Greetings from euromic's members and World Affiliates.

We truly enjoyed seeing many of you during the recent EIBTM in Barcelona…

The holidays are here again, a time for remembering our friends...
During this season our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our progress possible.
It is in this spirit that we say "Thank You" and extend our best wishes for a joyful holiday season and a happy New Year filled with prosperity and success.

May your holidays be merry and bright!

The inaugural IMEX America tradeshow in Las Vegas was a true global event for our industry. 30 participants from our 37 destinations represented euromic – and all of our members enjoyed meeting new business contacts and reconnecting with established clients. The show also provided an excellent opportunity to introduce our newest members from Luxembourg, Costa Rica and Thailand.
IMEX America brought us back to the golden days of US MICE tradeshows due to the high quality buyers and wide array of domestic and international suppliers. US hosted buyers adapted quickly to the scheduled individual and group appointments. We heard many positive comments about how much they learned over the three trade show days, which were packed with free workshops.

Congratulations to Rajeev Kohli, who just received not one but two Site Crystal Awards at the Site Annual Conference in Las Vegas! Creative Travel, our World Affiliate in India, won for “the Best Program in Asia” and also for “the Overall Best Destination-based Program”.
These awards would not have been possible without the support and wishes of all our friends.
euromic is proud to have the best of the best amongst us.

All euromic members and World Affiliates will also soon be attending the upcoming EIBTM’11 in Barcelona, November 29 – December 1, 2011.
Be sure to visit us in booth F220!

PS: We also want to wish a sincere Happy Thanksgiving to all of our US partners!

euromic is gearing up for the inaugural IMEX America in Las Vegas, October 11-13.

For our friends attending the show and looking to add appointments to their show diaries, look no further than our booth! You can meet with DMC representatives from 30 countries across the world in one location - euromic booth 1261.

Our members offer excellent services in a wide variety of destinations worldwide, including Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South America and Asia. We are the only booth at IMEX to include DMCs from Tunisia and Luxembourg, both excellent destinations for future incentives and meetings. Also, we welcome Thailand for the first time on our booth.

Simply click on the following links to make an appointment in your show diaries with any of our members:

Should you have any extra time during your appointments we can always introduce you to a euromic destination you may not be familiar with yet.

We look forward to seeing you newt week in Las Vegas!

We are pleased to congratulate our very own Rajeev Kohli, Joint Managing Director of Creative Travel, euromic’s World Affiliate in India, for his election to the 2012 Site International Board of Directors for the Asia-Pacific Region.

Rajeev has extensive experience in working with industry associations: he has spent nine years on the board of the India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB), India’s national CVB, four of which have been as an elected office bearer. He is currently representing the industry as Vice-Chairman of the bureau. He is also currently the President of the India Chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and, last but not least, a Board Director of euromic.

Please feel free to send your congratulations to Rajeev at india@euromic.com.

For those attending Marriott International’s 14th Global Pursuits (www.globalpursuits.com) show at the fabulous Grosvenor House in London on Tuesday 20th September 2011, please note euromic will once again be present. This year you will have the opportunity to meet with Karma House Jordan, Destination China & Swiss Travel Costa Rica.

We look forward to meeting you there!

We are honored to take a look back at euromic’s early years as a tribute to Issy Scher, a man who has always been on the forefront with his brilliant ideas. His vision and guidance have led our organization through turbulent years filled with countless hard-earned successes. Many of you have benefited from Issy’s expertise. We hope these milestones will bring back good memories of his contributions to our 38-year history:

1976 - Albany Travel of Tel Aviv, Israel was accepted as a member of euromic. This was the first successful effort to expand the horizons of the consortium, as initially it was a closed club limited to “Destination Europe”.

1977 - Issy served as a member of the Board delegation with Harry Baum and Herbert Uhlir, which signed the agreement to open the euromic office in Chicago.

1981 - Issy was elected Chairman of the Board. Emeco Travel in Egypt was invited to become a member – a further important expansion of euromic’s “borders”. This paved the way for other Middle Eastern and North African countries to later join.

1982 - Issy pushed for a further expansion of euromic’s activities. It was agreed that euromic also needed to become fully involved in Europe and therefore the Board opened a marketing office in Paris.

1983 - Issy initiated the idea of the first euromic “Showcase” - held in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta. These popular road shows continued for a number of years.

