EyeforTravel Blog

Hotel brands are seeing lower satisfaction rates from their mobile efforts according to EyeforTravel’s new report, likely as a result of not being able to reach guests as effectively as other verticals through the channel
As part of EyeforTravel and SAP’s new Driving Intelligent, Interconnected Mobile Engagement Throughout the Travel Journey report, an industry survey asked whether mobile messaging services were effective at driving satisfaction amongst customers. While 72% of hospitality and accommodation brands said that their messaging services were effective, a much higher 90% of respondents from other travel industry verticals reported success through messaging.

But why is this? The reportpoints out that one potential explanation is that hospitality brands are utilizing the most personalized and effective elements of messaging channels to a lesser degree than other verticals. This is leading to them not getting the maximum utility out of their messaging services and not building up the same relationship with their customers than other companies surveyed.
The research finds that although hotel brands are good at pushing booking confirmations and welcome/check-in messages to travelers, they fall behind when it comes to more complex and data-reliant messages. Hospitality brands are using push notification at half the rate of the rest of the sample (35.3% versus 16.7%), despite 31% of accommodation companies having an app, and are way behind for upsell notifications, with just 32.3% of messaging-capable hospitality brands sending personalized upsell messages versus 51.2% for the remaining respondents. They therefore have less ability to become useful to the consumer and implant themselves with travelers as a trusted source of local information.
Hospitality brands low deployment of push-notifications is illustrative of this mismatch, as push notifications were found by the survey to be by far the most effective form of in-app advertising. Push notifications were chosen as the most effective form by 44% of respondents, followed by display banners at 25%, videos at 15%, native display at 14% and interstitial at 3%. Therefore, without these capabilities, hotels cannot communicate
Hospitality and accommodation companies therefore need to build up their technological capabilities in order to reach out to consumers wherever they are with relevant and targeted messages.
“Brands need to be present where the customer is present, rather than forcing people to pick the channels or means or tools that the brands want them to use,” says Rohit Tripathi, general manager and head of products, SAP Digital Interconnect. “Today, if your customer is residing in social channels such as Facebook Messenger or WeChat, then build bridges into these mediums.”
Amro Khoudeir, global director of digital & distribution, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, notes that they have deployed several tools to better cater to guests on mobile: “Before arrival we send our guests an invitation to check-in. The guest provides us with all their details and they get their barcode on the day of arrival, scan and receive a key and to go straight to their room. Post-booking, there’s an opportunity to start identifying guests who come in to the hotel through geolocation or beacons. We do some geolocation marketing and social marketing and are expanding this to more hotels in 2018.”
Get ahead of the competition now and download this completely free mobile market report to access:

• A major industry survey of all travel verticals uncovering their mobile strategies and technology deployments.
• Analysis of how consumers are using the mobile channel.
• Projections for mobile’s growth across travel.
• Where you should be investing to reach the mobile consumer.
• How you can ensure mobile-focused communications are effective.
• An overview of how you should be measuring and overseeing an m-commerce operation. 

Dates have been finalized for the EyeforTravel North America 2018 Summit, set to take place on Oct 18 – 19, at the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas.  
This year marks the 20th anniversary of North America’s largest commercial travel summit covering distribution, travel technology, data analytics, revenue management, marketing, partnerships and much more!
To be the first to hear about the 2018 event agenda launch and speaker line-up, click here.The event will bring together 400+ industry leaders with dedicated keynote sessions and conference streams to ensure you walk away with: The Winning formula to Own the Booking: Frictionless CX + Data-Driven Customer Insight + Cross Industry Partnerships = Super Charged Travel Sales
The 2018 event will equip you with the tools to:

• Understand what the right technologies to invest in are, and why
• Understand what your customers want, and the price they will pay through truly data-driven insights
• Invest in cross-industry partnerships so you can source and sell the travel product your customer wants
• Overcome the fragmentation in the supply of travel products, and form innovative commercial models that bypass the tech giants and get your product in front of the traveller when they want to buy

A sneak peek of the brands confirmed to speak include Wyndham Hotel Group, United Airlines, Amazon, Allegiant Air, Skyscanner, Jet Blue Technology Ventures, Caesars Corporation, Cosmopolitan Las Vegas and Palace Resorts.
Click here to reserve your summit brochure and to receive event updates
In the meantime, there are three ways you can get involved right away:

1. Help to shape the agenda for this year – if your organization is working on something amazing that needs to be covered, or if you would like to participate as a speaker, contact renu@eyefortravel.com
2. Early bird exhibition and sponsorship packages –the event had a sell-out exhibition hall, networking party and thought leadership opportunities last year – so get in quick for your discounted packages
3. Pre-launch discounted conference passes (as low as $1299) – if your dates are locked in, book your pass now at a highly subsidized rate. Passes are fully transferrable and can be cancelled up to 6 weeks prior to the event.

