FILTER BY TAGS

TravelTech Lab

Innovation

Code…don’t sleep…repeat! As previewed on this blog, that’s exactly what happened last week in our Palma office when more than 50 tech gurus came together for our Hack@Travel event, a 24-hour Hackathon to test tech skills and create unique experiences for travellers.

Hack@Travel was a joint event sponsored by Hotelbeds Group and the University of Baleares (UIB). It attracted aspiring students to work alongside some of our company’s top software developers.&nbsp; Teams were asked to come up with innovative technology solutions to address current challenges faced by modern travellers.

Other than the honour of the coders, what more was at stake? Prizes on offer were significant, with special cash awards of up to €6,000 along with additional prizes such as hotel nights and tickets to activities such as theme parks.

Using Hotelbeds technology (APIs) – including Accommodation and Activities (APItude &amp; ACTAPI) as well as public APIs and open data to enrich their developments – participants were divided into 10 different groups.&nbsp; They worked around the clock to create new value propositions within the travel industry and identify untapped business opportunities.

The Best Project award was selected by a panel of judges and went to the ´Pathfinder´ team, whose project focused on offering travellers experiences on the go. Based on the user’s starting point and destination, the mobile application searches for activities while the user is en route, showing accommodation options nearby through the integration with APItude.

Whilst in the People’s Choice category, voted for by the participants, the top award was given to the team ´Trend Travel´, who designed an application that identifies the best destination and activities based on the user’s preference – as well as what is trending on social media.&nbsp; In addition, it displays unforseen factors that could affect the decision-making process such as extreme weather alerts, local violence ratings and air quality.

Throughout the event, our Technology and Product Management Directors, Chris Branagan and Peter Mansour, visited the Hack@Travel area to welcome participants and share their support. Both expressed how thrilling it was to see the teams in action and were inspired by the new ideas and solutions developing at pace and under pressure.

To find out more about how the event went watch this video we´ve uploaded on YouTube.

&nbsp;


hack 12.jpg

Code, don’t sleep…repeat!


	Long haul destinations emerge as winners in the growth battle for German travellers – with growth in Asian destinations
	Turkey and Egypt are back in business with high growth
	Overall growth offset by fall in city break trips for cities such as London and Barcelona
	Sun &amp; beach destinations continue to grow, with Majorca remaining top destination


&nbsp;

Berlin, 28th February 2018 - Hotelbeds Group, the business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry globally, has announced today –ahead of ITB Berlin from 7-11 March- that bookings measured by room nights from the German source market for its bedbank brands – including Hotelbeds, Bedsonline, Tourico Holidays, and GTA –for this summer are already up on last year and that long haul destinations are emerging as the preferred choice for German holidaymakers.

Hotelbeds Group´s figures show an overall 12% rise in Germans travelling to Asian destinations this summer, led by high growth in Indonesia (Bali) -, Thailand, and Japan – with noticeable growth for Singapore too. Additionally New York, a traditional summer destination for the German market, has increased significantly from last year and is the 2nd most reserved destination this summer.

German holidaymakers are also flocking back to both Turkey and Egypt, with Turkey experiencing significant growth and Egypt seeing a very high increase in bookings. For example Antalya in Turkey has moved up from 53rd position to 8th place as the most popular destination for German travellers this summer.

Despite the overall growth in room nights for Hotelbeds Group´s bedbanks and increase in both long haul travel and bookings for Turkey &amp; Egypt, this growth has been offset by a slight downward trend of European city trips.&nbsp; In particular cities such as London and Barcelona have seen a drop in bookings.

Commenting on this summer´s German travel trends, Carlos Muñoz, Managing Director Bedbank, Hotelbeds Group, said “According to bookings via our bedbank portfolio Germans are showing higher interest in holidays than this time last year, perhaps reflecting the recent positive economic trends in Germany.

“In Turkey and Egypt a return of political stability and increased security to the region boosted the confidence of travellers and contributed to this recovery after the heavy declines suffered in previous years. 

“But long haul travel is once again a trend for German travellers and perhaps this year´s surprise. Asian inbound trips have increased by 12% and Indonesia, Thailand and even Japan are all seeing strong growth.”

Traditional destinations still however prove irresistible for many German travellers, with Mallorca remaining the favourite destination for German tourists, followed by New York, Crete and Las Vegas.