1984 - Issy conceived and ran the highly successful “Motivation Egypt” event in Cairo. All Euromic members were invited to participate. This professional incentive seminar aired on Egypt television and was attended by many high-level industry leaders.
Over the past decade many of you have gotten to know Issy in a different capacity, as  a partner in Destination China. His vast knowledge of our industry contributed to the growth of Destination China, which joined euromic in 2005 as the first World Affiliate. The initiative to invite companies into the euromic consortium from outside of the traditional geographic territory was also spearheaded by Issy.

We will all miss Issy’s wisdom and wish him the best as he takes this well-deserved break to follow his wide range of interests.

Please feel free to send any well wishes to Issy at scher@netvision.net.il.

- Your Friends at Euromic -

The inaugural AIBTM was held in Baltimore on June 21-23 and euromic enjoyed a successful show. Our members and World Affiliates from Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain were in attendance.According to AIBTM, there were789 exhibitors, 183 booths, 740 hosted buyers, 806 trade buyers, and 11,200 appointments. In addition, 55 people attended the CEO Summit, and 66 members of the media registered.

Expansion into Asia with New DMC World Affiliate in Thailand

euromic recently announced that it has added a new World Affiliate in Southeast Asia, CDM – Creative Destination Management of Thailand. The company, which has been operating top-quality programs in Thailand since 1988, was officially inducted into euromic on July 1, 2011.

“euromic is thrilled to welcome a Thai World Affiliate as we expand our roster of unique and exciting destinations for MICE travel,” says Mr. Giancarlo Carrera, President of euromic. “CDM – Creative Destination Management’s experience, imagination, expertise and local influence are sure to be of great value to our association and the travel planners we work with.”

With the pulsating capital city of Bangkok, the white sun-drenched beaches of the south and rugged tropical rainforest of the north, the Kingdom of Thailand offers a wide variety of exceptional travel programs. Thailand possesses a reputation for exotic locales and beautiful scenery in addition to providing excellent value for accommodation, experiences and services – making it an excellent choice for planners wanting to motivate within budget.

“euromic’s membership includes many highly regarded DMCs and we are honored to become a part of the association,” says Mr. Sumate Sudasna, Managing Director of CDM - Creative Destination Management. “We look forward to welcoming many more visitors to the beautiful country of Thailand through this alliance.”

We enjoyed meeting many of you during the recent IMEX’11 in Frankfurt and we’re very glad we did not have to deal with another ash cloud this year!

At IMEX, our association signed a preferred partnership agreement with HPN Global. We look forward to serving many new clients with the support of this expanded network.

Within days, the long awaited debut of Reed Exhibitions’ AIBTM – The Americas Meetings & Events Exhibition – will open its doors in Baltimore on June 21-23, 2011.
euromic will be present in booth 1404 with our DMCs from: Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain.

We wish everybody a great beginning of summer!

Following what many in the field consider the worst recession in memory, it seems that incentive travel is back. Both incentive companies and industry groups are noting a marked increase in business for 2011 and beyond.
 
With this optimism in mind and as always, euromic is proud to be an IMEX association partner. Most of euromic’s members and World Affiliates are gearing up for IMEX 2011 in Frankfurt (May 24th – 26th).

With 36 DMCs from the world’s most important MICE destinations, including our new member in Luxembourg (Luxembourg & More) and our new World Affiliate in Costa Rica (Swiss Travel Costa Rica), the euromic stand is a one-stop-shop for travel planners.

We look forward to seeing you in Frankfurt!
We’ll await your visit at Stand F700

Special Congratulations:

Destination China and Compass Tours Incoming Germany were recently chosen as two of the top 25 DMCs worldwide by Special Events Magazine. Congratulations to both on this well deserved recognition!

News about DMCs (Source www.meetingsreview.com):

With debates turning towards destination management companies (DMCs) and their relevance post recession, Mary MacGregor, vice president of business development at BCD Meetings and Incentives and 2011 President Site Global, said that her company believed they were vital with respect to engaging local expertise for motivational events and adding value to clients.

She also mentioned three trends. The first was the push towards strategic preferred relationships with DMCs, with, say, two preferred partners being chosen per destination with the view of building up a reliable and strong relationship to enable more consistency in the standard of events created. Second, MacGregor said that using online tools to manage DMC relationships was on the increase, particularly with respect to contracts and insurance. Third, she explained that the growing role of procurement had led to the need for DMCs to be more transparent with respect to the services they offer and their charges.

