Daily 12 March/März - ITB Berlin

VI Friday 12 March ITB Berlin English Daily 2010
In the longer run, Travel & Tourism will sustain its leading role in driving global growth,
creating jobs and alleviating poverty. Emerging economies, in particular, are expected to
be engines of growth, boosting international travel – with China alone set to provide
almost 95 million visitors for other destinations by 2020 – and also generating an
increasingly vibrant domestic travel sector.
“But developed economies will continue to dominate global Travel & Tourism for the
foreseeable future,” Baumgarten noted. “While many are mature markets reaching a
ceiling in terms of propensity to travel, a growing preference for, and priority focus on,
leisure is expected to provide clients for new destinations once consumers fully regain
confidence.
“The popularity of short breaks – both domestic and international – will continue to
increase. And innovation by the Travel & Tourism industry will create new products and
markets,” he said.
Overall, the Travel & Tourism Economy is forecast to grow by 4.4% per annum in real
terms between 2010 and 2020, supporting over 300 million jobs by 2020 – ie 9.2% of
all jobs and 9.6% of global GDP. This confirms that Travel & Tourism will continue to
grow in importance as one of the world’s highest-priority sectors and employers.
TRAVELCLICK launches Global Hotel Services
The market leader in hotel e-commerce solutions, TRAVELCLICK®, announced yesterday
at ITB that it is launching Global Hotel Services (GHS), comprehensive sales and marketing
support services covering corporate, consortia, and meetings, incentives, conferences
and exhibitions (MICE) markets across the globe. Exclusively available to customers
of iHotelier®, TRAVELCLICK’s internet-based, state-of-the-art central reservations
system (CRS), the service will enable hoteliers to drive incremental revenue simply and
cost-effectively through the targeted support and expertise offered through GHS.
Grange Hotels, London’s leading independent hotel chain is now leveraging the GHS
programme to maximise business and meetings revenue for its 15 high-occupancy fourand
five-star properties located in the UK.
The support offered to TRAVELCLICK’s participating iHotelier customers will be tailored
according to the individual hotel’s needs and will include on-the-ground expertise and
face-to-face customer contact with travel agencies and travel procurement professionals.
GHS will also deliver a brand presence at trade shows, ensuring targeted exposure
at key industry events, and will host a number of road shows on behalf of clients
throughout the year across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
“This new service will greatly benefit our iHotelier customers looking to gain traction in
untapped markets where having a dedicated sales person was previously considered too
expensive,” said Jan Tissera, President of TRAVELCLICK International. “With global
coverage in key commercial areas and a clear commitment to delivering effective,
custom-tailored solutions for its customers, GHS professionals have a proven track
record in driving incremental business for hotels by increasing awareness and building
long-term relationships, which clearly benefits our customers across the globe.”