Ps. The EyeforTravel Start Up Awards is also back for 2018! Full details on the Awards, Awards process, and subsidized registration fees can be found here.
If you are a start-up working in the travel industry (having started no later than 2013), EyeforTravel would love to hear from you. Register your details here to be in the running for this year’s competition:  http://events.eyefortravel.com/travel-distribution-summit-north-america/awards-register.php
Do not miss your chance to join some of travel’s most inspiring and innovative brands coming together for two days on Oct 18th and 19th 2018 in Las Vegas– this is the only place you will learn from and network with travel’s elite, with the main goal of getting business done and pioneering change in the industry.
Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com  EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu KannuEyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 |renu@eyefortravel.com)

More and more markets are becoming mobile-first, giving brands huge potential to reach out to travelers, but EyeforTravel and SAP’s new free mobile market report finds that brands are missing out by failing to reach consumers on their smartphones.
Creating a mobile messaging service is effective, so why aren’t more brands doing it asks EyeforTravel and SAP’s new Driving Intelligent, Interconnected Mobile Engagement Throughout the Travel Journey report? The research, which is free to download now, finds that 83% of travel brands that have automated messaging services find that they are effective at increasing customer satisfaction. However, just 41% of brands surveyed report that they currently have these services, although a further 20% report that they are also developing the capability to do so.


Delving deeper into the deployment of possible mobile messaging routes, a similar story emerges of a lack of communication routes between brands and travelers. Just under a third of brands reported that they had developed an app, 29% could reach customers with mobile messaging or push notifications and just under a quarter can send SMS texts. This leaves the majority of travel brands bereft of ways in which to communicate directly to travelers’ smartphones, aside from through email, but even in this field, only 40.4% of respondents said they use mobile-optimised email.
This mismatch leaves a huge gap that is increasingly vital for travel brands to exploit. The research notes that not only do travel consumers increasingly resort to mobile as they research their trip and as they journey, but also they are actively interested in being reached. 87% of US travelers said that they find travel notifications useful, with trip status updates the most popular but also discounts and pricing widely sought after. 
Therefore, travel brands are missing out on better performance in two ways says the research: Firstly, they are largely unable to cross- and upsell the consumer travel products, as well as less able to accommodate last-minute mobile bookings, hitting revenue directly. Secondly, they are missing out on a key means to drive loyalty with the consumer, as smart mobile messaging allows a relationship to be built.
This latter point can be done through a number of ways, such as making the customer’s journey more convenient, sending personalized messages, responding appropriately in moments of crisis, and creating an easier means to gather feedback and encourage reviews.
“Only the travel brand knows if you made a change to your flight or PNR, so in terms of loyalty why should a travel brand acquiesce that relationship to Google?” says Michael Bayle, head of mobile at Amadeus. “It should be them bringing these things to the attention of the traveler. The more current and actionable data, such as a flight cancellation, Google can’t act upon. The travel brand can make a positive change to get a result and take advantage of that disruptive management.”
However, to make the most out of mobile, it isn’t enough to simply deploy an app or an SMS service. Travel brands need to create an overarching mobile strategy. “For the traveler, there are no mobile stages. Mobile is everything and everything is mobile. We interact in making our purchase decisions seamlessly on our tablet and phones, and sometimes on our computers, so it is no longer fair to call out mobile as a separate category. It is no longer a case of ‘do you have a mobile strategy?’ Instead it’s ‘What are you doing to embed that deeper into the consumer lifecycle or purchase journey?’ says Rohit Tripathi, general manager and head of products, SAP Digital Interconnect.
Tripathi also notes that this needs to be contextual and appropriate to the consumer’s situation. “If it’s a general update or information about an upcoming promotion that is not immediately relevant, then email is the best way to reach out, or social media. If it is something critical that needs to be acted on, such as a change of travel plans, an unexpected disruption or threat, then SMS is clearly the way to go. You can safely rely on SMS to be available globally whether or not the person has a data plan,” he explains.
“When our customers reach out using SAP Intelligent Notification 365’s unique multi-channel API they can do so across communication channels either on-device, social media or on a brand app. Therefore, they can maintain two-way transactional or marketing engagement that matches the customer’s needs through an autonomous system that enables and escalates message routing across all mobile channels.”
Get ahead of the competition now and download this completely free mobile market report to access:

• A major industry survey of all travel verticals uncovering their mobile strategies and technology deployments.
• Analysis of how consumers are using the mobile channel.
• Projections for mobile’s growth across travel.
• Where you should be investing to reach the mobile consumer.
• How you can ensure mobile-focused communications are effective.
• An overview of how you should be measuring and overseeing an m-commerce operation. 

In an era of digital transformation, companies that master data and analytics can outgrow their rivals and boost loyalty among customers.
This is a wide-ranging task, however. They must trace travelers through virtual space, build leading-edge data science teams, create rich customer profiles, optimize revenue and personalize pricing.
It’s a time for innovation, but not all the rules are clear. Disruptors abound in the industry taking advantage of technological developments, such as blockchain technology, which was a growing area of interest at the Summit. New privacy rules are taking effect, and data breaches can significantly damage even the foremost travel brands.
EyeforTravel’s Smart Travel Data Summit NorthAmerica, held in Miami on February 27th and 28th 2018, delved into data-driven insight through insights from top executives from Amazon, Expedia, Airbnb, Southwest Airlines, Hyatt, Wyndham Worldwide and Delta Airlines among others. 

