Italian magazine Job in Tourism organizes the Web in Tourism conference annually where leading experts from the industry are invited to discuss on the opportunities available in the e-space for the tourism industry. This year’s edition was held on 28May 2009 in Milan.
RateTiger’s CEO and co-founder Andrew Morsi, being a well known figure in the Italian hospitality circuit, was invited as one of the guest speakers for the conference.The event was attended by over 300 hoteliers including general managers, revenue and sales managers, hotel owners among others.
The principal discussion topics included future of online tourism, importance of digital marketing and communication, reputation management strategies, brand website optimization etc. Mr. Andrew Morsi presented on the topic – ‘The next big evolution in Online Distribution’ which was received well by the audience.
Andrew emphasized the importance of having an online presence, specifically for hotels, as more people are referring to the internet while planning their holidays. People are using the web for user reviews, researching and, best rates etc. Hotels need to be competitive when providing rates and availability across various distribution channels to generate relevant bookings and maximize opportunities.
The event was worth attending and we look forward to future editions of the same.
RateTiger recently attended the Choice Hotels Conference in Prague from 25 – 27 May 2009. The idea of the conference was to address hoteliers working under the Choice brand across Europe, mainly France, Germany and UK.
The conference started with sessions on regional business future development plans. The discussion then went on to cover areas like web development, rate and sales strategies, e-commerce, a guest insight survey (by Medallia), Global Choice Privileges Update, travel Industry Sales, and how these related to European properties.
Stefan Casimir, RateTiger Sales Manager – France attended the three day conference. He shares his views and experience: “After a slow start on the first day, the event gained momentum. Hoteliers were more open to insights about new technology products that can help them solve their rate and selling problems. I presented RateTiger products to some hoteliers and they really liked it.”
“With around 100 hoteliers present at the conference, given the fact that some of these hoteliers had more then one property, it was an event worth attending. Embassy Hotel in Nice, which currently uses RateTiger products also attended the event and were happy to find us there. They mentioned how satisfied they are with our benchmarking solution. This was indeed a good marketing coup for us and was surely very effective.”
“I came across hoteliers who were apprehensive about attending the conference as they thought it was meant only for big hotels. But after attending it, they found that many French hotels with less than 60 rooms were represented there. They were also glad to understand details about RateTiger products which they thought were meant for big hotels and hotel chains. By being present, I could answer their queries and inform them that RateTiger offer customizable products based on client’s needs and is equally affordable for small/independent hotels.”
The conference was successful and surely worth attending.