&nbsp;

About Hotelbeds Group: 

Hotelbeds Group is a business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry globally and the world´s leading bedbank.

The Group’s proprietary technology helps providers of travel services distribute their offering to travel sellers globally via an easy-to-use, advanced technology platform that increases reach, revenue and yield for both the provider and the seller.

Operating mainly under the Hotelbeds, Bedsonline, Tourico Holidays and GTA brands, the company connects over 60,000 travel intermediaries across more than 185 source markets globally with travel providers in over 200 countries representing more than 170,000 hotels, 22,000 transfer routes and 16,000 activities.

Additionally the Group also operates a Destination Services division offering in-bound destination services, such as tours or transfers, in around 40 countries. The Group also owns several other B2B travel brands such as Pacific World (focusing on the MICE area), Intercruises (shore side cruise solutions) and more.

In September 2016 the company became independent under the ownership of Cinven and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). In June 2017 Tourico Holidays became part of Hotelbeds Group, followed by GTA also joining the Group in October; both companies remain independent brands whilst they are being integrated into the Group.

The Group is headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and has 8,300 employees globally (including Tourico Holidays and GTA).

&nbsp;

Follow us on Linkedin

Twitter: @HotelbedsGroup

Facebook: HotelbedsGroup

&nbsp;

Hotelbeds Group Media contacts

Arenalia Comunicación&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

Cristina Vilà · cvila@arenalia.com

Elisenda Barreda · ebarreda@arenalia.com

Tel. +34 660 201 020&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Communications Department

Antonia Aguiló

Media Relations &amp; Corporate Affairs

a.aguilo@hotelbeds.com

Tel.&nbsp; +34 638 874 038

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


180227hbg_header_nota_premsa-02.jpg

Long haul destinations boost German source market this summer 

Who said that women can’t code? Clearly no one told this to Ada Lovelace (a Countess, no less), when she wrote the world´s first computer programme nearly 180 years ago.

But despite some high-profile examples of women in IT currently, such as &nbsp;Marissa Mayer of Yahoo!, sadly it does seem many wrongly perceive programming as career for men only.

At Hotelbeds Group we couldn´t disagree more. And that’s why tech gurus from our Technology team in Palma - Alicia Ropero, Silvia Cobo and Isabel Cazorla- attended last week in the Django Girls Palma initiative in Mallorca, which aimed to help women make their first steps in the world of programming,

All the three ladies took part in the workshop as coaches to share their expertise with the ´aspiring coders´ to help guide them step-by-step on how to develop their first website.

The result? This Django Girls initiative was the most successful in Spain so far! More than 55 participants, 20 mentors – both male and female – attended to bring programming closer to a female audience. Marisa Ocon, Product Management’s Chief of Staff (Process &amp; Cadence) also visited the workshop to support the initiative and get to meet the coders in action.

Attendees came out of the session with an elaborated website and (even more important!) with the conviction that they could continue learning this newly introduced skill!


In the words of our technology team, the challenge was “to be able to explain our day-to-day job in technology in a language suitable to all levels of knowledge” and the benefit was that “it was a great learning experience for us too!”.


Django Girls is a UK-based non-profit organization and a community that works globally to empower and help women to organize free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support. It is a volunteer-run organization with hundreds of people contributing to bringing more amazing women into the world of technology. During each of their events, between 30 and 60 women build their first web application using programming languages such as HTML, CSS, Python and Django.

To find out more about Django Girls, or if there´s an event happening near to you, click here visit their website.





&nbsp;


_DSC2812.jpg

Women's 'code' of conduct: Hotelbeds Group supports Django Girls Palma

Twenty-four hours of non-stop hacking. No sleep. No rest. Just endless coding until the very last second.


For the very first time Hotelbeds Group is holding a hackathon – a sprint-style event for computer programmers and software architects to collaborate on an IT challenge, sometime also called a codefest&nbsp; &nbsp;– in its Palma de Mallorca global head office.


Taking place in the 24 hours from 4pm on Thursday 22 of February until 4pm the next day, the event will be called Hack@Travel. Some of the best up-and-coming talent in the industry will come together to test their tech skills and tackle the IT challenges faced by our sector. This exciting event is jointly sponsored by Hotelbeds Group in conjunction with the University of the Balearic Island (UIB), our local leading university here in Mallorca, and forms part of an ongoing partnership for tourism innovation agreed between Hotelbeds Group and UIB&nbsp;back in 2015.