To find out what they were talking about, click here to download the full Round-up report now.
“Every individual in this room is in a fantastic position,” said Leo Langford, EyeforTravel global conference director. “Whether you are part of a nimble startup or you are a more established, traditional travel brand, it is a boom time to be in data.”Companies with advanced analytics are five times more likely to make decisions before their industry peers, said Priti Dhanda, director of revenue management analytics for Hyatt Hotels Corp.
Over the next five years, about USD800 billion in revenue is expected to shift to the 15% of companies that get personalization right, said Stuart Greif, a former Microsoft executive who now leads the travel and hospitality practice for Amperity, a Seattle software firm that is disrupting the industry with its “intelligent” customer data platform.
“You have everything that would make amazing customer 360-degree profiles. It’s pulling all that data together,” Greif said. The stakes are high as, according to Greif, 41% of customers dropped a brand last year due to poor personalization. “It is no longer just a nuisance. It is standing in the way of you and your customer and potentially losing them.”
The audience also agreed, with data-driven personalization thought to be the most important game-changer for the industry, chosen by 63% of the audience polled at the event, although this slightly lower than at the 2017 Smart Travel Data Summit North America.


Will Coleman, partner of travel, transport and logistics for consulting firm McKinsey & Co. noted that travel brands have key leverage when it comes to personalization: “You as travel suppliers are better positioned to do this than any other industry. You operate hotels and airports where people spend hours of their lives. You interact and engage with customers via social media, and they interact with you more than in any other industry.”
Coleman said 57% of travelers feel brands should tailor their experience based on their past behaviors. “Increasingly we are seeing customers are expecting, and even demanding, this type of customization,” he said.
Meanwhile, technology is increasingly complex. Consider Apple's new iPhone X, which features facial recognition. "It does 600 billion calculations per second and it's the first mass-produced artificial intelligence chip," said Abhijit Pal, head of research for Expedia Inc.’s Global Partner Group. “Facial recognition is absolutely a game changer.”
This growing power is becoming married to more powerful data connections. Verizon just announced its 5G Network that can power 10 gigabits per second. That translates to downloading an entire high-definition movie in less than one second, Pal said.  Expedia allocates USD1.3 billion a year for technology and content spend as it focuses on becoming a mobile-first company, since one-third of its bookings come from mobile. It’s forays into technology currently encompass machine learning and artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and using voice technology with Amazon Echo: “Voice is becoming an important aspect of what we do. That will enable us to personalize. You want technology to know about your tastes. Alexa is going to offer that,” said Pal.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are quickly becoming the backbone of many innovative travel platforms, including Airbnb.
“Airbnb is totally built in-house,” said Theresa Johnson, product manager at Airbnb. Machine learning is critical to the success of the short-term rental platform. It’s used at every step of the user experience, she said.
“Data scientists are people who take a lot of disparate information that you have scattered all over and organize it in a fashion that both humans and machines can understand,” Johnson said. “Machine learning is people, not algorithms. Data is really the voice of our customers speaking to us at scale.”


Click here to download the full Round-up, which features insights from:·         Expedia·         Airbnb·         Hyatt·         Amazon·         Wyndham ·         Hertz·         Allegiant Air·         Greyhound Lines Inc.·         Winding Tree
And more …!

Although the German hotel market is seeing buoyant demand in 2018, cost increases and rising room supply are likely to put pressure on profits finds a new report
The German accommodation market is in the midst of a strong period of high demand, with the number of overnights stays in German accommodation establishments with 10 or more beds rising from an estimated 436.4 million in 2015 to 459.6 million in 2017. Despite the recently buoyant market, 2018 will see hotel profits in the country under pressure as demand growth from German travelers slows, room supply increases and costs grow says a new report, an excerpt for which can be downloaded for free here.
According to Hotstats data provided for the report, average room rates in Germany have been increasing, rising 2% year-on-year in 2016 and 2.5% in 2017 on the back of stable occupancy rates at around 75% across each of three years. This has allowed profitability to rise gently in those years but further gains will be difficult in 2018.
The primary pressure on hotel profits will come from rising wage bills as the German market is experiencing the lowest unemployment it has seen since Reunification with no sign of suddenly increasing supply. Workers are also becoming more vocal about getting a higher wage packet, leading to labour disputes in several German states thus far in 2018.
Competition for workers could be exacerbated even further by new hotels opening in Germany in 2018. Germany has Europe’s second largest pipeline of hotel rooms and the supply-side expansion will also put competitive pressure on hotel pricing in 2018. Pablo Alonso, CEO for HotStats notes that “Historically Germany has always been an attractive market for hotel investment due to the stability of headline performance levels, which provide a consistent income.
“However, profit levels at hotels in Germany will be challenged in the short term as payroll costs are on the rise as the jobless rate in Germany is at a record low and a 4% increase in minimum wage was implemented in January 2017. Additionally, inflation rates in Germany are at their highest level since 2013, which is driving up Cost of Sales.”
On top of growing wage bills and expanding room supply, demand growth from domestic German consumers, who power the market, is likely to be softer as they rediscover their love of international travel and feel confident to book previously shunned destinations. Already in 2017 interest in outbound travel was rising and concerns about safety when abroad were diminishing notes the report.
“This trend will likely accelerate in 2018,” says Alex Hadwick, Head of Research at EyeforTravel. “Whilst rising wages across the German economy means more costs for businesses, it also marks out a very healthy German consumer. Unfortunately for German accommodation providers more of this demand looks like it will be directed outside Germany in 2018 than in 2016 and 2017. Forward booking indicators appear very strong currently and the return of Turkey to growth in particular should lure away German consumers.”
You can download an excerpt from the report by clicking here. Use this free excerpt from our German Travel Consumer 2018 Report to understand the trends shaping German destination choices and spending patterns both at home and abroad in 2018.
To access the full report and all of EyeforTravel’s research become a member of EyeforTravel On Demand now: 

• Detailed analysis of Germany’s economy and its ramifications for consumer travel spending.
• More than 80 charts, figures and tables of data detailing the state of the German travel consumer.
• Outbound and domestic travel market overviews and outlooks.
• A breakdown of the German journey to booking, including lead times, key apps and most popular websites.
• Age and location breakdowns for key online behaviors, destination preferences and spending.
• Trends in German device ownership and usage.
• An overview of the state of Germany’s travel industry.
• Forecasts and outlooks for technologies, destinations, and market growth.
• Data taken from more than 80 different sources.

