6th ITB Hospitality Day with TripAdvisor, HolidayCheck, Facebook and Google
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| Wireless everywhere - and always connected with social networks. |
Berlin (February 25, 2011). Are they now friends for life? Or rather enemies? Social media and hotel review platforms are currently experiencing a hype. The hotel industry is looking more and more critically: Since both partners develop for the branch, they are not the best friend whom one can trust blindly. The speed at which TripAdvisor, HolidayCheck, Facebook and Google are currently developing and linking up can be absolutely frightening. Therefore, the discussion regarding Social Media & Hotel Review Platforms - Friends for Life?" during the ITB Hotel Conference at the "ITB Hospitality Day", on Thursday, 10 March, 2011 will certainly be one of the most interesting discussions altogether.
The names of the platform guests and their companies in this discussion round during the ITB Hotel Conference speak for themselves: Sitting on the stage will be Juliane Cray, Industry Head Travel Google Germany; Christine Petersen, President of the new division, "TripAdvisor for Business"; Joerg Trouvain, Chief Executive Officer of HolidayCheck; Marco Nussbaum, CEO of the prizeotel Management Group as a representative of the hotel industry as well as Markus Luthe, Managing Director of the German Hotel Association (IHA).
The moderator, Gabriele Schulz, knows the hotel industry from her own experience: For many years, she was the Managing Director of Best Western Hotels Germany, then switched to a MICE company and started her own consulting firm for social media in January 2011.
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| Christine Petersen. |
She reveals about the imminent round: "The new role of Google resp. Google Places is interesting. To which direction will the search engines be pushed; through networking with reservation platforms, will Google also now enter into hotel distribution?"
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| Joerg Trouvain. |
Google as a driver of the current development
This development involves opportunities and risks for the hotels, as Markus Luthe and Marco Nussbaum will also make clear. Today, in a separate article in the magazine hospitalityInside.com, both hotel experts express specific doubts on the current development. However, both men see not only Google critically: Thus they will also not save their questions for TripAdvisor at the ITB Hospitality Day Panel.
Last year, the American hotel review portal began its strategic conquest of Europe and, in particular, the German-speaking market in which up to now, HolidayCheck has the say. Transparency for everyone seems to be a long way off for TripAdvisor: For, example, many hoteliers find that the ranking lists are one-sided and unfair. And how will the collaboration with Google look or will it give no collaboration?
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Juliane Cray. |
Where are the advantages for the hotels?
Today, another separate article in the hospitalityInside.com magazine devotes itself to TripAdvisor and its core steps in the conquest of the European market. And in it, as well as in the ITB discussion, HolidayCheck comes into play as the "established" and approved hotel review portal in Western Europe whose CEO, Joerg Trouvain will sit opposite Christine Petersen, President of "TripAdvisor for Business".
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Both portals finance themselves through commissions and advertisement. To which extent are the strategies of a hotel touched with regard to pricing and content? What does a property profit from, what brings them disadvantages - and which costs are induced by which interlinking?
60 minutes will not be a sufficient guarantee to answer all questions of this highly exciting development. Nevertheless, the quality of the participants allows for the expectation that many correlations and critical points will become clearer.
Please note: "Social Media & Hotel Evaluation Platforms - Friends for Life? How Networks interlink", Thursday, 10 March, 2011, from 15.45 to 16.45 h, Hall 7.1B, Auditorium London.
You can find the link for the entire programme for the 6th ITB Hospitality Day here. / red
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