Thoughts from PhoCusWright@ITB 2011
Our European team is working day and night to stay on top of the latest trends and technology, particularly in the travel and tourism arena. Most recently, Eric Ingrand attended PhoCusWright@ITB Europe – the largest travel trade fair in the world – in Berlin March 11-14 and came back with a wealth of knowledge and great new ideas for our company.
During this conference, global travel, tourism and hospitality executives as well as a savvy audience of travel professionals gathered to discuss, debate and define the future of travel commerce. This event helped attendees capitalize on the latest trends, leverage intelligence, promote leadership and foster innovation. What did Eric walk away with? Positive news. “The first three months in the travel industry have shown a steady increase,” says Eric. “Planes are full, hotel prices all over the world have risen by 30% compared to last year. Business travel is also back on track,” Eric goes on, “And all indicators are set to come back to 2008’s booking levels.”
What else? Interestingly, Expedia is down big time compared to Price Line. In addition, mobile commerce is making a huge impact on how consumers research, track, and book travel arrangements as Smartphone users figure to be more numerous than laptop users by the year 2014.