The German online travel market will continue to be less mobile-focused than other major travel markets for the foreseeable future says a new report
Although digital travel bookings made through mobile are rising, a number of factors will mean Germans continue to rely on their desktops and laptops to look and book their trips says EyeforTravel’s new German Travel Consumer 2018 Report.

The research expects continuing rises in smartphone usage during the booking journey as younger generations are more likely to use the device. However, even by 2020 the report expects roughly two thirds of digital bookings to still be conducted on desktops and laptops in the German market. A free excerpt from the report covering booking trends can be downloaded by clicking this link here now.
Low rates of mobile usage in the market relative to other European travel markets, such as France, Scandinavia and the UK, is a result of several factors including a conservative attitude to technology and lower ability to access mobile data. Broadband infrastructure for mobile devices is relatively weak in Germany and data plans are often expensive, leading to Germany ranking near the bottom of OECD countries for data downloaded per subscription. According to OECD data, Finland, which ranks at the top of the countries in the organization for mobile data, saw nearly 11GB of data usage per mobile subscription in 2016. By contrast, only seven of the OECD’s 32 countries came below Germany, where the average mobile subscription uses just 1.21GB of mobile data. Germans are also highly concerned with privacy, which can be seen in relatively low rates of social media usage and more focus  
This leaves mobile devices trailing desktops and laptops for users time as they plan and book their trip, especially when it comes to older generations. In a survey conducted for the report, just 0.6% of over 55s report buying their flight through a smartphone. In comparison, 29% reported making their flight booking via a face-to-face sale.
Desktops and laptops are also sticky in terms of consumer behaviour, with very low numbers of consumers switching over to mobile devices after using a desktop as their primary research device, and most German consumers heading the other way to make their booking. just 2.4% of consumers who report mainly using a desktop/laptop to research report going over to a tablet and 1.8% to a smartphone
Therefore, as well as Germany lagging behind other major markets for smartphone device usage in the travel journey, it will also shift relatively slowly due to consumer attitudes, demographic trends, infrastructure issues, and an established market of traditional travel agencies.
You can download an excerpt from the report by clicking here. The excerpt includes data on digital habits, device ownership, cross-device movements, research behaviors, lead times, search terms, key research and booking points, social media engagement, and device usage rates both inside and outside the travel journey.
To access the full report and all of EyeforTravel’s research become a member of EyeforTravel On Demand now: 

• Detailed analysis of Germany’s economy and its ramifications for consumer travel spending.
• More than 80 charts, figures and tables of data detailing the state of the German travel consumer.
• Outbound and domestic travel market overviews and outlooks.
• A breakdown of the German journey to booking, including lead times, key apps and most popular websites.
• Age and location breakdowns for key online behaviors, destination preferences and spending.
• Trends in German device ownership and usage.
• An overview of the state of Germany’s travel industry.
• Forecasts and outlooks for technologies, destinations, and market growth.
• Data taken from more than 80 different sources.

What are the key trends will define the Chinese travel market in 2018? Alex Hadwick, Head of Research at EyeforTravel, and Gary Bowerman, Director of Check-in Asia, discuss what you should be keeping an eye on this year.



Click here to view the full report on the Chinese travel consumer. 
Our thanks to Gary Bowerman, Director of Check-in Asia,

German spending on international leisure travel is set for a bump in 2018 as Germans feel more confident in their own economy and the safety of international destinations
Germany’s outbound market accounts for over 30% of the overnight stays made by EU citizens but the market is set to get even bigger in 2018 on the back of strong economic performance, receding security concerns and high consumer confidence finds the report, an extract of which can be downloaded for free here.

The research expects spending by Germans on international leisure travel to exceed €80 billion in 2018 as a result of renewed confidence among German travellers to travel further abroad and return to a variety of destinations, principally Turkey, alongside record high expectations of improving wages.
This comes off the back of an improving environment in 2017 after setbacks in 2016. The report notes a much wider number of destinations reported good growth in 2017 than in 2016 and destinations previously in free-fall appeared to bottom out. Destinations reporting strong growth came from those close to home in Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands, and further afield, Greece, and Balkan and Southeast Asian countries.
In terms of where these trends will head in 2018, perennial favourites Italy, Spain and Greece will continue to be the most popular but Spain will see its growth rates hit by diminishing price competitiveness. Already more expensive than many destinations in the Eastern Mediterranean at the start of last year, average daily rates rose strongly in the market in 2017 and tourism-focused tax rates have further increased costs. Instead, Turkey seems set to experience double digit growth, German tour groups are returning to Tunisia, and Southeast Asian countries seem likely to continue recent high growth as Germans look at long-haul destinations more frequently.
Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt will also be helped in 2018 by receding security concerns that have previously been at the forefront of German travellers minds. The report notes that polls have found that German fears of terrorism have decreased from its peak in 2016 and it is no longer the top concern.
All of these destinations are seeing extremely strong early booking indicators in 2018 according to travel agents, who also report record confidence for growth in 2018. They are being helped by extremely strong economic indicators, particularly with regard to conditions for the average German consumer. Seasonally adjusted unemployment is at a post-Reunification low and consumer confidence is at a record high when it comes to expectations of wage increases. These expectations are not baseless, as the German labour market now has little excess labour to call on and German firms seem to be aware that wages must rise. Furthermore, German consumers have been reluctant to loosen their purse strings when overall European economic conditions have been poor and risks high, but this has shifted as of early 2018, with the eurozone reporting the best economic conditions since the Recession and renewed confidence. This will boost Germane travel consumer spending in 2018 and, barring an economic shock, mark it out as a vintage year for the outbound market.  

