Finding your way at ITB Berlin as a first timer (bit of humour)

This will be my last comment about ITB or rather my closing thought on the experience visiting ITB Berlin for the first time. Previous posts have described the experience attending the PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit as well as my impressions on the Canada Pavilion (post before this one). ITB Berlin, being the largest travel trade and consumer show in the world, is difficult to navigate - my new blogger friend Guido Van Den Elshout (Happy Hotelier) describes his experience: "Finding your way inside the Berlin Messe is even more cumbersome if you are a first time visitor. It has 26 or more different numbered halls while various halls are subdivided. They are draped around a square with the Messe Tower. Some halls are interconnected. Some are not. Their system of road signs is simply horrible. There is no clear map. In that respect WTM at London Excel, maybe not as huge as ITB, is much more compact and has several strategically located information points where you can tie exhibitors’ names, boot numbers and boot locations together." Case in point:

Cheers,

Jaime Horwitz

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Thoughts about the PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit and Conference

As I'm getting ready to go back home tomorrow, I have had some time to look back and try to summarize the experience of attending the Bloggers Summit and the PhoCusWright Conference @ ITB (as well as ITB itself). The Bloggers Summit brought together several eTourism bloggers from various parts of the world. Unfortunately, the sessions were so busy and bloggers' schedules in some cases were so tight that I did not have time to meet all the bloggers who attended. However, I did have time to chat at various times with Stephen Joyce of (T4 Tourism Technology Trends) and Phil Caines (Tourism Tide) from Rezgo and get their opinion on my social network Canadamigos (they both liked the potential). I also met Guido Van Den Elshout (Happy Hotelier) in person for the first time and enjoyed our conversations very much. Guido is avery likable guy and very active industry blogger. His blog Happy Hotelier is a very interesting and eclectic collection of post on various eTourism and Tourism topics. Check out his list of Unusual Hotels. I did have a chance to say hello to Jens Thraenhart who has been very busy since leaving his post at the Canadian Tourism Commission (Tourism Internet Marketing) and I also met, for the first time in person, Kevin May from the UK the editor of the excellent eTourism and tourism technology mag Travolution and blogger of the blog by the same name. I highly recommend the magazine to any tourism business interested in maximizing eTourism opportunities. During the couple of days of the event I also chatted a bit with Yeoh Siew Hoon (The Transit Cafe) from Singapore, Claude Benard (Les Explorers) from France, Vicky Brock and Stephen Budd (Tracking Tourism) from Scotland. I barely said hello to Joe Buhler (Travel Marketing in the Age of WEB 2.0 & Beyond) and I met a young blogger Abbas Nokhasteh ( Openvizor) from the UK.

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To summarize the conference is a challenge, but I can try. Most of the presentations and talks focused on the technology that drives the revolution that has been taking place in the travel industry worldwide. However, questions arise as to whether companies are making use of the right technologies for the right purpose and whether they are using available technologies correctly. On the user side, as Philip Wolf, CEO of PhoCusWright, mentioned on his remarks to the bloggers during the Bloggers Summit: "consumers took control and went from looking for the cheapest trip (Web 1.0) to looking for the perfect trip (Web 2.0)." This phenomenon disrupted the industry with the advent of social media. February's Travolution Magazine (Issue 14.0) is dedicated to the User Experience asserting that content is not king anymore, but rather User Experience is. This makes a lot of sense from the travellers' pont of view. The User Experience is King may summarize the subtext of all the presentations, whether it was about the Reservation System of Tomorrow Today, the Hotelier's Perspective, Journalists or Bloggers, the OTA's perspective or about the new eTravel startups (five minutes of fame). Having said all this and listened to all the presentations one must not forget that there is still some ways to go in the space to achieve the perfect user experience. In closing, a key thing for companies to remember, to paraphrase Philip Wolfe, is that "winner will focus on customer preservation rather than on business model preservation."

See you in Hollywood (Bloggers Summit Nov 08)
Jaime

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Tina Fitch of EzRez speaks at the PhoCusWright Conference @ ITB 2008

Ms. Fitch gave an interesting presentation about the reservation system of the future. The thrust of her remarks focused on the opportunity for the travel industry to collaborate in order to develop better reservations systems that would be able to better target (and better serve) consumers as they go from site to site always having to type in their information (as she correctly pointed out - consumers use several . The idea of airlines, car rental companies and hotels cooperating and sharing data is interesting, but it perhaps not doable. See excerpts from her presentation in the video below.

