Archive for the ‘Being a start-up’ Category
Making choices, that is to say, having to decide not to do something, is not my favourite hobby. For example, making this list with “only” 10 cities, “only” in Europe, make me feel I am passing on many attractive destinations. Hm. So, to limit this uneasy sensation, I will give myself a backdoor exit, I will call this list “the current selection of first 10 cities to be included in the Famous Flavours guides”.
Here’s the list. The making of the Famous Flavours guides of Paris and Amsterdam are underway, London should be next due to its nr 1 position of most travelled city destination, and Brussels gets priority because it’s the most practical destination for me to do on a short term.
1. Paris
2. London
3. Brussels
4. Rome
5. Barcelona
6. Dublin
7. Amsterdam
8. Istanbul
9. Madrid
10. Prague
Posted in Being a start-up, Business, Featured |
My first reaction when thinking about to tourism, and people interested in culinary tourism related activities, would be to focus on “true tourists”, people travelling for pleasure alone. Yet when I think back at the times when I travelled for business (quite a bit in my IBM times), there was often some time to kill before or between appointments. And quick and pleasant culinary activities could just be a great past time. So the destinations mentioned below are important to keep in mind when considering the ordening of the destinations I will be working on. Helsinki comes as a bit of surprise, by the way.
Financial hubs and Meetings-Incentives-Congresses-Events tourism
Although 80% of inbound arrivals to cities are tourists, MICE travel (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) is increasingly important for cities, not only because of the higher per capita expenditure of MICE travellers, but also because of its promotional impact. From Dubai (4) to Tallinn (64) or Valencia (84), international events have helped to set cities firmly on the map of the world’s leading destinations. Investment in convention centres, hotels and travel infrastructure cannot be judged solely in terms of MICE activity, but instead as part of an integrated tourism strategy.
The globalisation of the world economy has also had a positive impact on city travel, especially with regard to global financial centres. Despite new technologies, the world financial centres of London and New York (ranked first and sixth respectively), far from dying out, have continued to attract more businesses, thus, increasing the amount of business travel to these financial clusters. Furthermore, other cities have followed suit, becoming important financial hubs. Shanghai (13), Hong Kong (5), Singapore (4) and Dubai (7) have entered the list of global financial hubs according to The Economist, alongside long-established powerhouse such as Tokyo (51), Zurich (55) or Geneva (98)
Top 10 Cities by Number of Meetings 2006
|
City |
Number of meetings |
| Paris |
1 |
363 |
| Vienna |
2 |
316 |
| Singapore |
3 |
298 |
| Brussels |
4 |
179 |
| Geneva |
5 |
169 |
| Helsinki |
6 |
140 |
| Barcelona |
7 |
139 |
| London |
8 |
118 |
| Amsterdam |
9 |
117 |
| New York |
10 |
93 |
source
Posted in Being a start-up, Business, Culinary tourism |
The 150 leading world destinations accounted for 27% of the global inbound tourism in terms of arrivals. Cities are the key driver of growth in the tourism industry, benefiting from the development of the air industry and the investment in infrastructure and iconic buildings. From Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum to Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers, the new skylines of cities attract millions of tourists to their airports and hotels, boosting the tourism industry to unprecedented levels.
Even though the data dates back to 2006, the results of this worldwide city destinations tourism research is still worth noting, because huge shifts amongst the destinations in Europe, the VS and other main stream destinations are not expected.
The overview can therefore perfectly serve as a base for deciding the order of the production and publications of the Famous Flavours guides. The only thing is that I am missing Brussels in the top 20, which seems kind of odd, considering the fact that Brussels is the European capital. So I have taken the liberty to include Brussels in my own priority top 10.
Let’s have look at the list. I started with marking the European city destinations, because those will be most easy to start with on the shortest possible notion within my available time/money budget.
