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When discussing the world’s most visited place, it seems that whether you are talking about the past, present or future the city doesn´t change. Paris you say, or perhaps London or Rome?

Not by a long way. Recently Hong Kong again took the title of the world’s most visited city in Euromonitor’s annual Top 100 City Destinations Ranking – for the ninth consecutive year.

Hong Kong has claimed the title with 30 million international visitors in 2018. London hangs is in third place, with just under 21 million international tourists expected, Paris, with 16.9 million, and Rome, with 9.7 million are far behind and must make do with sixth place and 15th place, respectively.

How can this be? In part Hong Kong remains the top city in the world as it benefits from its strategic geographic location and relationship with China, boosting not just leisure tourism but also business vistors with commercial trading links.

It will be helped too by a uptick in visitor numbers expected, especially from the mainland, due to two new cross-border transport links that opened last year, making access between mainland China and Hong Kong even easier. The first of these transport links is the world’s longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Zhuhai, and Macau. The second is an express rail link to Guangzhou (a city with a mere 13 million residents).

Generally though it is obvious why tourists might be attracted to the city. Hong Kong is known for its incredible atmosphere – it really is an Eastern New York, a city that never sleeps. Combining Eastern and Western cultures across 263 islands, this exotic blend of marine culture, rural greenery, mountains and impressive skyscrapers helped make Hong Kong the world’s most visited city last year.

Despite standing still in the rankings, in many respects Hong Kong is actually achieving that by evolving. The ranking showed that six out of the top 10 most visited cities are in Asia, with Hong Kong and Bangkok as the top two performers and with Singapore, Macau, Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen in the global top 10. More generally, Asia continues its rise, accounting for 41 out of the top 100 cities globally in 2018, up by four.

This is why at Hotelbeds we have been had a deep presence in Asia Pacific for many years, with a hub office in Singapore and over 200 employees just in China. In fact, the Chinese source market for us is our fourth biggest globally – and many of those Chinese travellers are visiting Hong Kong.

Let’s see what new things this forthcoming year is bound to bring us in the world of tourism. But if the past is a reliable indicator of the future, it really would seem that for some years to come all paths will lead to Hong Kong.&nbsp;


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Somehow in the fast moving world of tourism the world’s most visited city stands still

By Sam Turner, Wholesale Sales &amp; Sourcing Director, Hotelbeds&nbsp;(article first published as an opinion piece by Travolution on 25 January)

Language barrier or cultural differences: which of these is the single biggest challenge for a European or North American hotel chain trying to attract Chinese travelers?

This week in China marks the Year of the Pig and perhaps hoteliers should give more thought to a fatter problem: technology.

Technology is a major barrier for hoteliers when dealing with the Chinese market. At the core of the problem is the fact that the technology platforms they are used to using are all entirely different from ours. They can´t access Google, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even WhatsApp.

Instead they use three main social media channels: Baidu (a search engine), WeChat (WhatsApp on steroids) and Weibo (similar to Twitter). And they don´t have Uber anymore, instead they use something called Didi.

This creates two headaches for hotels, or any inbound tourism service provider. Firstly how to market to Chinese audiences; and secondly for handling customer services via social media.

Just like in the West, Chinese travelers are heavily influenced by social media and the lifestyles promoted on them. Just like in the west content is king, in particular of the video and user generated type. And just like in the west, ‘influencers’ with millions of followers can make or break a destination or travel brand. There is only one small but vital difference: all of the platforms or tools they use are completely different from ours.

All of this means marketers don’t just have to create Chinese language content, the content has to be actually on Chinese only social media channels too. Often this requires different formats, a whole different way of thinking even.&nbsp; To make matters worse, they aren´t always so easy to set-up, as in some cases to start an official account you need to be a registered company in China.

Western hoteliers need to embrace the whole range of Chinese tools, Apps, websites and platforms that make up the travel ecosystem.&nbsp; In particular they should look closely at Qyer, with over 80 million subscribers, or the similarly popular Mafengwo. They are both comparable to TripAdvisor in that they feature user-generated content (UGC) and offer travel tips and advice – but additionally they actually sell travel content such as hotels and flights, so it is essential to have your accommodation available via their platforms.&nbsp; Another popular site is Xiaohongshu, a cross between a shopping and lifestyle App popular with young travelers; it doesn´t yet have a hotel booking function but they can heavily influence the choice of destination for travel, so gaining a presence in its content is essential (again, video is key).&nbsp;

For inspiration on what to do for your own channels, Western hoteliers should have a close look at what the leading Chinese hotel groups such as Mandarin Oriental and Wanda are doing on their social media channels.