Participants will be divided into groups and will compete with each other over 24 hours to create new value propositions and identify untapped travel industry opportunities. This will be done using the Hotelbeds hotel distribution API, APItude – the fastest and lightest hotel distribution API in the market – and when the clock runs out they´ll present their projects to an independent judging panel.

This unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience for the contestants forms part of Hotelbeds Group´s commitment to reshaping travel through technological innovation.

The winners will be announced on the afternoon of Friday 23th of February – watch this space!

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


web_hackaton.jpg

Code Hard. Party Hard: Group´s Palma head office hosts first hackathon


	Group´s B2B car rental distribution company CARNECT offers over 500 car hire companies covering 170 countries 


Palma de Mallorca,&nbsp; February 15 , 2018 – Hotelbeds Group, the business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry globally, has announced that CARNECT – the business-to-business car rental distribution specialist platform that forms part of the Group – has signed a partnership with loveholidays, one of the fastest growing travel agencies in the UK.

Under the terms of the deal loveholidays will now be able to access the over 500 car providers available via CARNECT´s B2B platform for its customers’ car rental bookings. Together CARNECT´s rental partners offer cars in around 170 countries, including leading brands such as Avis, Europcar, Hertz, Alamo, and Enterprise.

Theo Demetriou, Purchasing Director at loveholidays said, "We are delighted to announce this new business relationship with CARNECT to supplement the&nbsp;car hire offering for our customers with over 500 car hire providers covering 170 countries."

Cina Bahri, Global Business Development Director of CARNECT stated, “We are very excited to be working with a top ten UK travel agency like loveholidays, whose commitment to providing its customers with the best deals is well respected – and we look forward to providing their travelers with the widest and most competitively priced range of car&nbsp;hire providers globally.”

This news follows the announcement in October last year that CARNECT has grown the Total Transaction Value (TTV)&nbsp;of its sales by over 200% during the last three years; additionally it was confirmed that CARNECT now has over 200 large online travel agencies (OTAs) and travel agencies now connected to platform.

&nbsp;

About loveholidays

Launched in 2012, Loveholidays is one of the fastest growing travel agencies in the UK offering a wide range of holidays to short and long haul destinations, occupying 7th place in the ranking of the largest travel agents in UK.

&nbsp;

About CARNECT

Founded as an IT company in Hamburg in 1999, the company entered the car rental booking engine market in 2006 before growing across Europe. It became part of Hotelbeds Group in 2007 and rebranded as CARNECT in 2014 to focus solely on the business-to-business sector before beginning its global roll out.

The company offers car rental and travel seller clients best-in-class technology solutions, with tailored integration options ranging from CARNECT´s fully Open Travel Alliance compliant API, to white label, mobile apps (full native or HTML5 integration options), and widgets and focuses on maximizing car rental revenue through its unique system enabling multi-suppliers model and yielding strategies.

Carnect webiste

&nbsp;

About Hotelbeds&nbsp;Group

Hotelbeds Group is a business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry globally and the world´s leading bedbank.

The Group’s proprietary technology helps providers of travel services distribute their offering to travel sellers globally via an easy-to-use, advanced technology platform that increases reach, revenue and yield for both the provider and the seller.

Operating mainly under the Hotelbeds, Bedsonline, Tourico Holidays and GTA brands, the company connects over 60,000 travel intermediaries across more than 185 source markets globally with travel providers in over 200 countries representing more than 170,000 hotels, 22,000 transfer routes and 16,000 activities.

Additionally the Group also operates a Destination Services division offering in-bound destination services, such as tours or transfers, in around 40 countries. The Group also owns several other B2B travel brands such as Pacific World (focusing on the MICE area), Intercruises (shore side cruise solutions) and more.

In September 2016 the company became independent under the ownership of Cinven and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). In June 2017 Tourico Holidays became part of Hotelbeds Group, followed by GTA also joining the Group in October; both companies remain independent brands whilst they are being integrated into the Group.

The Group is headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and has 8,300 employees globally (including Tourico Holidays and GTA).