When explaining how she justified DMC charges to her clients in addition to those of her agency’s, MacGregor answered: “I say that in the same way my client has a core business, so does my agency and the DMC. It’s all about tapping in to a specific area of expertise and you generate value by having a relationship with an expert on site.”

This dedication to providing excellent value for our clients is the heart of euromic’s philosophy. We are committed to maintaining the highest degree of integrity while providing the best possible service to you.

We enjoyed a very successful euromic sales and meeting event in Moscow last month, and we’re looking forward to this month’s 1st annual euromic South America Workshops & Events in Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Both events will feature wine and hors d’oeuvres and the opportunity to meet with many of euromic’s members and World Affiliates.

In Buenos Aires, the event will take place at the Hotel Sheraton Buenos Aires on Tuesday, March 22nd from 13.00 to 20.00.
Queensberry Brazil DMC (Brazil), Blaguss Event.Pro (Czech Republic), First United (Denmark), Spanish Heritage (Spain), Creative Travel (India), Karma House (Jordan), Leader Team (Russia), SM Travel SA (Switzerland) and ODS Turkey (Turkey).
Please join us! Simply register at www.euromic.com/buenosaires
 

In São Paulo, the event will take place at the Hotel Renaissance São Paulo on Thursday, March 24th from 14.00 to 22.00.
Nature Style (Argentina), Swiss Travel Costa Rica (Costa Rica), Blaguss Event.Pro (Czech Republic), First United (Denmark), Spanish Heritage (Spain), Holt Paris Welcome Service (France), Creative Travel (India), Karma House (Jordan), Leader Team (Russia), SM Travel SA (Switzerland) and ODS Turkey (Turkey).
Please join us! Simply register at www.euromic.com/saopaulo

Swiss Travel Costa Rica have joined forces with euromic, the oldest international consortium of companies specializing in MICE travel. The destination management company was officially inducted at euromic’s Annual General Meeting, which was held beginning of January 2011 in Riga, Latvia.

“We are thrilled to welcome Swiss Travel Costa Rica as a World Affiliate,” says Mr. Giancarlo Carrera, President of euromic. “Our strength as an association is derived from the combined local knowledge of our members and affiliates, and it is a privilege to have this companie as a part of our organization.”

Costa Rica, with its tropical climate and natural beauty, has emerged as a popular year-round destination for corporate travel. In addition, the country’s wide variety of activities, luxury accommodations and easy access from the United States have lured many visitors in recent years. Swiss Travel has over 37 years of experience in managing outstanding incentive travel, group and cruise programs, FITs and one day tours in Costa Rica – with a focus on providing excellent customer service. For more information, please visit www.swisstravelcr.com.

Additional euromic news:

During these transitional times, our thoughts are with our friends in Tunisia and Egypt.

Please note that 13 euromic DMC will be travelling to Moscow & Saint Petersburg this month for client visits and the 3rd annual euromic event in Moscow, to be held Wednesday February 16th from 17h30 till 21h00 in a unique venue, the Lastochka Boat restaurant. The event is open to all, and should you wish to attend, please contact our local coordinator, Ms. Svetlana Nesterova at svetlana@destico.ru

Looking back at 2010, euromic saw a year of slow recovery in most sectors of the economy in almost all world regions. In the United States, unemployment remains high at around 10 percent with no relief in sight. However, the weak US growth has started to push the dollar lower yet again, which benefits US-inbound traffic.

The performance of European economies during the past year has been highly differentiated. Some countries on the periphery have still been struggling to tackle spiraling budget deficits. Others – with their exports-led economies – are pointing towards further recovery.

Economists continued to be divided on whether the global recovery would grow, stall, or even be reversed. However, the vast majority of indicators for the meetings, incentives and events industry point to improved business conditions – and euromic is optimistic for great success in the coming year…

Next week, euromic members will be attending the Association’s Annual General Meeting in Riga, hosted by Baltic Travel Group, euromic’s Destination Management Company in the Baltic States.

The week after, several members will attend together FITUR 2011 in Madrid (Jan19-23, 2011): Brussels International Travel Service (Belgium), Blaguss Event.pro (Czech Republic), Holland Experts (Netherlands), Mazurkas Travel – DMC Poland (Poland), M&C Travel Service (Portugal), SM Travel (Switzerland) and Destination China (China).

Meet them in Pavilion 8 Stand 8E30