To discover how not to do things, we only need look at the Dolce &amp; Gabbana advertising campaign that backfired massively last year. As consumers boycotted their goods, retailers withdrew them from sale. An important lesson must be learned here: local cultural sensitivities must be respected at your peril – so getting local support and advice is key before conceiving, let alone launching, any campaigns.

For us at Hotelbeds we´ve been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years and have over 250 local employees, including an operations team. In fact, already China has become our fourth biggest source market globally and is still growing fast.

Our success has in part been achieved by embracing these technology changes and working with our hotel partners to help them adjust their offering accordingly – almost 3% of all Chinese inbound hotel reservations for the American market now flow via our platform, thanks to an internal team we have dedicated to sourcing ‘China-ready’ hotels for this corridor. By partnering with us we allow hoteliers a quick and cost-effective route into the Chinese market, without having to create their own local sales teams, social media presence or customer support teams.

These challenges will only get worse as Chinese travelers begin to travel less in groups and on pre-paid package trips, and instead travel alone – a trend which Japanese travelers followed from the 1980s onwards. Technology could enable this, and right now it is not in many cases.

Last year in China it was the Year of the Dog, and whilst some Western tourism organisations continued to make a mess of the situation, signs of improvement have been noticed. For example in Spain travellers can now claim their Duty Free Tax Refund at the airport using AliPay.

This time round it is the Year of the Pig and I truly believe that if more hoteliers continue adapting to Chinese technology they’ll be able to bring home the bacon, year after year. &nbsp;&nbsp;

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Will Chinese technology give hoteliers a fat problem this Year of the Pig?

By Antonia Aguiló 

Today in Madrid sees the kick-off of the 39th edition of FITUR, the international tourism trade fair that takes place from the 23rd- 27th&nbsp;January.

The three-day exhibition is renowned for attracting the largest global representation of industry professionals due to its strategic position as the first industry event in the calendar each year.

Last year’s official theme was technology, but what’s on the agenda this year? Sustainability is the topic on everyone’s lips this time, and it’s official.

But why is sustainability so important for the travel industry? Well the fact is that tourism represents around 5% of global emissions, with 4% of them generated by transport and 1% by the accommodation sector. And, rightly so, travelers are becoming increasingly aware of this.

From a hotel reservations and booking perspective, ‘travel with a conscience’ will play an ever more important key role in the coming years for those providing and selling hotel accommodation. For sure Millennials and Generation Z will happily spend more on smart destinations, sustainable activities and green hotels.

As Spain’s most important travel trade show FITUR can lead the way on debating an important topic such as this, bringing together thousands of international exhibitors and top decision makers from across the travel industry in the Europe, Latin American and beyond.

This year FITUR expects to generate more than 325 million euros in revenues for the local economy and surpass the 251,000 attendees – with a massive140,000 of them professionals &nbsp;– &nbsp;who attended last year. In total there will be 886 exhibitors, 8.3% more than in 2018, and a total of 10,487 companies attending from 165 countries and Spanish regions.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how FITUR 2019 will bring the sustainability theme to the forefront along with visiting our many industry partners who are exhibiting at the show. Hope to see you there!

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 This year FITUR is set to be bigger, stronger and greener than ever

For those not involved in the world of commerce, B2B sounds like a boy band or brand of headphones. So if you work in the B2B travel sector, small talk at a Sunday lunch with your mother-in-law can be daunting.

Using the term ‘travel technology’ can get even more confusing. Someone who designs suitcases or the seating on airplanes? Or maybe fixing the broken radar or computers on jumbo jets?

But when you try another tack and say ‘behind-the-scenes’, they imagine something physically behind-the-scenes – perhaps working on the luggage conveyer belt behind the check-in, or at best someone in accounts payable back in the head office of a hotel.

Even when they work out that you aren´t a bell boy or tour guide, friends and family still keep asking you for holiday tips or, worst of all, discounts for flights or hotels.

It’s perhaps understandable that the average person can only conjure up images of consumer brands. But why do business people, and even people in the travel industry, still focus on this one area?