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Follow us on Linkedin 

Twitter:&nbsp;@HotelbedsGroup

Facebook:&nbsp;HotelbedsGroup

&nbsp;

Hotelbeds Group Media contacts

&nbsp;

Arenalia Comunicación&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

Cristina Vilà · cvila@arenalia.com

Elisenda Barreda · ebarreda@arenalia.com

Tel. +34 660 201 020&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Departamento de Comunicación de Hotelbeds Group

Anna Monreal

amonreal@hotelbeds.com

Tel.&nbsp; +34 971 624 687

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


Carnect-LoveHolidays(1).jpg

Hotelbeds Group announces car rental partnership with loveholidays

What´s the biggest challenge for a European or North American hotel chain attracting Chinese travelers: language barrier or cultural differences? This Friday China celebrates the Year of the Dog and perhaps hoteliers should instead be giving more thought to another problem: technology.

But how can it be that technology, something that should be relatively unaffected by language or culture, could be anything other than a solution? &nbsp;What are hoteliers doing wrong to make a solution become a problem? &nbsp;The answer is that they are not embracing the technologies used by Chinese travelers.

In many respects China is much more digitally advanced than Europe or America. For example mobile Apps are commonly used to unlock doors in hotels and offices; and across many Chinese cities you can even use an App to locate a bicycle, unlock it and ride off – then dump it wherever and whenever you´ve finished.&nbsp; QR codes are absolutely everywhere and used for absolutely everything, even on business cards and lunch menus.

All of this makes expectations very high for Chinese travelers – and leads to immediate disappointment and frustration. Imagine how lost you´d be if all of your Apps on your phone stopped working when you´re on holiday or a business trip, in an unfamiliar place, where no one speaks your language? That´s how the average Chinese traveler feels on touchdown at Heathrow or JFK. And when they can´t withdraw cash at the ATM, their frustration is probably reaching boiling point.

Let´s start with something very obvious but hugely important: payments. They are used to paying for everything virtually using their mobile phone; from a taxi ride to a restaurant bill to giving their children their pocket money, it’s all about WeChat and AliPay. For the young, credit and debit cards are hardly used. And for those Chinese travelers that still use credit cards, few of them have Visa or Mastercard. Instead mostly have Union Pay, which many European retailers still don´t accept.


The core of the problem stems from 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 looking to welcome Chinese travelers. Firstly how to market to them; and secondly for customer services via social media. In both cases this doesn´t just mean working in the Chinese language, it has to be on their social media channels too – which 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.

For us at Hotelbeds Group we´ve been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years and already it is our fifth biggest source market globally. We´ve achieved this in part by embracing these technology changes and working with our hotel supplier partners to help them adjust their offering accordingly.

These are concerns that 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 should be an enabler of this, and right now it is not in many cases.

This year of the dog shouldn´t have to be a dog of a year if hotels embrace the technology needs of Chinese travelers. If they work on this weakness, then the upcoming 2019 Year of the Pig could allow the forward-thinking to bring home the bacon. &nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


111iStock-857319128.jpg

Chinese technology should give hoteliers paws for thought this Year of the Dog 

Apart from your hotel, what else do you need when you arrive in your destination? You might want to let us know, because across our Group it is likely that we have it already. Theatre tickets? Check. Theme parks? Check. Excursions? Check. Car rentals? Check. Transfers? Check.

But what if you have higher expectations, literally? Hotelbeds Group is very pleased to announce that its Transfer &amp; Activity Bank (TAB) has integrated Papillon, a tour operator that offers helicopter and aircraft tours in the USA.

The maximum sightseeing experience? Check! Papillon specialises in flying over one of the natural wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon: the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Monument Valley and Lake Powell among others amazing places.

Yes, now your customers can experience tours in specially-designed planes and helicopters in some of the most breath-taking places on earth.

Based in Las Vegas, Papillon flies over 600,000 passengers each year on daily tours with aircraft designed for sightseeing with onboard upgrades, large windows and raised wings so the view is never obstructed. All experiences offer pre-recorded narration in 16 languages provided through noise-cancelling headphones.

Las Vegas is a city full of activities potential where Hotelbeds Group is growing strongly. This forms part of our commitment to increase and diversify, at the best prices and under the most exclusive terms, our ancillaries offering to our customer base of over 60,000 travel sellers worldwide.

Papillon joining our distribution network is part of a wider trend we are seeing for in-destination tourism providers to enter the digital age. Such integrations into our platform provide real time product availability and real time rates, enabling the provider to dynamically price their services and maximise returns. It also helps to improve the daily operational processes of the provider through improved resources planning, for example via real-time booking confirmation/cancellation thanks to API connectivity. This also improves the end customer experience, leaving everybody happy.

