The marketing team is busily filling up their appointment books for the World Travel Market. There are over 45000 travel professionals meeting in one place and it is the only place to be to keep up with the up and coming trends. The team meet suppliers and agents from all over the world to present our portfolio. The technology stand offers the latest ideas for marketing and distribution and there are some amazing new products we are going to test drive. The main purpose of our visit is to plan the next 24 months marketing, the hoteliers are the market leaders in the overseas accommodation industry and they are fiercely competitive. It is interesting to see how they deal with a downturn, they increase their marketing and price for demand.
Interesting quote from World Travel Market;
“It comes as no surprise that the hotel industry has had a tough year. The global recession has devastated business travel, while hotels have been forced to slash rates and run innovative marketing campaigns in order to keep leisure demand ticking over.
However, the hotel sector is nothing if not resilient. It has learnt to cope with economic crises, security issues and the threat of disease. Continuing to provide a service for travellers during the hard times will reap rewards when things improve. Expansion and investment must carry on as well.
This year's World Travel Market will feature many of the world's leading hotels groups, some of which were at the forefront of the past year's difficulties. But like most travel businesses, they are looking to the future.”
We follow their lead and will be increasing our marketing, forging new alliances with overseas agents and looking for new distribution outlets. We must look to the future and invest to succeed; where the hotelier goes the overseas owner must follow as you are targeting the same market.
We are especially encouraged by the increase in enquiries from overseas specialist agents from Europe and America.
We will off course report back with some of the best innovations we encounter.