From an economic perspective, they couldn´t be more wrong. B2B services are where the money is at. For example, did you know that the market capitalization of many of the biggest hotels or airlines in Europe is still way less than travel technology firms such as Amadeus?

A well-known venture capital investor for the travel space once commented on how frustrating it was that 9 out of 10 ideas pitched to them were for consumer services, despite such businesses tending to be much lower profit margins than B2B.

Even when you look at the speaker line-ups for industry conferences, you would have the impression too that B2C is really the more dominant sphere.

Nonetheless, opinions on B2B are starting to shift as technology is creating more B2B opportunities than ever before.

Recently at World Travel Market (WTM) in London they recognized this shift and created a whole new area called Travel Forward, with its own conference stage too, dedicated to technology. Step forward hundreds of channel managers, API connectivity, GDSs, payments processors, inventory systems, revenue management tools and most importantly, of course, our sector: bedbanks. There was a whole world of successful technology companies to be found.

That’s why at Hotelbeds we are 100% focused on the B2B market only: we know our strengths and focus on our core offering. It gives us a great sense of achievement to have built the world’s largest and best bedbank. Since Tourico Holidays and GTA joined us in 2017, we’ve been busy bringing the companies together into one offering for our travel intermediary clients and hotel suppliers.&nbsp;

Late last year we announced that from now on we´ll be just one brand and we’ve launched a new brand image to match this.&nbsp; This reflects that at Hotelbeds we are proud to be behind-the-scenes, dedicated to helping our B2B partners increase margins and allowing them to focus on what they in turn do best: managing the relationship with travellers.

Consumers might be the final stop on the travel industry journey. But as the growth of B2B players and travel technology partners shows, consumers are not the only destination along the way.


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Are travellers the only destination on the travel map?

By Roman Townsend&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

For those of you who haven´t had the pleasure of visiting our global headquarters in Mallorca, we are based near to Palma airport in a building called ‘Mirall’.

And so I have the pleasure of writing another year’s missive from the vantage point of our offices overlooking the runway. What could be more travel central than a frontline view of the 20 million passengers who pass through the airport every year?

A year might not sound so long, but some years count more than others and this one has been transformational for Hotelbeds. When I look back at everything that has happened, I realise this really is a massive missive (to use a rather laboured alliteration).

Following Tourico Holidays and GTA joining us in 2017, this year we’ve been integrating them into our business and that process is now close to being completed. In fact in late October we announced a new brand architecture and identity for the company under a refreshed Hotelbeds brand. As part of this, we launched our new integrated retail travel agent offering under a refreshed Bedsonline brand too.

Over the year we have put in place a strong leadership team, starting with the executive level and more recently moving down to mid-level management. Combining the best talent from across our organization, we now have fantastic sales, sourcing, retail, marketing and product management teams confirmed across all of our regions globally.

As part of our clear strategy to focus on our bedbank core, in March we announced the sale of our Destination Management division – which focused on the provision of in-destination services – to TUI for 110 million euros.

Even more recently, in November, we confirmed that we have acquired HolidayTaxis, the transfer bookings company. This acquisition is a reflection of our desire to expand our Beyond the Bed product line, where we offer ancillary services such as transfers and tours.

There have been many other great highlights too, such as the launch of our Corporate Volunteering Program, the continued growth of China as a source market, and the partnership with Singapore Airlines.&nbsp;

Our achievements have been reflected by an increased industry presence for Hotelbeds. Whether it has been on the podium at leading events such as Skift, Phocuswright, ITB Berlin, and WTM London, or in the pages of leading publications such as Skift, Travolution, Phocuswire, or more, I´m proud to say that we are leading the distribution debate.

But as John Lennon sang in Happy Christmas in 1971, “another year over, a new one just begun”. Epic as the year has been, our New Year’s resolution to the travel industry remains once more unchanged: to be the world’s leading bedbank.

Happy New Year from all of us at Hotelbeds: may all your distribution dreams come true and technology resolutions remain resolute!&nbsp;


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Another year over? This year the missive from Mirall is massive

By Wei Wang, Media Relations &amp;Corporate Affairs—APAC

Everybody knows about how important a festival the Lunar New Year is for all Chinese people. But what happens at Christmas and the western New Year’s Eve period? And what do travel industry professionals need to know about it?