You can download an excerpt from the report by clicking here. Use this free excerpt from our German Travel Consumer 2018 Report to understand the trends shaping German destination choices and spending patterns both at home and abroad in 2018.
To access the full report and all of EyeforTravel’s research become a member of EyeforTravel On Demand now:

• Detailed analysis of Germany’s economy and its ramifications for consumer travel spending.
• More than 80 charts, figures and tables of data detailing the state of the German travel consumer.
• Outbound and domestic travel market overviews and outlooks.
• A breakdown of the German journey to booking, including lead times, key apps and most popular websites.
• Age and location breakdowns for key online behaviors, destination preferences and spending.
• Trends in German device ownership and usage.
• An overview of the state of Germany’s travel industry.
• Forecasts and outlooks for technologies, destinations, and market growth.
• Data taken from more than 80 different sources.

Soaring consumer confidence, a growing pay packet and a rising interest in travel will push German spending on leisure travel upwards in 2018 finds a new report from EyeforTravel.
The German economy and consumer is in excellent shape in early 2018 and that means increased spending on travel in the world’s third largest outbound market says EyeforTravel’s new German Travel Consumer 2018 report, a free excerpt from which is available now.
The German economy’s strength stretches across multiple measures. GDP growth has been consistently upgraded to a forecast of 2.3% in 2018, unemployment has retreated to a post-Reunification low and measures of consumer and business confidence are either just above or at record highs.
Consumers are right to be confident as very low unemployment is creating an environment for strong wage growth, especially as consumers and unions are willing to ask for raises. Although real wage increases slowed down to 0.8% at end-2017 higher rates in 2015 and 2016, this should accelerate again, creating a strong environment for expanding spending on travel.
Already in late 2017 there were signs of stronger growth in consumer expenditure and the travel vertical economy that will carry through to 2018. Germany’s trade surplus fell for the first time since 2009 even though export demand is very robust. This is a sign of quickly rising demand on the part of German consumers. This demand carries over to the German travel market, both domestically and internationally, with interest in travel among German consumers reaching a 10-year high as of late 2017. In 2017 the domestic market continued recent trends of solid expansion and the outbound market performed far better than in 2016.
Furthermore, German consumers were helped in 2017 by the performance of the euro. The Euro Currency Index, which measures a basket of major currencies against the euro, had its strongest value growth in 14 years, and this should hold over to 2018, helping support German spending power abroad.
This German spending power is already at the top of major European economies notes the report. In terms of Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita, Germans spent EUR3,400 more than the European Area average of EUR21,100 in 2016 and in purchasing power standard, the average German household had around 19% extra disposable spending per year over the Euro Area average in 2016. Further growth in German pay packets in 2017 and 2018 will only strengthen German travel spending. The greatest areas of concentration of consumer spending power are to be found in the Ruhr, and major urban centers, such as Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.
While the overall number of German consumers who participate in leisure travel is expected to remain broadly stable at just under 80% of consumers according to the report, there is scope for increased spending. The report notes that older German consumers will be the key demographic in the medium term. This is due to those aged over 55 increasing in size as an economic cohort alongside their greater leisure time and growing wealth. The report’s consumer survey notes that those aged over 55 spent noticeably more than younger cohorts and were less concerned about budgetary considerations. Whereas a quarter of consumers under 35 reported spending less than EUR500 on their trip, just 14% of over 55s had such a low trip spend. This is no surprise as older Germans have done well in the current period of economic expansion. German state pensions experienced their biggest ever rise in 2016, estimated at 4% to 5%, and there were further increases of 3.6% in 2017.
This means that travel brands need to keep a close eye on the German travel market over 2018.
You can download an excerpt from the report by clicking here. This excerpt covers the state of the German economy, consumer and travel market in 2018. It includes economic performance data, consumer confidence outlooks, household wealth data, market sizing, spending analysis, and currency data.   
To access the full report and all of EyeforTravel’s research become a member of EyeforTravel On Demand now:

• Detailed analysis of Germany’s economy and its ramifications for consumer travel spending.
• More than 80 charts, figures and tables of data detailing the state of the German travel consumer.
• Outbound and domestic travel market overviews and outlooks.
• A breakdown of the German journey to booking, including lead times, key apps and most popular websites.
• Age and location breakdowns for key online behaviors, destination preferences and spending.
• Trends in German device ownership and usage.
• An overview of the state of Germany’s travel industry.
• Forecasts and outlooks for technologies, destinations, and market growth.
• Data taken from more than 80 different sources. 