Top 150 City Destinations 2006
| City |
Ranking |
tourist arrivals |
| London |
1 |
15,640,000 |
| Bangkok |
2 |
10,350,000 |
| Paris |
3 |
9,700,000 |
| Singapore |
4 |
9,502,000 |
| Hong Kong |
5 |
8,139,000 |
| New York City |
6 |
6,219,000 |
| Dubai |
7 |
6,120,000 |
| Rome |
8 |
6,033,000 |
| Seoul |
9 |
4,920,000 |
| Barcelona |
10 |
4,695,000 |
| Dublin |
11 |
4,469,000 |
| Bahrain |
12 |
4,418,000 |
| Shanghai |
13 |
4,315,000 |
| Toronto |
14 |
4,160,000 |
| Kuala Lumpur |
15 |
4,125,000 |
| Istanbul |
16 |
3,994,000 |
| Madrid |
17 |
3,921,000 |
| Amsterdam |
18 |
3,901,000 |
| Mecca |
19 |
3,800,000 |
| Prague |
20 |
3,702,000 |
| Moscow |
21 |
3,695,000 |
| Beijing |
22 |
3,593,000 |
| Vienna |
23 |
3,339,000 |
| Taipei |
24 |
3,280,000 |
| St.Petersburg |
25 |
3,200,000 |
| Cancun |
26 |
3,074,000 |
| Macau |
27 |
3,072,000 |
| Venice |
28 |
2,927,000 |
| Warsaw |
29 |
2,925,000 |
| Mexico |
30 |
2,823,000 |
| Los Angeles |
31 |
2,513,000 |
| Guangzhou |
32 |
2,512,000 |
| Benidorm |
33 |
2,457 |
| Berlin |
34 |
2,309 |
| Rio De Janeiro |
35 |
2,185 |
| Budapest |
36 |
2,043 |
| San Francisco |
37 |
1,993 |
| Orlando |
38 |
1,993 |
| Miami |
39 |
1,972 |
| Munich |
40 |
1,925 |
| Shenzen |
41 |
1,904 |
| Milan |
42 |
1,902 |
| Sydney |
43 |
1,852 |
| Oahu/Honolulu |
44 |
1,733 |
| Cairo |
45 |
1,720 |
| Florence |
46 |
1,715 |
| Lisbon |
47 |
1,715 |
| Las Vegas |
48 |
1,647 |
| Hangzhou |
49 |
1,562 |
| Marrakesh |
50 |
1,500 |
| Tokyo |
51 |
1,467 |
| Abu Dhabi |
52 |
1,459 |
| Varadero |
53 |
1,448 |
| Copenhagen |
54 |
1,375 |
| Zurich |
55 |
1,369 |
| Edinburgh (GB) |
56 |
1,338 |
| Cape Town |
57 |
1,323 |
| Zhuhai |
58 |
1,318 |
| Suzhou |
59 |
1,286 |
| Seville |
60 |
1,234 |
| Nice |
61 |
1,227 |
| São Paulo |
62 |
1,095 |
| Washington DC |
63 |
1,062 |
| Chicago |
64 |
1,062 |
| Guilin |
65 |
1,021 |
| Stockholm |
66 |
1,003 |
| Tallinn |
67 |
1,001 |
| Boston |
68 |
997 |
| Krakow |
69 |
992 |
| La Havana |
70 |
953 |
| Salvador de Bahia |
71 |
935 |
| Melbourne |
72 |
923 |
| Manchester (GB) |
73 |
912 |
| Salzburg (City) |
74 |
874 |
| Tianjin |
75 |
850 |
| Nanjing |
76 |
843 |
| Helsinki |
77 |
842 |
| Xi’an |
78 |
801 |
| Qingdao |
79 |
795 |
| Xiamen |
80 |
792 |
| Birmingham (GB) |
81 |
779 |
| Glasgow (GB) |
82 |
741 |
| Hamburg |
83 |
739 |
| Lyon |
84 |
715 |
| Montreal |
85 |
679 |
| Mumbai |
86 |
672 |
| Dalian |
87 |
666 |
| San Diego |
88 |
650 |
| Bruges |
89 |
641 |
| Antwerp |
90 |
636 |
| Liverpool (GB) |
91 |
625 |
| New Delhi |
92 |
612 |
| Valencia |
93 |
611 |
| Kunming |
94 |
607 |
| Granada |
95 |
606 |
| Wuxi |
96 |
594 |
| Chennai |
97 |
588 |
| Geneva |
98 |
577 |
| Agra |
99 |
560 |
| Chongquing |
100 |
544 |
| Innsbruck |
101 |
536 |
| Oslo |
102 |
522 |
| Chengdu |
103 |
508 |
| Fortaleza |
104 |
503 |
| Atlanta |
105 |
477 |
| Houston |
106 |
455 |
| Bratislava |
107 |
455 |
| Oxford (GB) |
108 |
449 |
| Foz do Iguacu |
109 |
438 |
| Gothenburg |
110 |
422 |
| San Jose |
111 |
412 |
| Luxembourg City |
112 |
406 |
| Bristol (GB) |
113 |
403 |
| Buenos Aires |
114 |
395 |
| Reykjavik |
115 |
371 |
| Nürnberg |
116 |
356 |
| Naples |
117 |
356 |
| Buzios |
118 |
355 |
| Cardiff (GB) |
119 |
355 |
| Cambridge (GB) |
120 |
348 |
| Seattle |
121 |
325 |
| Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
122 |
317 |
| Florianópolis |
123 |
314 |
| Monaco |
124 |
313 |
| Leeds |
125 |
292 |
| Brighton/Hove |
126 |
265 |
| Ghent |
127 |
261 |
| York |
128 |
253 |
| Inverness |
129 |
252 |
| Heidelberg |
130 |
245 |
| Bath |
131 |
245 |
| Dijon |
132 |
242 |
| Genova |
133 |
239 |
| Dresden |
134 |
227 |
| Reims |
135 |
226 |
| Nottingham |
136 |
219 |
| Graz |
137 |
206 |
| Reading |
138 |
202 |
| Goa |
139 |
200 |
| Linz |
140 |
199 |
| Bilbao |
141 |
198 |
| Aberdeen |
142 |
195 |
| Marseille |
143 |
180 |
| Chester |
144 |
173 |
| Jerusalem |
145 |
165 |
| Saragossa |
146 |
159 |
| Tarragona |
147 |
154 |
| Malmö |
