Petra Stušek Elected Vice-president of ECM

At the International Conference and General Assembly of the international organisation European Cities Marketing, which took place in Dubrovnik on 31 May, M.Sc Petra Stušek, managing director of Ljubljana Tourism, was elected Vice-president of the Board. This high-level position within the reputable organisation will raise Ljubljana’s profile as a successful and sustainable tourist destination, whereas its representative will hold a decision-making role on the future of European city tourism.

Ljubljana has been a member of European Cities Marketing (ECM), since the establishment of this organisation 10 years ago. Prior to becoming a member of its board in June 2015, M.Sc. Petra Stušek had been involved in the organisation for four years, during which time she partook in numerous expert meetings representing the role, winning attitude, and performance of Ljubljana as a sustainable destination. Throughout this period she introduced sustainability in the organisation, which also included holding sustainability meetings of ECM in various European destinations.

The numerous awards which Ljubljana received for its sustainable development of tourism and Ms Stušek’s work within the Board and the organisation itself, led her to be unanimously elected to the position of the Vice-president of the Board for the Leisure Industry at this year’s ECM International Conference and General Assembly in Dubrovnik.

The ECM Board is composed of the President, the Vice-president for the Leisure Industry, the Vice-president for the Meetings Industry, and (a new position) the Vice-president for City Tourism Marketing.

On this occasion, Petra Stušek said: “The strongest attribute of ECM is the networking of its members and spreading knowledge and good practices. The organisation doesn’t pursue a conventional way of working, it’s members meet at least twice a year, often holding smaller-scale meetings of expert groups. This way knowledge and good practices can rapidly and effectively spread among members. At the most recent meetings we shared practices with cities, targets of terrorist and other attacks and, not to leave aside the tragedy of it, these were valuable experiences for other cities as well. I’m proud to be elected to the board of this prestigious organisation operating in the field of city tourism in Europe and elsewhere, which will enable me to spread the word about Ljubljana worldwide and at the same time co-create global trends in the city tourism sector.”

The global organisation for city tourism (ECM) enables a better competitiveness and success rate of the leading European cities by acting as a platform where experts in leisure, meeting, and city tourism collaborate with the purpose of sharing knowledge, good practices, and to network. In addition, they seek innovative solutions to preserve the growth of tourist visits, provide research and tools used to compare the success rate of single cities and improve efficiency, educate future decision-makers and leaders of European cities, and support sustainable tourism. The organisation brings together 105 member cities from Europe and elsewhere, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Istanbul.

ECM co-creates trends in tourism and other areas by being a global partner to numerous organisations, such as ArrivalGuides, ETOA, Imex Group, IBTM World, Toposophy, Digital Tourism Think Tank, Modul University Vienna, Forward Key, MKG Hospitality, HQ Magazine and others, and by being a project partner to UNWTO, ETC, and the European Commission.