The good news for Christmas aficionados is that even though the country does not celebrate Christmas officially, you will hear carols in the streets and shops throughout the month!

Whilst almost everyone in China has heard of Christmas, or Sheng Dan Jie (圣诞节) as we call it in Chinese, most people in China don’t celebrate it in quite the same way as people do in the western countries.

Christmas is not an official holiday in mainland China and Taiwan. But Hong Kong and Macau celebrate it in a more European fashion, with each having two days off work.

In a family or home setting, few people will celebrate Christmas and only a limited number will have their house decorated. Nonetheless, more and more young people are celebrating the commercialized aspect of Christmas in the main cities by making the most of the joyous holiday spirit.

For example, many department stores, hotels, and theme parks (especially Disneyland in Shanghai and Hong Kong) are decorated with Christmas displays, trees, and lights. People enjoy the typical light displays, artificial snow, and Christmas music.

Hoteliers too really capitalize on the season to celebrate Christmas as one of the top events of the year.&nbsp; It’s not uncommon to see a Santa Claus, who is known locally as Sheng Dan Lao Ren (圣诞老人), at a hotel.

Hotels here usually hold the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the first week of December to promote their seasonal specials, festive hotel packages, including cocktail receptions, meals and entertainment. All the guests watch Santa Claus light the Christmas tree and kids write down their wishes on cards, then hang them on the Christmas tree. Chinese children don’t prepare milk and cookies for Santa like in America, but an apple is a popular gift here because ‘apple’ sounds like ‘Christmas Eve’ in Mandarin.

Many of those in Hong Kong and Macau, and those in mainland China who work in western companies that close their offices for a few days, do take advantage to go on short breaks either within China or to nearby Asia-Pacific destinations such as Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul and Phuket.

And with more and more Chinese people having relatives in western countries, not least the United States, some are taking advantage to visit their relatives during this period to sample an authentic western Christmas.

Of course, overall December is the low travel season in most places in mainland China and western hoteliers and destinations shouldn’t be expecting a Christmas boost in Chinese tourists just yet.

But Santa has a great way of working his magic on consumers, so who knows maybe in five or ten years the most desirable Christmas gift amongst Chinese consumers will be a New Year’s holiday in Europe or America? Now could be a great time to attract the early trend-setters and lay the foundations for future success. &nbsp;


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What do Christmas celebrations mean for the Chinese travel sector?   

By Lauren Volcheff Atlass 

Everybody knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch, right? But somehow when it comes to Holiday Season planning and the offer of staying for free with a relative, suddenly we forget.

Disclosure alert: clearly, we at Hotelbeds benefit from the sale of every extra hotel room and this is an attempt at persuading you to book a hotel room for every trip….and a fun read!

Let’s start with accommodation rule #1: always establish the terms and conditions well in advance of ‘booking’ your accommodation.

And this is where the problem starts. When you accept to stay with your in-laws or relatives over the Holiday Season, there’s no terms &amp; conditions agreement, no guarantee of quality, not even a star rating!

Please don’t get me wrong, visiting family is always nice and even more over the holidays. Quality time together is where it’s at, no doubt about it. But I would put forward an argument for quality over quantity – meaning, you don’t actually have to stay at your in-laws’ home, or anyone else’s.

Firstly, consider that you can have too much of a good thing. Spending 24 hours a day together can turn into a stress-filled trip and cause you to evoke that cheesy-Monday-water-cooler-phrase ‘I need a vacation from my vacation’. And no one wants to be ‘that guy or girl’.

Secondly, consider all the benefits of having your own space. Some pleasures in life money cannot buy, but this, yes you can. Your hotel is judgement free zone. Leave your bed unmade, leave the toilet seat up, socks on the floor. It’s your hotel room! If you stay at a relative’s house, get mentally prepared to be on your best behavior until the day you leave. But when you stay at a hotel, leaving a pile of damp towels in the bathroom is not a problem.

Next, convenience and comfort benefits. Sleep better knowing you don’t need to worry about Uncle Harry snoring next door. Much better than sleeping at an air mattress or a basement pullout – your very own hotel mattress! No need to worry about sharing a bathroom or waiting until your niece or nephew is done fighting over who gets to go first.

