Associates

Gaëlle Connolly

Gaëlle joined TEAM as Associate Researcher in February 2000 and has been responsible for research and analysis for a variety of TEAM projects. She specialises in market analysis, survey and, consultation evaluation as well as competitor and best practice analysis.

Gaëlle has recently undertaken some research into the potential of the Destination Belize in France, focusing particularly on tour operators as part of the Belize Tourism Marketing Study for the Embassy of Belize in Belgium. The work has included interviews with key tour operators.

Gaëlle has also prepared an analysis of all existing research on the US outbound market as part of the US Outbound Travel Market for Europe project that TEAM is carrying out for ETC and UNWTO in partnership with Yellow Railword and TNS-Research International. She has been working along with other TEAM associates on two projects in Scotland - a research on technology in Tourism for Scottish Enterprise and on a Tourism Strategy for the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG).

In other recent projects, she produced some case studies and coordinated stakeholders interviews for the Edinburgh Tourism Strategy and worked on a review of research about new technologies for travel and tourism for another project for ETAG on optimising the use of technology for tourism in Edinburgh. She also prepared case studies for the Cape Town Tourism Strategic and Operational Planning Support project and for the NITB Strategy Workshop Facilitation project.

Gaëlle has a number of on-going responsibilities:

• Since 2001, she has worked on the European Travel Commission New Media Trend Watch project (www.newmediatrendwatch.com/) by researching the evolving use of the internet and new media in various key markets worldwide - particularly their use as a source of travel information and planning.



• She is the webmaster for a number of websites maintained by TEAM including the New Media Trend Watch website, the Business Visits & Events Partnership website (www.businessvisitsandeventspartnership.com) and the TEAM website itself.

Other international projects include the administration on behalf of the European Travel Commission, of e-business academies for national tourist offices staff and research as part of the UNWTO's "E-Business for Tourism" publication and the ETC/UNWTO "Handbook on E-marketing for Tourism Destinations".

Before joining TEAM, Gaëlle was a research assistant in the International Tourism Research Group in Napier University, working on a range of international assignments related to the use of IT by European destinations, IT Training for Tourism SMEs and internet market analysis. Subsequently, she worked as a marketing assistant to the Business Development Manager and the Marketing Director of 'Hampshire Fare' within Hampshire County Council's Economic Development Office.

Gaëlle is a first class graduate in economics and business studies from the University of Rennes in France, with the final year at the National University of Ireland - Galway. She also has a Masters degree in sport, tourism and local development from the University of Toulouse in France.

Key areas of expertise

Research design; research management and delivery; questionnaire design and analysis; website maintenance (CMS and FTP).