4 NEWS Ready For The
4 NEWS Ready For The World Tourism plays a key role in rehabilitation of Haiti Four years after a devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean Republic of Haiti, the mission has been as much to rebuild the country’s reputation as its infrastructure. And, according to Stephanie Balmir Villedrouin, Minister of Tourism, Haiti, travel needs to play a crucial part in that rehabilitation. “Tourism contributes significantly to the national economy,” she said. “Every tourist who comes means thousands of dollars spent on hotels, food, taxes and souvenirs made by local artisans. And the more we invest in touristic infrastructures, the more visitors we will have.” The process of rebuilding and repairing those hotels and tourist sites damaged or destroyed in the natural disaster has been so successful that the number of destinations has actually risen. International hotel chains Best Western, Occidental and Marriott have arrived to increase the number of rooms available. One initiative being exhibited at ITB Berlin is the “Creative Village” – a project involving local communities in the Milot region, to the North of the country. In conjunction with the United Nations Organisation for Industrial Development (UNIDO), the pilot village construction will employ and benefit local inhabitants as well as offering a unique tourist attraction, rich in artistic and cultural activities, close to both beautiful beaches and the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sans-Souci Palace. Explaining the slogan “Experience Haiti”, Villedrouin highlighted the country’s unique qualities. “Haiti is a country where energy abounds. We have cultural, artistic and historical heritage, as Stephanie Balmir Villedrouin Minister Of Tourism, Haiti well as greenery, beaches, waterfalls, caves and mountains,” she said. “We are particularly interested in attracting those who seek adventure, who are interested in discovering our culture, who like contact with the Haitian people, who are interested in art and the Voodoo religion…“ She also indicated there are major new developments at Jacmel, Île à Vache and Côtes de Fer, using government funding to build resorts, airports, convention centres and an ecotourism destination island – all of which should be able to both attract and accommodate increasing numbers of visitors. With flights available again with Jet Blue from New York, and carriers including Bahamas Air and Air Canada scheduling new flights to Haiti, the Caribbean paradise is becoming more and more accessible. So despite the recent turbulence, there is plenty of hope that the world will want to visit Haiti. “We remain optimistic for the future!” said Villedrouin. THE CARIBBEAN PARADISE IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE ACCESSIBLE Hall 3.1 Stand 102 ITB BERLIN NEWS is a CLEVERDIS Publication. 65 avenue Jules Cantini - Tour Méditerranée – 13006 Marseille, France • Tel: + 33 442 77 46 00 • Fax: + 33 442 77 46 01 • SARL capitalised at e128,250• VAT FR 95413604471 • RCS Marseille 413 604 471 • info@cleverdis.com • www.cleverdis.com. 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ITB BERLIN CONVENTION 5 Bringing Better Technology to the Travel Industry ITB Berlin Hospitality Days: Former Microsoft Office boss Ariane Gorin works to help hotel partners optimise profitability Ariane Gorin Expedia Vice President - Market Management for the EMEA region Expedia’s Vice President - Market Management for the EMEA region, Ariane Gorin, runs a large EMEA-based market management team dedicated to working with hotel partners to optimise profitability and grow their business. ITB Berlin News asked her how she’s managing technology transformations in her new organisation. At Expedia, and in the travel industry in general, we’re going through a revolution in which people are looking more and more at mobile devices, at tablets, and they expect to find the same experience and to have a recognised login experience across devices. You have to manage consumer and traveller expectations in a world in which behaviour is changing in pace with all these technology changes. Mobile is the buzzword, and it’s one of the biggest traveller trends. By 2015, mobile will account for onefifth of the overall European online travel market; so, it’s huge and growing rapidly. 51% of mobile bookings are made less than 24 hours’ before their stay, so people are really using mobile for last minute bookings, and 39% are made on Fridays or Saturdays. Consequently, we’re investing a lot in making sure we have the best mobile app, so that we can get our hotel partners’ hotels in the hands of all these travellers. How do you leverage ITB Berlin? You know, we’re always looking for ideas. Technology is changing the sector so much and things are moving quickly so what I’m excited about at ITB Berlin is to come and meet our hotel partners that we’re working with today and those we can work with tomorrow we talk to them about how we can help their organisations achieve their profit and occupancy goals. If I just look at my agenda for the next couple of days, I have meetings with partners from South Africa to Israel to the Nordic countries, Spain… all over my regions, so you really see the purpose of people coming from everywhere for the show. We have a lot of conversations around traveller behaviour and around how we can altogether better respond to it. ITB BERLIN NEWS • Saturday 8 th March 2014
