Hotelbeds Group confirms Thailand as top Asian destination and chooses Bangkok for first MarketHub Asia event

• Thailand most popular Asian destination for Hotelbeds with 21% increase in bookings year-to-date – and Bangkok most popular Asian city.[1]
• Powered by data, driven by people theme for MarketHub Asia event will explore fast-evolving landscape of travel data – and how travel companies can navigate this to boost growth.
• First ever MarketHub Asia event includes extensive programme of well-known guest speakers such as Google, McKinsey and Accenture

Palma de Mallorca, May 19th 2017 – Hotelbeds Group, the leading bedbank worldwide and business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry, announced today that its Hotelbeds brand – which supplies the world´s tour operators and online travel agencies (OTAs) with accommodation and ancillary products – has chosen Bangkok, Thailand  as the host destination for the first edition of Hotelbeds MarketHub Asia.

The location for the first ever edition of the Hotelbeds MarketHub Asia event has been chosen as Thailand and Bangkok are respectively the top selling country and city destination in Asia for bookings made via the Hotelbeds platform. In the current year-to-date Hotelbeds bookings for Thailand have increased by 21% and Bangkok has continued to grow, based upon the number of room nights booked. Phuket, the second most popular destination within Thailand, has increased by 34%.

The theme of the event will be Powered by data, driven by people. It will focus on how travel companies can use data to drive growth in their businesses. This will include insights into how the landscape of travel data will evolve over the coming years, as well as what companies need to do to navigate this.

Carlos Muñoz, Bedbank Managing Director at Hotelbeds Group, commented: “I’m really excited to announce the first edition of MarketHub Asia and pleased to confirm it is taking place at the AVANI Riverside hotel in Bangkok, Thailand – our number-one Asian destination city in our number-one Asian destination country.

“I´m also looking forward to the opportunity to thank in person all the clients and partners that have supported us since we started our operations in Asia-Pacific back in 2006. Thanks to their support and partnership we have grown considerably and Asia-Pacific is now our fastest growing market.

“Some of the most exciting technological innovations globally are emerging from Asia-Pacific and in the tourism sector is no exception. A revolution is underway in our sector and it is driven by data. How travel industry companies react to this revolution will define their success or failure in the coming years.

“The importance of data and how to leverage it is a topic we´ve been pioneering at Hotelbeds Group for some time and this event will help our clients explore what they need to do to keep ahead of the curve.  We´ve arranged for many leading experts to speak, including Google and our Premium sponsorship partners McKinsey, along with other sponsors such as AVANI Riverside Bangkok, Riu Hotel & Resorts, Wynn and the Land of Legends.”

MarketHub events have a proven track record, with more than eight previous events in the Americas and four in Europe. Based upon the success of these events Hotelbeds has decided this year to launch an Asian edition, MarketHub Asia. This event will bring together many of the top industry decision makers from across Asia-Pacific. The event will be a unique opportunity to meet like-minded experts and colleagues from the global travel & tourism industry in a dynamic yet informal environment of presentations from leading experts, networking, hospitality and entertainment.

During the event there will be numerous guest speaker presentations, including from Google, McKinsey and Accenture, as well as many speakers from both the travel provider partners and travel seller clients of Hotelbeds. Additionally members of the senior management from Hotelbeds Group (Hotelbeds´ parent company) will be presenting, including Carlos Muñoz, Bedbank Managing Director at Hotelbeds Group and Sam Turner, Director of Sales.

The event will be attended by senior travel professionals from tour operator and OTA clients of Hotelbeds from across Asia-Pacific. It will take place from Monday 22^nd to Thursday 25^th May in the five star AVANI Riverside Bangkok, a five star hotel located in Bangkok with 251 guest rooms, including 23 suites and fantastic river views. The hotel features many unique recreational opportunities such as a full-service onsite spa with three treatment rooms, a restaurant and an outdoor pool.

For more information about MarketHub Asia, please visit www.themarkethub.com