Skal Europe Area Commitee offers a permanent forum open to all the European Clubs, not a governance structure. This year we will hold the elections for a new board to continue the work done in the past two years (by a handful of people without a budget).
The forum is currently focused on providing Clubs and National Committees with tools on the following topics:
- Business among friends: Interclub B2B sessions by business sector and relevant market co-produced with clubs (i.e.: Italy meets Germany, Italy meets south France, and soon South France will meet Switzerland).
- Education: directly produced webinars in English, open to all Club members, covering topics such as Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Trends, Technology, Best Practices and much more. Every Club can include its own webinars in the European calendar increasing exposure to internal members as speakers (i.e.: Academy).
- Sustainability Awards: European awards and support for national and Club awards. Differently from SI awards, in Europe we fully publish every project, creating a database of ideas open to all members (i.e.: Awards).
- Activities: interclub activities are entered into the European calendar for promotion and increased attendance (i.e.: golf, celebrations, culture and art, …).
- Publication: the Skal Europe website is one of the most active in all the SI panorama. Clubs and National committees find here a hub for announcing activities, interviews and original research and best practices produced by members.
- Publication of Company listings: the revamped VEWS (Visit Europe With Skal) website is available to all members for publishing their company’s offerings.
More topics will be added in time according to the needs expressed by members and clubs.
Approximately every 45 days an open meeting is organized to discuss with Presidents and Delegates any arising issue or challenge. These meetings prove to be very useful as they
- Build community through personal communication.
- Raise issues that may be specific to some clubs, areas, or individual segmentation.
- Create a common set of values so activities can be easily organized between clubs.
- Put in common the work done by individual clubs or National Committees.
- Give a continental reach to Clubs and National Committees.
The support given to Clubs by Skal Europe is to be used for:
- Membership retention: participation in B2Bs, being a speaker in webinars, participation in Sustainability Awards and other activities, are all subject to the renewal of membership.
- Membership development: all European topics can be used to target potential new members, offering participation in B2Bs (startups, small tourism companies, online operations, …), awards (i.e.: if a hotel is renewed with sustainable criteria, it can be approached and introduced to the community because of this, with the immediate publication of the project), educational webinars (young members, new tourism companies, …), activities (golf clubs, tour guides, museums, …).
Skal Europe, finally, can act as a facilitator for interclub activities, supporting clubs who wish to move from the standard club model mainly based on monthly luncheons, attractive, today, only to some most loyal segments.