Do you work in digital marketing, content marketing, social media, travel technology or data strategy for the travel sector? If you have answered yes to any of the above, then you need to clear your diary on April 9 and 10th.Attendees confirmed to attend include Hyatt, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Fairmont, Hilton San Francisco, Accor Hotels, Kiwi Collection, Tourism Vancouver, Booking.com, Viceroy Hotel Group, Turkish Airlines, Diamond Resorts International and many more.The EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 will be a two-day celebration of fiery innovation, and will provide the perfect platform for your business to adapt, grow and be ahead of the curve in times of disruption and change.The summit, just two weeks away will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & more…as this is just the start.The expert speaker line-up for 2018 includes Marriott, IHG, Jet Blue Technology Ventures, Choice Hotels, Facebook, Tencent, Winding Tree, OneFineStay, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lyft, Lola, Air Canada, Hopper, Hipmunk and more!Emerging technologies such as voice, AI, machine learning, and blockchain are all being talked about by the travel industry, but are they truly getting dissected? The San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 is the only event that will cut through the noise, separate the real use from the hype, and enable travel brands to truly come to grips with the opportunities for digital marketing campaigns.We have so much to talk about, and have split the event into two dedicated tracks - view the full speaker line up and agenda hereThe show will be buzzing with insight on topics including:-   AI Breaking New Ground- Working Creatively with Personalization – Successfully Leverage Data & AI- Redefine and Rebuild your Social Media and Digital Strategy- A Holistic Approach to Enhancing the Physical Experience with the Right Digital Technology- Blockchain Demystified - How will it Change Your Business?- Incorporating Virtual Content and Mobile Video into Your Marketing Strategy- Successfully Pioneer the Use of Data and Technology to Improve the Customer Experience and Drive Loyalty- Reaching the Chinese Traveler- The Power of Mobile to Drive Interaction; and much more!This event is the only place you will be able to meet the cream of the crop in travel and walk away with insights you can implement as soon as you get back to the office.Don’t risk losing out on insights that will catapult your business in 2018 and beyond - Does your strategy stack up? Click here to reserve your place or contact Renu on her details below.Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com  EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu KannuEyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 | renu@eyefortravel.com)

WeChat Pay and Alipay dominate the Chinese payments sector. They are the way in which most Chinese consumers make their purchases, allowing trillions of dollars of transactions, but they are little know in the West. Click on the podcast below to get familiar with these growing giants and how you can integrate them into your travel brand. 
To download the full report on the changing face of travel payments completely for free, click here. 

Expedia, IHG, Accor Hotels, Lyft, Air Canada, Dorchester Collection, Tencent, Cathay Pacific, Choice Hotels, Lola, Booking.com, Turkish Airlines, Jet Blue Tech Venturesand more - some of travel's leading brands confirmed to take the stage at the West Coast’s largest digital travel summit, in just three weeks’ time.
Given the proliferation of mobile as a travel search, booking and engagement platform, EyeforTravel have invited Scott Brodows, VP – Hotel Supply from Hopper to deliver a presentation on Day 2 of the summit (April 10th). Scott will present on the following case study: The Hopper Way - Capitalizing on the proliferation of mobile for travel search, planning and customer engagement.
The session will explore:

•        Mobile search - how has this changed the consumer behavior around planning a trip? Does a mobile platform better enable a holistic, end-to-end customer experience?
•     The use of push notifications to drive sales - how can this be optimized?
•        Artificial intelligence as a tool to redirect user intent and create a new marketplace - and the ability to shift user behavior to certain partners and routes
•        Deliver high resolution vertical video, enabling hotel partners to convey their value-based differentiation

Furthermore, the summit will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & much more!
Tim Gunstone, Managing Director at EyeforTravel said "Innovative customer engagement is at the heart of every successful travel brand – and we are at a tipping point where it is essential for travel brands to focus on the customer experience and deliver personalized messages and content. The proliferation of mobile has been a massive enabler allowing brands to engage and build loyalty with ‘connected travellers’ throughout the travel cycle.
The EyeforTravel San FranciscoDigital Summit 2018 will be a two-day celebration of fiery innovation, and will provide the perfect platform for your business to adapt, grow and be ahead of the curve in times of disruption and change.
Attendees confirmed to attend include TripAdvisor, Fairmont Hotels, Japan Airlines, Disney Parks & Resorts, Expedia, Diamond Resorts International, Choice Hotels, Virgin Hotels, Singapore Airlines, Winding Tree, and so many more. 
There are tickets still available, please contact Renu Kannu at renu@eyefortravel.com
EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu KannuEyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 |renu@eyefortravel.com)