And then there are all the wonderful luxuries a hotel can offer you that it would be a bit unfair to ask of your relatives: “Hey Aunt Julie, can you overnight my dry cleaning?”; “Grandpa, I’ll have my eggs over medium with a side of turkey bacon…sorry it’s 3am but I´m hungry”; “Where’s my warm cookie at check-in mom?!”. Concierge services for tickets or transfers, and much more are all available in a good hotel.

Ultimately, by booking a hotel you remain the boss, in charge of your own agenda. Feeling the need to flee? No problem, your hotel will give you an escape route.&nbsp; Whether you need to get away from your super cute nieces all under the age of 4, or avoid that guilt trip, you will have a hotel room to call your own.

Worried about hidden costs or poor service? Don’t worry, every Hotelbeds booking is part of a contract we have with our hotel partners. Plus, good luck complaining about your lumpy bed at Uncle Joe’s and Aunt Judy’s on social media. &nbsp;

But when it comes to relatives, even if you are brave enough to speak up, often the ultimate court of appeal is the eldest member of the family, and their impartiality could be massively affected by what present you bought them, or even worse, didn´t.

My colleagues in Spain often remind me of a great Spanish phrase when we are considering our budgets: if you buy cheap, it will cost you a lot. So if you’re being offered a free room this year from relatives, ask yourself: can I really afford this? When you look at the real price, you may decide it’s going to be a whole lot cheaper to pay out for a decent hotel.


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Can you afford the real price of staying with relatives this Holiday Season?

When you look at many of the biggest travel industry companies in the world, most of them were founded in the locations where people either travel from or travel to. And in many cases some of them still remain in the same location, for instance like Hotelbeds and our global headquarters in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

As the tourism industry has expanded way beyond anyone’s wildest expectations over the last thirty years, many of the most popular destinations have started to think about how to manage the welcome dollars in a more sustainable fashion.

Equally many travel companies have begun to think about what responsibility they have ensuring that today’s most popular cities and locations remain conserved for the next generation to visit.

And that’s why earlier this year Hotelbeds introduced its Corporate Volunteering Program, which had its initial rollout in Orlando and was finally launched worldwide last month. Through the implementation of the program, around 50 NGOs from all over the globe are now able to benefit from the company’s support.

We particularly believe in giving back to the local communities we work in and what more important city to focus on than Los Angeles, where millions or people stay in hotels booked via the Hotelbeds system every year?

Last Friday, me and my colleagues from the JBS team, a division with Hotelbeds, deployed its first volunteering initiative at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Our whole local team of 12 were busy helping the facility with its food sorting activities all afternoon.

We wanted to select a charity work that would help us get closer as a team, so members can go together and contribute together and be proud of the work we were doing, and this charity is very close to our heart. We firmly believe that for any team to be truly successful it has to engage in activities that bring them closer as a group and charity work is the perfect format for us.

Going forward, the plan is to volunteer on a quarterly basis as part of JBS team building activities and to start giving back to the local community.

As a result from the integration of GTA and Tourico Holidays brands into Hotelbeds over the last year, the JBS team has now become part of Hotelbeds and we are responsible for developing the China-US Corridor. Already we are responsible for over 2.5% of all inbound Chinese hotel reservations into the US market, but have plans to expand that even further!

Given our US and China focus, in the future we’d like to find some volunteering initiatives that combine these two great cultures. Does anyone have any suggestions for a charity event we can become involved with for around the Chinese New Year period?

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If volunteering were a travel destination, which location would you sign up for? 

Ever stopped to wonder where life’s journey is taking you? Perhaps you’ve thought of taking a mind-blowing trip, climbing Machu Picchu or meeting Mongolian goat herders, to reflect on correcting your course.

Today is International Volunteer Day and at Hotelbeds we’d like to ask all our travel industry colleagues to think about taking the ultimate trip: giving back.

Those of us lucky enough to work in this sector dedicate our whole lives to making sure that other people’s journeys go smoothly, from pre-booking to post-trip. But over the last few years many travel industry companies have begun to think about how they can help the wider community on their daily trek through the peaks and troughs of life.

That’s why recently at Hotelbeds we launched our very own Corporate Volunteer Program. We are encouraging all of the company's employees to participate actively in volunteer opportunities around the world, so as to contribute significantly to the communities where Hotelbeds employees work and live around the globe.

There are already more than 48 NGOs from all over the world that can benefit from the Hotelbeds Corporate Volunteer Program. The participating NGOs cover areas such as supporting children in need, the environment, fighting hunger, supporting people with disabilities, helping refugees and the elderly.

