eTravel Project

Jonathan Tisch - Conference Chair

I recently attended the prestigious NYU Hospitality Conference, where I was invited to speak at the alumni panel “Buildings for the next generation” and discuss needs and wants of gen X & Y.

At the conference, I was somewhat surprised with the optimism shown by most hoteliers. While economists and finance people see a full recovery in 2011, they affirm that we are already seeing some good signs of recovery and banks are starting lending again.

Another point that struck me – perhaps because I deal with the luxury travel market – was that most upscale CEOs have decried rate reductions. Nowadays, most properties are discounting like crazy, cutting personnel and increasing staff productivity by cross-training their employees. Corporate clients are in a position to negotiate rates and ask for more perks. However, lowering rates does not always work to boost demand and drives revenues down.

An interesting article about this can be fount at BTNonline.com.

I had this feeling, but now it is confirmed by a survey from Reuters. Plugged-in hotels are likely to get the most guests checking in, with a global survey showing websites, and hi-tech facilities, are the top criteria travelers look for when picking a place to stay.

With 70 percent of travelers saying they would stay at a cheaper hotel due to the global economic slowdown, a Reuters Synovate survey of 6,300 people across 10 countries looked at how people choose their hotels and what features are important.
Read more at Reuters.com

[youtube width="325" height="244"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKIqGYRuvbk[/youtube]

The Swiss Tourism Board posted a video announcing that it was seeking volunteers to join the Association of Mountain Cleaners. The video claimed, “The Association of Mountain Cleaners… makes sure that our holiday guests can always enjoy perfect mountains. Using brooms, brushes, water and muscle power, they clean the rocks of any bird droppings.”

At the end of the video, visitors to myswitzerland.com were invited to take a mountain cleaner aptitude test and submit their name for a chance to win a week’s holiday in Switzerland.

They got tons of media coverage around the world. No kidding. Simply smart!

[youtube width="300" height="230"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiECWRcD68[/youtube]

Brand: Curaçao Tourist Board

Execution: A funny television spot of  thirty seconds invites people to run away for a treasure hunt to Curaçao [pronunciation: kyur uh sow], the largest island in the Netherlands Antilles group.  The Curaçao Tourist Board is giving away seventy trips and $500,000, a real travel bailout.

Description: The 30-second video has the format of a news broadcast with an anchorman. Suddenly, people flock in front of the camera to flee for the treasure hunt and the anchorman follows as well. The headlines at the end show a web site where to go and ask for information.

What We Like: The video is funny and looks like a consumer generated streaming video. It speaks to the harsh economic situation and introduces the topic of travel – a luxury during these times – ironically. We love the clear call to action at the end of the spot and that the video can be embedded for viral marketing.

What We Don’t: It misses a bit on the branding opportunity. There is brand interaction only if people go online to www.curacaotreasure.com and fill in the form for the sweepstakes.

Conclusions: A sticky, well-executed campaign.

According to a new study from Cornell University, the extent to which hotel guests accept and use technology both during a hotel stay and on their own can be a useful means of segmenting guests. One excellent mechanism for establishing segments based on customers’ inclination toward technology is the Technology Readiness Index (TRI), as shown by the study described here.

A test of the TRI with 865 business and leisure hotel customers in the United States revealed an approximate normal distribution that ranged from people who seek to use technology at every turn to those who essentially want nothing to do with it. Furthermore, a comparison of the travel habits of the high and low technology-ready guests revealed numerous differences that should be of interest to the hotel companies. For example, guests with a high TRI score tended to travel more frequently on business and were willing to pay relatively high room rates. A greater percentage of male guests were in the high TRI group than were in the low TRI group. The study also found that the hotel guests with high TRI scores were relatively young, more highly educated, and more affluent than the sample as a whole.

Read more at Cornell University – The Center for Hospitality Research