From Berlin,

Jaime

PhoCusWright Conference at ITB Berlin - Re-Inventing the Holiday Booking

Easy Jet, apparently one of the most successfull airlines in Europe generates 98% of its flight bookings online. 20% of their customers are business travelers. Last year the airline decided to enter the Holiday business by adding hotel/car packages to its "product line" and launching a new site for the purpose. John Kohlsaat said that the airline wanted to take advantage of their success selling flights online and therefore entered the holiday space as an additional source of revenue. Easyjet specializes in short haul trips all over Europe (except in France where airlines are not allowed to offer package according to a member of the audience). What this presentation reminds me of is the enormous competition that exists online for travellers' attention and share of wallet (the morning session had European Online Travel Agencies discussing their business - OTA business models continue to change both in Europe and the U.S. Transaction commissions and merchant fees are being challenged by a variety of advertising and referral revenue streams.)

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Here's a video snippet of the Q&A following Mr. Kohlsaat's presentation. I wonder if this is the model that WestJet in Canada is following? Any comments?

regards from Berlin,

Jaime

Tourism Bloggers Summit in Berlin continued

The first day of the PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit was very interesting for my first time participating. I did not know what to expect by attending, so initially I just focussed on paying attention and listening. The sessions were thought provoking and I think I came away with some interesting bits of knowledge that may be worth exploring for possible applications for my eTourism business.
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However, one of the key issues that has stuck with me is the confusion that exists between Tourism INDUSTRY Bloggers and Tourism Travel Bloggers, i.e. those who write for the general public as oppose to the former who write for the industry. When non-technology or industry insiders hear the term Bloggers in the context of the travel industry they probably think of Travel Bloggers. I think we must make the distinction more clear.

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Well, I'm running a bit late for the second day which consists of attending the PhoCusWright Conference at ITB, Success in Travel eBusiness, an interesting event that focuses on eTourism, techonology and tourism strategy. I will be reporting here on those topics that I may find relevant for the Canadian Tourism Industry, with an emphasis on the small and medium enterprise. For more information and to read other bloggers' thoughts on this summit visit the Tips from the T-List ITB 2008 website.

Cheers,

Jaime

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More on Bloggers vs Journalists

Bloggers Summit - do you blog? Is there a blogger in your business?

The question about how tourism businesses can engage tourism bloggers came up during the second panel at the Bloggers Summit in Berlin. One of the answers is to start your own blog and write about stories about your business, whether you write anecdotal stories or behind the scenes commentary. Moderator Yeoh Sing asks whether destinations invite or might invite bloggers on Fam trips. Answering as a DMO William Bakker says that it depends on reach, i.e. how many people does the blogger reach. If the blog is relevant to the DMO's message and the reach is good enough then they would treat a blogger just like a journalist and invite them on a fam trip.

Jaime

The Bloggers Summit continues - Journalists vs. Bloggers

The panel for this session will deal with the topic of journalists vs. bloggers. Yeow Siew Hoon (The Transit Cafe) the moderator starts the session by asking the question: Why do you blog? Bakker: I started blogging to connect with my family when I moved from the Netherlands to Canada. Later on it evolved into a platform to write about the tourism industry and what was going on in my work with Tourism British Columbia Joe Buhler: Three words - I have opinions

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Do you think there's a difference between a journalist and a blogger? Joe Buhler - yes definitely - Joe mentions that he is not a journalist but he has opinions that he likes to express and thus he's a blogger. do you agree that "anyone can be a blogger but not everyone can be a journalist?" Bakker - yes there is a difference. Journalists are trained professionals (bloggers may or may not be) There seems to be a consensus that the main difference between journalists and bloggers is the freedom to write (or post). Bloggers feel free to write about whatever they want without fear of editorial restrictions or politics (or business) considerations.

Should the consumer trust a journalist more or a blogger more? For certain topics bloggers are experts in the area they are writing about and if the reader knows this then the blogger will have more trust than a journalist writing a one - time article on the subject.

from Berlin,

Jaime

As a Hotel Company - How do you reach bloggers?

You research blogs to find those that might be suitable to your message and then approach them, simply approach them. (Stephen Joyce)

PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit Berlin

What is the Real Opportunity for the Travel and Tourism Industry when it comes to Blogging? cont'd

Travolution's Kevin May talks about the issues that may arise between what is blogging for the industry and blogging for the consumer. I ask the question about what industry tourism bloggers can do for the small businesses in the industry. I make the comment that in my opinion one of the primary benefits tourism bloggers provide to the small business community is knowledge. There is a strong educational component in travel tourism industry blogs. Annalisa Ballaria of Relactions does confirm that this is an important aspect of industry blogs and this summit is an example of it. "We're all here learning from each other."

Jaime Horwitz

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