Every year travellers spend well over $100 billion on in-destination experiences such as tours and activities. Our objective is to help in-destination tourism providers access those travellers before they arrive at their destination. In this fast growing market we feel that for all our partners, and not just those offering air tours, the sky is the limit.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


Foto Papillon.jpg

Aircraft aren't just for arriving – planes and helicopters make the sky the limit for in-destination experiences

What is the one and only thing you want to do when you have a customer service issue? Speak with someone by telephone, right away. &nbsp;So an engaged line doesn´t sound like your ideal option, but think again.


Despite all the marvelous technical evolutions such as self-service, automated-channels with cognitive tools, chatbots and more, ultimately contact center agents are still key for customers. People trust the human connection and real living, breathing call center agents are essential to an excellent customer experience.


Whilst many companies are working on how to achieve ´Customer Excellence´ via this channel, they fail to take into consideration that customer service success is directly linked to employee engagement: happy employees make happy customers.

And guess what? If employees do not feel engaged, you are probably already offering a poor service – the line might as well be busy. Instead what you want is a line that is answered by staff who are engaged.

Here are some tips to promote employee engagement in contact centers and ensure customers get the best experience possible:


	Establish the right competency framework to ensure that you are matching current and future employees to the positions that best fit with their skills. This helps avoid lack of motivation and frustration, and promotes their confidence to enable them to deliver the best service.
	Empower contact center employees and give them clear principles (more than giving them strict rules) and authorization levels to discuss with clients. In that manner, agents will feel valued by the company and more clearly understand the company value proposition for clients.
	Offer employees the best work environment. This is not only about ergonomic chairs and good office equipment. This is also about providing employees with the right training, user-friendly tools, clear and humanized communications and support from supervisors; it is also about offering clear rules for professional career development and opportunities, as well as managing expectations honestly, transparently and objectively.
	Give competitive, living-wage salaries that are accompanied by a comprehensive range of benefits such as healthcare. There should also be an attractive incentives program to make sure that employees are fairly recognized and rewarded. Companies should provide dignity to the role of a contact center agent, whilst also promoting productivity improvements based on incentives.


All these tips will help companies to retain the best and most talented agents – and we´ve been following these for several years now at Hotelbeds Group across 9 hubs globally, who together cover 20 languages, 24 hours a day.

By motivating staff to do their best and improving the customer experience, the investment is already paying dividends.

And if you don´t do this? Despite having a real person on the other end of the line, your customers may end up with the impression that they are speaking with a robot anyway.


Foto post CRC.jpg

Who wants a call center line that is engaged 24 hours a day? 


	The Spanish source market, which traditionally has a high rate of last-minute bookings, is experiencing a significant change in trend this year according to Bedsonline booking data.
	Top summer destinations are New York, Riviera Maya, San Francisco, Majorca and Orlando.
	Bookings made a year in advance have seen the highest increase.


Palma, February 1st, 2018- Bedsonline, the leading global provider of online accommodation and ancillary products which exclusively caters to travel agencies, has announced that early bookings for the summer period —from June to September— for Spain as a &nbsp;source market have grown by 30 % compared to last year.[1]

Meanwhile bookings made one year in advance are those that have experienced the most significant boost, with an increase of 43% compared with the previous year. This is followed by bookings made&nbsp; nine months in advance, with an increase of 25%.

This data is especially relevant considering the fact that, traditionally, bookings by Spaniards are usually made at the last minute, when compared to other markets such as the United Kingdom or Germany.

Top summer destinations from the Spanish source market are New York, Riviera Maya, San Francisco, Majorca and Orlando. Despite the recent recovery of Turkey and Egypt as destinations, Majorca has consolidated itself as one of the preferred destinations for Spanish tourists during this year´s summer holidays.

Carlos Feliu, Sales Director of Bedsonline, commented "this year we are detecting a considerable change in the booking habits of Spanish tourists. Compared to other markets such as the UK or Germany, Spaniards´ summer bookings are traditionally made last minute. Nevertheless, this year we have noticed an important increase of early bookings, up by 30% compared to the previous year.

"This change in trend can be attributed, to a large extent, to the recovery of the economy following two years of sustained growth. Additionally the high hotel occupancy in Spain last summer may have also encouraged Spanish tourists to book their vacations earlier in order to not miss out."