Payment methods around the world are diverging and while this is creating complexity, there are also opportunities for travel brands willing to embrace the payments revolution finds a new free report.
An explosion is going on in fintech to cater to travellers and allow them to move money around more easily and pay seamlessly. Technological innovation, alongside cultural preferences, has led to a market where a customer might prefer to pay in cash, credit card, bank transfer, online payment, currency card, e-wallet or mobile app depending on where they hail from. Although this seems like a headache for travel brands, there is value to be mined from adapting to the payments landscape market-by-market according to The Death of Cash in Travel? report, which is free to download now.
The report notes that there are gains to be made from implementing localised payment methods through better conversion rates, improved data gathering, superior engagement, and fraud reduction.
Payments should become another part of a brand’s localization strategy as it makes the consumer more comfortable making the transaction and likely to trust the brand. “The more payment methods you can offer, the more chance there is to convert a customer,” says Jorge Rodriguez, marketing and e-commerce manager at easyHotel. 
Daniel Greaves, senior manager, marketing, payments at Amadeus IT gives an example of Latin America, where subscription services are highly popular: “We see it a lot with airlines entering the Latin American market and looking to improve sales. As soon as you implement installments, you will see an improvement in sales because that is how people are used to paying,” says Daniel Greaves, head of marketing for travel payments at Amadeus IT Group, underlining how localization in payment methods can add up
Innovation in payments will become a key differentiator amongst travel businesses, particularly among OTAs, says Edward Chandler, CCO at eNett International. “It will help them to offer bespoke customer experiences and enhance the quality of trips through real-time in-destination offers. For example, you could be on holiday in Rome and receive a discounted offer to buy tickets at the Colosseum,” he says. “One frictionless in-app purchase and you could be straight on the guided tour.”
Thomas Helldorf, VP for Airlines and Travel at Worldpay Helldorff sees this trend in the “The likes of Airbnb and other travel companies moving into the experience world, and starting to mimic that concierge experience you get in a hotel by giving extra recommendations. Instead of paying for a vanilla bed, they're enriching their guest’s experience by offering extra ancillary services around their stay. Removing the payment headache from the booking experience creates loyalty to their brand.”
“This intertwining of payments as part of the loyalty question is going to become deeper as social media companies become more embedded in the scene” says Alex Hadwick, head of Research at EyeforTravel. “Payments are also going to extend as social media companies become involved and machine learning advances allow for superior targeting and ‘contextual commerce’. WeChat Pay, for example is a leader in this. The future could well be contextual adverts based on social media app usage, followed by payment from within the app, meaning your customer could book their vacation in one go seamlessly and then communicate with your company’s chatbot to request their in-stay preferences. This is a way to create a concierge service and reach the consumer but also reduce barriers to conversion.”
However, having too many payment methods can lead to confusion says Peter Quinn, head of payment and revenue services at Eurostar: “Many companies and online merchants are starting to have very cluttered websites with many options of how to pay.” He points to pointing to Lufthansa, which has tabs of different payment methods, from EPS Online to UnionPay, Sofort Banking to Giropay, as well as the major types.
This means brands need to consider their capacity and ability to implement payment methods and work with partners. Paul Van Alfen, global head of airlines and travel at Ingenico ePayments, says: “Yes there is a lot of complexity in travel payments but that is typically where the middle man comes in. The more you move towards mobile, to alternative forms of payments, to local payments in South East Asia, China, Russia and Latin America, it becomes very complex very fast. The volume is relatively low but complexity is exponential.”
“Our selection methods for things like Paypal and also payment methods like Apple Pay, for web, in app and Apple Pay contactless in store, means looking at the impact they’ll have on conversion rates, the ease of use for the customer, the security it provides to customers and ourselves to reduce fraud rates and the cost of processing,” says Quinn.
Helldorff advises brands to “Ensure when you turn on the payment method that all the other parts of the organization are aligned and support that payment method as well. If you get that process right, you can turn on as many methods as needed wherever it makes sense for incremental revenue and a significant incremental reach in a particular market. That justifies the extra effort of adding a payment method.”
Eventually, the payments headache may be solved by payments being aggregated by tech giants. This is the view of Shachar Bialick, founder and chief executive of payments platform Curve. He believes the world of money will eventually consolidate into a powerful payments “operating system” that will aggregate all bank accounts, savings and credit and debit cards under one service. This is what Curve is attempting to do. In his opinion, “It is inevitable that a platform will converge all money into one operating system, one point of access. It could be one of the big tech companies, one of the GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), it could be a Paypal or Mastercard or it could be Curve, but it will definitely happen,” he says. However, this is a very long way out currently, so travel brands will need to explore the word of travel payments and prepare for diversity as payment methods explode.  
Download this free report now to understand how payments are diverging and how you can take advantage of the new environment as a travel brand through detailed analysis alongside insights from:

• Daniel Greaves | Senior Manager, Marketing, Payments | Amadeus IT
• David Nunn | Head of Braintree Europe
• Richard Cole | Chief Marketing Officer | Caxton FX
• Shachar Bialick | Founder and Chief Executive | Curve
• Jorge Rodriguez | Marketing and E-commerce Manager | easyHotel
• Edward Chandler | CCO | eNett International
• Peter Quinn | Payments and Revenue Systems Lead | Eurostar
• Ian Strafford Taylor | Chief Executive | FairFX
• Paul Van Alfen | Global Head of Airlines and Travel | Ingenico ePayment
• Anouska Ladds | European Head of Airlines, Hotels and OTAs | Mastercard
• Ben Jackson | Director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Pre-paid Advisory | Mercator Advisory Group
• Alex Fitzpatrick | Head of Global Payments | Travelport
• Ovidiu Olea | Founder and Chief Executive | Valoot
• Thomas Helldorf | VP for Airlines and Travel | Worldpay

