Over 1,000 visitors at the "ITB Hospitality Day" 2007
Berlin (March 16, 2007). The second "ITB Hospitality Day" was among the top conferences of this year's International Tourism Fair (ITB) in Berlin. Over 1,000 participants spread across six panels were counted by trade fair officials at the ITB on Thursday; last year the figure stood at 850. hospitalityInside.com, content organiser and host, summarises the individual topics discussed in the talk rounds. In the coming weeks we will return to the issues discussed and build upon their contents.
"The time for design and lifestyle hotels is over. Back to nature!" Matteo Thun's prediction was food for thought in the first discussion 'Mediterranean versus Alpine Resorts' and resulted in some heated discussion. The Italian architect first listened carefully before taking the floor himself. It was "eco-fascism", he said, for resorts to simply copy their local surroundings (the fisherman, farmer etc) and called for them to be more passionate about design, for them to "feel their surroundings". Thun did agree with other destinations in one thing though, that it was necessary to incorporate "natural elements".
"The luxury and spa phase is on its way out", Stefan Leser from the Swiss based tour operator Kuoni Travel said. "We're in a finding phase." It's no longer the destination that's important but the holiday experience. Problematic: Some natural resorts are built on the right philosophy, but are by no means easy to reach and for that matter certainly not environmentally friendly. Valais tourism wants to change all that - thanks to car-free arrivals, programmes "for the senses", to experience the natural world, to get to know traditions and to wind down. Urs Zenhaeusern, tourism director, only wants the genuine for the future.
And it's for this reason that Asian Six Senses Resorts & Spas will push forward their expansion plans for Europe. Marketing boss Raymond Hall and his colleagues gave the "genuine experience factor" absolute priority, finding this in Mediterranean destinations coupled with unspoiled nature. Even the mega chains like the Spanish Sol Meliá are beginning to focus on "eco-brands", without losing sight of their many guest demands. A certain minimum in terms of comfort, peace and quiet, sport and proximity to the sea must remain, marketing boss Luis del Olmo stressed.
Nature and authenticity were also two themes running through discussion on the second panel on futuristic architecture. What interior designer Anja Schmidt could hint at in her relatively tentative but colourful pictures was transformed by Matthias
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| Listening: "Hospitality Day" visitors |
Nik Schweiger from Berlin creates "medially" extended living spaces using lighting and colour, large mirrors and both real and virtual reflections. Architectural elements creep from the floor across the façade of the house all the way inside. But: Nik Schweiger also demonstrated how he creates wellness worlds using biorhythms.
A further excursion was then made into the brand wonderland of hotels. They operate a customer loyalty method using scent, taste and sound. The American Starwood Hotels and Hyatt are the pioneers: The former attempt to give their individual brands an entirely personal scent in all hotels under the brand, whilst Hyatt wants to give each hotel its individual and above all "local" note. The first guests are already rewarding Hyatt's attempts - they're coming back. Also important will be the brand sound. "The complaints thundered down on Porsche as they wanted to change the sound of the engine," Carl-Frank Westermann explained from the branding agency metadesign, Berlin.
For the hotels, one thing is sure: "Staff require a whole lot of training on such topics," Gebhard Rainer from Hyatt reminds. And despite all advancements in multi-sensory studies, brand professional Bernd Michael von Grey appealed to hoteliers to learn a lesson from Starbucks: let the café or breakfast room smell of coffee. Multi-sensory studies specifically focused on the hotel industry are, however, still pending - and all the more interesting were the discussions.
Another tension was created by finance expert Werner Pauen: He introduced a model to help evaluate the solvency of tourism companies. One result was, in terms of solvency, customer satisfaction is more important than the amount of start capital. More on this complex topic will follow in subsequent editions.
Less about skill and more about personality
Human Resources (HR) as mega challenge of the coming years: This topic touches on a the life's essence of the service industry which is tourism. The new blood of the industry is extremely keen to learn, as Séverine Restout from the virtual Hilton University stressed. "We (the employers) have to be quick!" The subject range at Hilton University has increased ten times over in the last few years. In practice that's not easy. Thomas Althoff, CEO Althoff Hotels, explained his multi-level approach to training and further education.
Interesting here was the clarity of what was being said: Today its less about skill and more about personality. Headhunter Antje Maesse from Haystax says. "We have very many well qualified General Managers, but without the right personality." Gisela Willmes, HR director at Ritz-Carlton, stressed repeatedly, that the aim is to encourage trust in the employees. Even her "most recent additions" are authorised to make their own decisions regarding the guest. "If the employee makes a mistake, it's because the HR department hasn't given him the right training", she went on. It was agreed at the end: Satisfied employees are an indicator for the success of the company (the photo above shows the participants sitting, from left: Joe Strodel/Cornell University; Gisela Willmes/The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company; Thomas Althoff/Althoff Hotels & Resorts; Séverine Restout/Hilton University and Antje Maesse/Haystax. Host Maria Puetz-Willems gives the introduction).
Not at all satisfied, on the other hand, was the hotelier Sepp Stein from Familotel Zum Steinbauer in Amerang, Bavaria. One extreme guest comment in the evaluation portal Holidaycheck had annoyed him. His guests responded - and countered the accusations with positive reports. On the panel on hotel evaluation portals, Axel Jockwer, head of marketing at Holidaycheck, had to justify himself in front of other hoteliers. He explained the system created by his company in which eight members of staff each in eight minutes were able to process a hotel evaluation. Critically, but objectively, they showed the differences between classic star classifications and the new evaluation method.
Welf Ebeling, The Leading Hotels, judged the new internet portal as a mere "emotion barometer" without reference to the quality of the hotel. With the help of a few university degree theses, Markus Luthe from the German Hotel Association (IHA) is presently in the process of working out a number of criteria from a hoteliers perspective which should serve as a sort of quality MOT. Christoph Juen, Head of the Swiss hotel association hotelleriesuisse, still find the number of evaluations too few as to be able to give a larger and better picture. Apart from that, he went on, things are being assessed which are of absolutely no significance for the hotel.
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| Tailormade news, exclusively for the ITB Hospitality Day guests: the hotelpress team at work photos: M. Willems |
Those who want to get an impression of the event itself should click on the website of www.hotelpress.de : This specialist for guest newspapers for hotels issued a small ITB newspaper together with hospitalityInside.com for the first time - about every panel! You can still download or print your issue of every round of talks!
hospitalityInside.com will also host the next "ITB Hospitality Day" in 2008. / map
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