"City breaks and sun &amp; beach destinations are still the favorites of Spaniards, with New York, Riviera Maya, San Francisco, Majorca and Orlando the most in demand."

About Bedsonline

Bedsonline is the leading global provider of accommodation and travel ancillary products that exclusively caters to travel agencies. It distributes through its online platform accommodation, excursions, tickets and transfers to more than 30,000 travel agencies in 30 countries. In Spain, 8,000 agencies rely on Bedsonline to make their reservations.

&nbsp;

The company stands out for its extensive portfolio - over 170,000 hotels in 185 destinations, 21,000 transfer routes in 140 countries, and 16,000 activities in 200 countries - &nbsp;to offer a personalized local service through an intuitive and easy-to-use online booking tool. In this way Bedsonline guarantees high availability and competitive prices to the great satisfaction of its clients.

&nbsp;

The business-to-business online provider has focused its strategy in recent years on the expansion of new markets in Europe, America and Asia, such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Mexico, the United States, Colombia, China, Japan and the Philippines. This strategic vision has led the company to occupy a position of advantage in the industry.

&nbsp;

Bedsonline is part of Hotelbeds Group, the business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry globally. The Group is headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and has 8,300 employees working across 200 offices globally.

&nbsp;

Follow us on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotelbeds-group

https://www.linkedin.com/company/bedsonline

And Twitter: @HotelbedsGroup

&nbsp;

Media Relations and Corporate Affairs

Anna Monreal

amonreal@hotelbeds.com

Tel.&nbsp; +34 971 624 687

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


[1] This data concerns bookings to date made through the Bedsonline platform for reservations for the months of June to September 2018.




outperforming the German market OP2.jpg

Spaniards increase early booking rate for summer holidays by 30%

Walking the floor of any travel industry trade show over the last 18 months you may have noticed that many of the stands have some kind of virtual reality (VR) display. If you´ll excuse the pun, people are literally tripping over themselves in the process.

But when will virtual reality become a profitable reality for the travel industry? The truth is that virtually nobody knows for sure. It is not yet well enough developed to consider it a key technology for the travel industry (certainly not for the B2B sector anyway) – but will it become one in 2018?

This is a technology that has existed for years. In fact we have recently seen a significant shift in the development of new products and devices. But the high cost of developing specific content, the need for expensive devices and the lack of a clear business model has slowed its arrival in the travel market. This explains the distinct lack of the development of new products and services specifically for our sector.

By contrast, the video-gaming sector is one of the few that has been able to find a route to monetizing this technology. &nbsp;By providing players with immersive environments and differential gaming experiences, they´ve taken video-gaming to another level – and gamers are prepared to pay for that.

In the travel sector, the path is less clear: people won´t pay for a 3D experience of a holiday any more than they´d pay for a holiday brochure. Nonetheless, despite the lack of a direct and obvious profitable purpose there are still remarkable potential applications for the travel sector:


	To provide a traveler with an immersive trip to a destination to experience all the possibilities that it can offer, including views and weather conditions, from the travel agency office or even from traveler´s own sofa.
	To take a tour inside a cruise ship, visiting the cabins or public spaces and enjoying the activities, in order to experience the trip before booking.
	To move around inside a hotel, visiting its different types of rooms, with the aim of having more information with which to make a purchase decision.
	To configure and arrange the set-up of a hotel room, or other travel experience, such as selecting the particular room, bed type, linen, extra activities and more simply by selecting them as they walk through the experience.
	To enjoy the thrill of a potential theme park ride or outdoors activity such as white-water rafting or parachute jumping in order to entice customers to sign-up for activities ahead of arriving in the destination.
	To assist in guided tours and educational activities, such as comparing how a place looked in a previous historical period or could look in the future.


Clearly the possibilities for the travel industry are huge, but perhaps only once use becomes so widespread that VR goes from being a nice-to-have gimmick to an absolute essential – in the same way that having a company website started to become essential in the early millennium – will all travel businesses roll-out use of VR in their points of sale.

On that basis, VR might not ever become any more profitable than a laptop computer or smart phone: two devices no CFO expects to be profitable, but nonetheless doesn´t question the logic of the company purchasing.

No doubt this will happen in time, but when, where and how is far from being a virtual reality yet.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


Foto realidad virtual.jpg

When will virtual reality become a profitable reality? 

