6 ITB
6 ITB BERLIN CONVENTION The Fine Art of The Press Fam CNN iReporter “travel guru” Percy Von Lipinski pleads the case for adding social media He’s known as the “King of the press fam.” Percy Von Lipinski has participated in over 200 press fam trips and has personally experienced just about everything one could imagine: from excellence to complete failures, from bizarre to hilarious. Among the 750,000 “iReporters” sending their images to CNN for this “citizen journalism” initiative, Von Lipinski was recently awarded by the renowned channel for the originality of his work, so who better to talk about good, bad and very funny press fams than this “media travel guru”? Percy Von Lipinski CNN iReporter “travel guru” Press relations are indeed taking up a more central role in marketing strategies, but they have also become more complex and demanding due to Social Media. So what, today characterizes a successful press fam trip? What should destinations and hotels expect - and what should they actually receive? How do journalists and travel bloggers qualify for these trips and how do you get them involved? “Expectations on both sides – especially these days – don’t match. There are usually some disappointments. After I talk a bit about some of the bad press fams I’ve been on, I’m going to go into some of the funny ones, then we are going to look at what constitutes a good TODAY, ALL PRESS FAMS SHOULD BE ACTIVE IN SOCIAL MEDIA press fam. There are many ways to do this. Today, all press fams should be active in social media. Social media is a bit like a party. If someone comes to the party and tries to sell you insurance, guess what? They won’t get invited any more. Social Media is a lousy place to sell, unless you are paying for ads on the side bar. An exception however is travel. If you’re talking about a great place you just went to on vacation, that changes everything. It’s acceptable to promote heavily on social media for travel, and people involved in travel who ignore that do so at their own peril. Every participant in a press fam should be tweeting, blogging, or updating Facebook in real time.” Von Lipinksi adds, “for the first time ever, this new media opportunity can let even the tiniest countries compete head to head with the biggest markets in the world at little to no cost,” but first you have to know what you’re doing! KEYNOTE Press Fam Trips: The Good, The Bad And The Very Funny Date: March 7, 2014 Time:11:35 - 11:55 Location: Hall 7.1b, Auditorium London THE ITB CONVENTION – IN VIDEO Gain a foretaste of the world’s premiere travel and tourism convention Click on the window to be transported to a new universe of novel ideas, debates, presentations and thought leadership. The ITB Berlin Convention has it all, and this year more than ever it’s the place you should be if you want to “grow your horizons” in more ways than one! Scan here to view ITB BERLIN NEWS • Friday 7 th March 2014 www.itb-berlin-news.com
TRADE TALK 7 Getting the Best from ITB The “modus operandi” of TUI Senior Product Manager Martina Horter Chic Outlet Shopping: New Partnership with Hotelbeds 30 different Shopping Packages available to book across the nine Villages, with more set to launch in 2014 TUI’s Senior Product Manager Martina Horter is spending just two days at ITB Berlin this year, so her time has to be very well organised. We asked her what her key goals are in coming to ITB Berlin… To see my partners from all over the world. They live mainly in South Africa, Namibia, some of the smaller countries and now from this year, I have some new destinations such as Israel and Jordan. ITB Berlin is where I have the chance to meet my partners and have the start shot for the new planning and purchasing period. I have very little time because I have too many requests from partners to meet them so I have to turn down quite a few. I try to leave one slot open where I can walk around and discover some new things. You’re talking about meeting your partners. What kinds of products are you actually talking about with them in general? We are meeting with hotels, lodges and DMC agencies. Every year we have a briefing with them, when we discuss what we are looking for… what kind of products. Product-wise, with our hotel partners, it’s more or less exchanging ideas of news they have, any renovations, how are the booking figures. We discuss the rates for the upcoming year, and because it’s just before contracting, this allows us to prepare ourselves for the upcoming period. What are the main trends at the moment in the kinds of places you’re looking at and what is your forecast for business for the upcoming year? Well, people are looking more and more into special adventures, like not just booking big hotel and staying there. They want to experience also the hotel itself and the surroundings. They are looking for itineraries; what they can do on their own, even in exotic countries such as in South Africa. They see what kinds Martina Horter Senior Product Manager South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Israel, Jordan / Product Management Long Haul East, TUI Deutschland GmbH NOW IT’S MORE ABOUT GETTING DEEPER INTO THE DESTINATIONS of tours are possible and they do them on their own with a rent-a-car and they just take the hotels from us. More and more people don’t want to stay just one night at each place; they want to stay a little longer and to relax a little more, gaining more knowledge about the different aspects of the country and of the people there. So, it’s more about getting deeper into the destinations. Hall 8.1 Stand 101 Hall 18 Stand 125 Chic Outlet Shopping, a collection of nine luxury outlet shopping Villages in Europe by Value Retail, enters into a partnership where the global accommodation wholesaler Hotelbeds will sell (through its “Activities” brand centred on selling transfers, activities and experiences to the travel industry) Chic Outlet Shopping Packages and tickets for the Shopping Express luxury coach service. Carlos Muñoz, Managing Director, Hotelbeds, said “The partnership with Chic Outlet Shopping is of strategic importance for Hotelbeds and its brand Activities. We will be able to offer our clients more than 30 different high-quality products based on new shopping experiences in nine destinations. Our technological platform will give them direct access to Shopping Packages and tickets for the Shopping Express luxury coach service, enabling them to offer the end customer new, exclusive and unique products.” As Ian Stazicker, Tourism Director, Global Marketing, Value Retail, said “Our Villages are already recognised as tourism destinations in their own right, with tax– refunded sales increasing by 44% across the Villages from January to October 2013, compared with the same period last year. International tourists visit our Villages from all around the world and our top market for taxrefunded sales is China, followed by Russia, Kuwait and Malaysia. The partnership with Hotelbeds is further proof of our commitment to work with the travel and tourism industry in order to develop mutually-beneficial activities, which will increase access to our services for our visitors”. There are now more than 30 different Shopping Packages available to book across the nine Villages, with more set to launch in 2014. Chic Outlet Shopping Villages’ Shopping Express coach service transfers guests to the Villages from central city locations. Hotelbeds holds an online database of more than 60,000 hotels in 180 countries. For the year ending 30 Sept, 2013, Hotelbeds sold 18 million room nights at Total Transaction Values (TTV) of €1.8 billion. ITB BERLIN NEWS • Friday 7 th March 2014