So far this volunteer program has also been launched&nbsp;in the offices of Hotelbeds in Orlando, Singapore, Bangkok, Cancun, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Palma, London, Shanghai and Beijing. It has&nbsp;reached a total of 3,000 of the 5,000 employees worldwide, with the participation of 1,051 employees so far.

In this program, there are many international NGOs such as Give Kids the World or United Against Poverty in Orlando; Waterways Watch Society in Singapore; the Thai Red Cross or the Lumphini Park in Bangkok, and Food for Life in Tel Aviv; AECC (Asociación Española contra el Cancer) or Cruz Roja.

We might just be starting on our journey as a volunteering organisation, but so far this year we have carried more than 150 activities around the world and we hope to have thousands ahead of us yet.

Give some thought to where giving back might help your organization to travel to this International Volunteer Day?



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Journey of a lifetime? Giving back could be the ultimate trip this International Volunteer Day

When is a consumer not a customer? This needn't be a philosophical challenge. Rather it should be an observation perhaps for many in the travel sector. Despite all evidence being to the contrary, everyone seems to always assume that all travel brands work directly with consumers.&nbsp;

At Hotelbeds we see things differently as we are focused on the B2B market. For us there’s a big difference between consumers and our customers: one of them is on holiday, the other is busy working to make that holiday perfect.

So if you are not a travel agent, or you don't care about the travel agent sector, then you may want to stop reading right now.

Why? Because our retail offering to travel agents, which we operate under the Bedsonline brand, only works with travel agents. That’s right, no consumers, no travellers: 100% B2B. Capiche?

You could understandably think that with a catchy name like Bedsonline and a sexy brand image, we do work directly with consumers. However, nothing could be further from the truth, we are not a consumer brand: we do not deal with the traveler directly. Ever. And have no plans to!

If it seems that I am labouring the point, it is because recently it has been brought to my attention that some of our customers (travel agents, remember?) were under the misapprehension that we also compete with them to offer services directly to consumers. We have one focus and that is to provide the best content, platform and booking experience, both pre and post for our travel agent partners, and that is more than enough to keep us busy and happy.

Surely by excluding the end consumer you are limiting sales, I hear you say? Frankly, no. Instead this liberates us to focus on creating a service that is 100% designed expressly for the professional travel seller. We’ve developed tools and technology best suited to travel agents, for example search functionality, filtering tools, comparison options, PDF functions, vouchers and much much more; we’ve contracted special hotel rates and deals available for travel agents only; and we’ve deployed teams with local knowledge across the globe, who speak the local language and know the local culture.

In short, a 360 degree travel agent offering. And the business model is working out just fine, thank you. If you are one of the lucky chosen ones who have the delight of selling travel face-to-face to consumers, and you don’t yet work with us, then we’d love to hear from you. Click here to find out more on how to sign up.

Needless to say, if you are a consumer wanting to book your next holiday, we’d still love to hear from you as we can perhaps recommend you to our network of more than 60,000 (and growing) travel agents globally.&nbsp;


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Consumers aren't the only customers in the travel journey

Cross-selling travel products such as a transfer or car rental might be a secondary source of revenue for intermediaries, but their importance is increasingly becoming far from secondary.

Traditionally accommodation sales have played the protagonist role in the theatre of travel sales, with complementary sales playing a mere walk on part – quite literally ancillary to the main show.

But as the travel plot evolves in the digital age, so too do the roles played and cross-selling is taking a more central role – and one that is handsomely paid due to the high margins that products such as theme parks, tours and tickets can generate for intermediaries.

At Hotelbeds we have been following the lead of the airline industry, which in 2017 earned an estimated $82 billion worldwide from the sale of ancillaries. Last year our conversion rate for accompanying a hotel sale with a complementary product was roughly 20-25%.

Nonetheless, the road ahead remains long as the full potential of this product offering has not yet been realized. One of the big challenges is the personalization of content to make ancillaries more localized (including translation into local languages!); plus more digital loyalty and marketing strategies are needed in order to reach customers during the whole travel cycle.&nbsp;

Recently some of these very topics were the starting point of a panel which I conducted as a representative of Beyond the Bed – what we at Hotelbeds call our ancillaries product line – at the World Travel Market trade fair in London.