SINGAPORE (January 23, 2018) – Pacific World, the world’s leading global destination and event management company, is proud to be recognized as the “Best Strategic Business Unit” at the prestigious India MICE Awards 2017. The award was presented by Mr. Suman Billa, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India during its debut at The Lalit New Delhi on November 27, 2017.

“It is a proud moment for Pacific World India to be recognized by the Indian MICE Industry, this is a true reflection of our commitment and dedication towards the changing landscape of the MICE business in India,“ Naveen Rizvi, regional director of Pacific World India.

The India MICE Awards is aimed at recognizing the achievements and contribution made by the MICE industry players who are boosting the tourism and hospitality industry in India. The awards were supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India with Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam being present to inaugurate the event as the esteemed Chief Guest.

“Pacific World is honored to receive this highly-coveted industry accolade,” said Global Managing Director Selina Chavry of Pacific World. “Our global network of destination managers and planners prides itself in being one of the most innovative players in the events world. With over 35 years of experience and expertise, we look forward to continue executing high impact events that will engage audiences and heighten our clients’ brands.”

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

About Pacific World
Founded in 1980 in Hong Kong, Pacific World is a dedicated destination and event management company operating in over 40 countries and over 100 destinations in Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and The Americas.
Pacific World forms part of Destination Services, which is a division of Hotelbeds Group, a leading provider of business-to-business services to the travel industry globally.

&nbsp;

Media contacts: Hwee Peng Yeo, Lesley Duckworth, Christine Lin, Sarah Rogers and Kate Bewak at Glodow Nead Communications, (415) 394-6500 or PacificWorldPR@GlodowNead.com

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


INDIA MICE AWARDS 2017.jpg

Pacific World Wins at Inaugural India MICE Awards 2017

Management theorist Peter Drucker famously said that “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. Last week at Fitur a lot of exhibitors were very busy doing just that.

With the number of technology exhibitors up by 16% and the Fitur Tech area expanded to four stages, it seems the future of travel technology is no longer what it used to be – in a good sense.

The themes were as endless as they were inspirational: instant translation software, facial recognition profiling, cyborgs and implanted technology, chatbots, voice search, virtual and augmented reality. Apparently we´ll even see the introduction of 5G phone networks soon.

This is without mentioning the terms that are already referenced so frequently that we all feel we know them: blockchain, artificial intelligence and, the most abused term, Big Data. But does the average travel executive have much of an idea what they really mean? Or how they´ll impact our industry really?

The most important question to ask is how soon are any of these technologies likely to impact our businesses?&nbsp; Sadly the time lag between invention and implementation is also matched by the amount of time it takes for industry-wide uptake. At Hotelbeds Group we noticed this with regards to voice search: at a panel we hosted at World Travel Market in November we asked the audience who has used Apple´s Siri or Amazon´s Echo to actually try and book a flight or hotel. The answer? Not one of the 200 people in the audience raised their hand.

Despite the impression that gatherings of travel technologists give, it seems that we´re not quite yet living in the future. Given that we now have a privileged position of what it might look like, this gives us a perhaps unique opportunity to prepare for it. Five years from now can any hotel chain have a decent excuse as to why it doesn´t automatically charge your Bitcoin account based on facial recognition technology as you check-out by simply walking out the door? Or why the concierge doesn´t understand every known language via an instant translation software tool?

Nonetheless, some rather obvious but boring barriers need to be lifted very soon to help the travel industry maximize its potential. For example, the irony that Wi-Fi coverage was lacking – along with only a handful of ´recharging stations´, that each had literally only six plug sockets –&nbsp; in the IFEMA building last week did not go unnoticed.

This is something that we´ve all experienced in many tourist locations and on business trips. It´s not a sexy topic or worthy of a key note speech, but only once all travelers are able to connect and recharge everywhere, including onboard an airplane, will the travel industry start to reap the full benefits of change.

Peter Drucker died in 2005, but if he were alive today he might have also noted that the future might as well be the past if you don´t have Wi-Fi and connection to a power source.&nbsp;


IMG_0508.JPG

The future of travel technology is better than it used to be – but perhaps further away too 

News menu page Hbxgroup

TravelTech Lab News

TravelTech Lab Latests News

Full-service solutions to boost revenue through travel.

Services to inspire and convert travel audiences.

Our Products & Services from Hotelbeds, Bedsonline and Roiback

TravelTech Lab News

Search