148 |
131 |
| Bregenz |
149 |
96 |
| Turku |
150 |
87 |
| World Tourism Organisation, European Cities Tourism, National Statistics, National Tourist Boards, Local Tourism & Convention Bureaux, Trade Press (local and national newspapers, The Economist, Business Travel News), Euromonitor International. |
| Mainland China’s cities exclude visits from Hong Kong and Macao (and vice versa), but include visitors from Taiwan. |
>>source
Posted in Being a start-up, Business |
That’s the question. The first paragraph looked like good news; as long as it was an adapted (MyMaps) map, I could use Google Maps. I think. That is, as long as I assume that pdf’s and e-books count as print. Hm… not exactly that. But not exactly software either. An app is software allright. But digital documents are kind of undefined in the middle.
Anyways, after re-reading the Google Maps rules and regulations, it seems like I am still destined to make my own maps.
Read on »
Tags: copyright, digital documents, google maps
Posted in Being a start-up, Making a book, publishing |
Quick tip.
Indesign CS5 is great to make the first draft of a epub document. A great new feature is that chapter headings can serve as page breaks, delivering a neatly organized epub file.
Slight (understatement) problem though: when exporting your indesign file to epub, all the separate chapters become exactly that: separate xhtml documents, one for each chapter. And now you run into the internal links pitfall. Read on »
Tags: anchor, anchor tags, broken links, bug, epub, indesign
Posted in Being a start-up, Making a book |
What is that about that new word: mediapreneur?
If I would have my way, I would do nothing else but surfing the net, collecting tidbits of information that interest me and put them on this blog. That w0uld not make me a living though, I guess.
So I decided to collect some interesting information around one certain topic – the famous flavours of cities around the world – , combine that info into one single user friendly document and sell the document. I guess that in fact could make me a living. Read on »
Tags: mediapreneur, start-up, writing
Posted in Being a start-up, publishing |
Yep, I do. I love his energy, his sticky one liners and his cleverness.
And what I also love, is the fact that this video from risetothetop.com confirmed that I am on the right path with my Blazer Guides publishing project. Read on »
Posted in Being a start-up, publishing |
Since my return from Paris last week, I have spend a great number of hours behind the PC, working on the Paris guide. At least, that’s how it felt. When I look at the actual results, however, I notice that I have gained a lot of knowledge about digital publishing, photo editing in Photoshop, the online city map market, comparing the pro’s and con’s of either publishing in pdf or epub/ebook format, how to include interactive features in a document a few other practical nuggets of information, but somehow I have not done one single real thing about creating content for the Paris culinary city guide. Read on »
Posted in Being a start-up |
There is a slight challenge for me in liking to do everything by myself; right now I am immersed in the task of creating this über practical map from Paris. By hand. Based upon the maps from http://www.openstreetmap.org/. Great source!
Thing is, though, that when I use the zoom level that is best for the culi guide, there is too much detail visible, from individual buildings along the streets. Read on »
Posted in Being a start-up |
Just did some qualitative market research. Important conclusion, be very specific in positioning the BG: as an additional collection of tips, more than a travel guide. Because in many cases you already have a favorite range of travel guides, and you are not looking for something else. In addition does a travel guide suggest a broader and more complete range of information.
Posted in Being a start-up |