The panel was focused on ‘Distribution of ancillaries in the B2B environment: challenges and expectations', and I had the pleasure to count on the participation of Lydia Massoon, Global Strategic Business Developer of Prioticket; Olan O’Sullivan, CEO of Trekksoft; Abbas Datoo, Interim Head of Commercial Strategy at Major Travel; and Beatriz Motta, Head of International Hotels at Hotel Urbano.

Together we explored the value proposition of B2B solutions, both from the point of view of the supplier (such as channel managers / tech platforms) and the B2B buyer (OTAs, tour operators and travel agents). Alongside discussing the opportunities, it also covered the difficulties and technological challenges, and looked ahead to possible future scenarios.

The half hour discussion led to four main conclusions:&nbsp;


	The activities market, in contrast to accommodation, is very fragmented: in this context, B2B technology partners play a key role giving access to smaller players such as travel agents to a global inventory of local activities all over the world, that otherwise they would not have ever had access to.
	The distribution of such services in the B2B space represents a fast growing opportunity for the accommodation sector to boost benefits and client loyalty:&nbsp; &nbsp;they represent a huge opportunity to widen revenues of accommodation providers and also to increase customer loyalty and improve guest experience.&nbsp; But there are still lots of challenges in terms of distribution and selling.
	Transforming execution is key: when it comes to contracting, uploading product and reaching final consumer by content, technology will play the definitive role in this scenario. The end user must be approached locally, with the product in their own language.&nbsp;
	Advanced technology is one of the main ingredients to success in the B2B arena: whilst technology can create great content and give access to a huge range of great products, it has to do more than this to also manage operational challenges and after sales care too.&nbsp; End user clients are more reticent to use technology than they are with accommodation products – call centers receive more calls, asking questions about vouchers, conditions, and more. Technology reduces these manual interactions to a minimum.


Perhaps one of the best things about the travel industry is that the end destination in the travel journey is continuously changing. But for better or worse, it is now clear that technology will be our travel partner for the coming decades and nowhere is this more obvious than in the area of ancillary sales.

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Optional add-on or travel essential? Activies purchases are no longer an afterthought 

What better way for a city to exponentially increase its visitor numbers than to hold an Expo?

If you were a foreign visitor to Shanghai last week it was almost certainly to attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) as the expo had 800,000 visits. With over 3,600 companies exhibiting and over 4,000 reporters in attendance, it was always going to be a sure fire way to boost inbound tourism.

Nearly 8 years after the 2010 Shanghai Expo, last week’s event was held in the city’s National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) from Monday 5 to Saturday 10 November.

The six-day event consisted of two main attractions, the Country Pavilion for Trade and Investment and the Enterprise &amp; Business Exhibition. Additionally, during the Expo the first Hongqiao International Trade Forum was held, an event that gathers government officials, well known business leaders, and international organizations from several countries.

Shanghai’s hotel infrastructure is well-prepared for just such a world-class expo. The Municipal Tourism Administration of Shanghai provided a recommended hotel list that included 1,711 hotels in Shanghai, with more than 256,607 rooms and 411,000 beds combined. In addition, hotels in nearby cities provide another 50,000 rooms to ensure accommodation availability.&nbsp;

The city holds a very special place in the heart of Hotelbeds, not just because it is an important destination in terms of the hotel bookings from inbound tourists worldwide, but also because we have an office of 100 employees in the city.

Over the last few years the enormous growth – exponential even – in China outbound travel has drawn the attention of the world. We all know now that China is the the largest outbound travel market in the world. But the inbound travel of foreign tourists into China has increased much more slowly. Last week’s event aimed to proactively open up the Chinese market to the world. And with a total of 172 countries, regions, and international organizations attending the show it certainly has achieved its objective.

I myself have worked and lived in China for over 3 years. Shanghai is a very charming city, famous for its unique culture, long history, tasty food, and modern city skyscraper views. These selling points as a tourism destination are boosted further by the fact that the city is a safe destination and as of recently it has introduced more convenient visa policies. Now, visitors from 53 countries can enjoy a 144-hour visa-free transit in certain cities, including Shanghai.

According to our booking data building up to the Expo last week we achieved a significant increase in room night sales for the city, which can only lead to one question from me: when is the next Expo?


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In the hotels sector the word ‘Expo’ is not just short for exposition – it can also be short for exponential 

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