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BTL 2012


I attended BTL earlier this month. This was the 24th edition of the event and it witnessed close to 800 exhibitors and over 80,000 visitors.

Various hotels participated in the event and most of them were concerned with the economic situation. The hotel industry in Portugal is currently experiencing falling occupancy and RevPAR. Many revenue managers and proprietors we spoke to were interested in understanding how to boost revenues.

Awareness about online distribution is rising which has led to many local players now offering channel management solutions. The Portuguese market is surely maturing and understands the benefits they can derive from a good channel management product.

RateTiger has been attending BTL for five years now and there is no denying the fact that it is a business platform of reference to both professionals and for the general public. It provides a chance for all interested to meet in one place and is one of the largest and most comprehensive tourism events in Portugal.

Pilar Sanchez Aita is Sales Manager for Spain & Portugal at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She can be reached at pilara@ratetiger.com

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FITUR 2012

The thirty-second edition of FITUR was inaugurated by Prince Philip and Princess Letizia of Spain. The official opening by the Royal Family once again shows its unconditional support for the tradeshow and, in general, the Spanish tourism sector.

I attended the event along with my colleague Cristina Hernandez. We found that the exhibition this year was comparatively smaller due to the ongoing recession and various country representations were missing. However, FITUR made their commitment clear to the online sector, web 2.0, technology, social networking and video marketing among others during FITURTECH conferences.

The discussions at the event revolved around topics like new revenue trends such as Flash sales (Groupon), Social Media booking engines, online distribution, direct xml connectivity, online reputation management and affect of the recession on Southern European domestic travel scenarios, etc.

We had a stand which kept us constantly busy. Overall it was a good show with lot of networking opportunities. Look forward to the next edition.

Pilar Sanchez Aita is Sales Manager for Spain & Portugal at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She can be reached at pilara@ratetiger.com