We’re heading into the perfect storm of social media, location technology and mobile. These technologies are combining to provide another wave of change in how consumers choose their destination, buy their travel and decide where to spend their hard earned cash during their trip.

Published: 03 Sep 2010

We’re heading into the perfect storm of social media, location technology and mobile. These technologies are combining to provide another wave of change in how consumers choose their destination, buy their travel and decide where to spend their hard earned cash during their trip.

When the web came along it enabled thousands of travel companies to sell direct to the consumer. Tour operators lost huge market share to Low Cost Carriers and OTAs but many of the resorts and hotels in the major European destinations continued to sell offline via intermediaries.

The big question is can key destination travel suppliers innovate and invest in new technology to gain a fair share of the travel spend or will inertia and fear allow an innovative intermediary to make the cash? Google maps and its purchase of ITA and also the new Facebook Places app prove the opportunities are there but nailing down of the winning business model is still to be seen.

Already major hotel chains are reporting huge profits driven by non-core products sold via mobile platforms. As early as 2009 Hilton reported a return on investment of 40:1 on their mobile initiatives. Can smaller hotels do this as well?

Ironically, this change will be driven by the recession as destination-based travel suppliers such as hotels, inbound tour operators, car hire companies compete with OTAs and tour operators for shrinking travel spend in a lot of cases it’s a question of innovate or die!

The place best to assess the impact of this wave of change will be in Athens this February 1st 2011 at the e-Tourism Conference organised by EyeforTravel and TMA. The conference is aimed at tour operators and the tourism suppliers who not only want to attract tourists to their destinations but to also use social media, location and mobile to direct consumer spend whilst travelling. Debate will rage! The attendees will emerge with the facts opinion and contacts to radically drive the growth of their companies.

As with all EyeforTravel events, it’s going to be led by the leading travel companies that are not afraid to innovate and follow this trend. Right now we are researching and recruiting the exciting speaker line up and setting the agenda.

If this conference is of interest to your business, make sure you book your place early and save €€! What’s more, this is a risk free registration as unlike airlines or hotels we don’t penalise you if you diary changes or the product does not live up to your expectations! All passes are fully refundable up until 31st December.

To find out more go to http://events.eyefortravel.com/e-tourism/ or contact tim@eyefortravel.com +44 (0) 207 3757557