Is cash in terminal decline? A new free report from EyeforTravel finds that the payment landscape is changing, with a host of new solutions rising in popularity across many key travel markets.
E-wallets, currency cards, peer-to-peer exchanges, and of course credit and debit cards, cash is now having to compete with a host of alternatives looking to be more secure and convenient than the traditional payment method of travellers. From WeChat Pay and Alipay in China, iDeal in the Netherlands, Sweden’s Klarna, and Sadad in Saudi Arabia, e-wallets are soaring in popularity to the extent that cash is used weekly by only 25% of Swedes and the value of e-wallet transactions now runs into the trillions of dollars in China notes the report.
Ovidiu Olea, founder and chief executive of Hong Kong-based fintech start-up Valoot, says Alipay and WeChat Pay are now part of the fabric of commerce in China. “More than just replacing cash, they have successfully replaced plastic as well. They have leapfrogged other parts of the world where there is a move to contactless and instead they have delivered convenience through QR codes,” he says.
The fintech sector is also jumping into the market using low-cost technology infrastructure and operating on razor thin margins. These innovative services are leveraging the mobile revolution to offer payment cards controlled by mobile apps, which allow for a high degree of flexibility in exchanging currencies. As Ian Strafford Taylor, chief executive of currency card company FairFX, says: “The pre-paid card market began to take off when consumers started to realize that high street banks were offering them a bad deal on exchange rates and fees for spending and withdrawing cash abroad. Debit and credit cards may be an easy option to default to, but the hidden fees soon start to pile up over the course of a holiday.” 
Proliferation in cash alternatives is causing some in the industry to believe that the days of cash are numbered. “Cash is in demise,” says Alex Fitzpatrick, head of global payments at travel commerce company Travelport. “We will be a cashless society eventually,” she adds. In her opinion governments want to move payments to a digital platform to increase oversight and transparency. Businesses would also prefer to do without cash.
However, for Thomas Helldorff, Worldpay’s vice president for vertical growth in airlines and travel, “Cash will still be a relevant factor when people go abroad and pay,” as catering “for every traveler from every country you would have to integrate every single form of payment out there. Not a lot of them have, so far, managed to get global reach. It has taken the likes of Visa and Mastercard decades to get there.”
The report finds that although consumers in some countries are highly engaged in the digital revolution sweeping payments, there is strong divergence between markets. In Germany and Austria for example, a strong preference for cash remains, with Germans carrying the most cash on average among European consumers. They also prefer to pay using bank transfer when shopping online and shy away from credit cards in comparison to Italy, for example, demonstrating that even within the EU there is a high degree of variation. Localisation needs to extend beyond language and cultural elements to payment methods for travel brands.  
Therefore, cash is a long way from finished but the travel industry will need to pay far more attention to the alternatives which are rising in markets around the world.  

Download this free report now to understand how payments are diverging and how you can take advantage of the new environment as a travel brand through detailed analysis alongside insights from:

• Daniel Greaves | Senior Manager, Marketing, Payments | Amadeus IT
• David Nunn | Head of Braintree Europe
• Richard Cole | Chief Marketing Officer | Caxton FX
• Shachar Bialick | Founder and Chief Executive | Curve
• Jorge Rodriguez | Marketing and E-commerce Manager | easyHotel
• Edward Chandler | CCO | eNett International
• Peter Quinn | Payments and Revenue Systems Lead | Eurostar
• Ian Strafford Taylor | Chief Executive | FairFX
• Paul Van Alfen | Global Head of Airlines and Travel | Ingenico ePayment
• Anouska Ladds | European Head of Airlines, Hotels and OTAs | Mastercard
• Ben Jackson | Director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Pre-paid Advisory | Mercator Advisory Group
• Alex Fitzpatrick | Head of Global Payments | Travelport
• Ovidiu Olea | Founder and Chief Executive | Valoot
• Thomas Helldorf | VP for Airlines and Travel | Worldpay
•  

We have just released our new The Death of Cash in Travel? report, which you can download for free here now. To give you a flavour of the report, the following is the introduction from the report ...

The next billion consumers who will become regular leisure travelers will look different to those in established travel markets in the West today. They will come from mobile-first societies where the digital environment has evolved in a different way. This means they will bring with them new payment methods that travel brands will need to adapt to.Mobile wallets are already hugely popular in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, and Kenya. In China, many consumers keep their plastic on hand solely for when they travel, instead using apps linked into the social sphere, such as WeChat Pay and AliPay, when they are spending at home. And that spending is soaring, already reaching into the trillions in dollar terms. Brands that can tap into the Chinese app space and allow payment through these giants are giving themselves a competitive edge in the world’s largest travel market. Innovation isn’t just restricted to high growth economies in Asia-Pacific. Mobile wallets are gaining traction in the West, as are currency cards controlled from apps that make a compelling case to consumers through far lower fees and charges than traditional bank cards. Sweden is already a largely cashless society, and it is even asking the question of whether it needs to slow down in its transition away from cash.So, is cash in terminal decline? Well, not quite. It will remain popular for many years to come and many pre-loaded currency card operators find travelers largely use them abroad to withdraw cash sums than to use them directly for payments. Geography is critical in the trajectory of cash and local preferences are key. Whilst some developing countries are sprinting ahead with digital payments, others are almost exclusively cash-based. In developed countries, ingrained behaviors and infrastructures are also supporting cash. Germans remain highly wedded to physical currency, carrying more than anyone else in Europe, for example, and this will take a long time to change. Cash has a feeling of security and trust for travelers that is hard to replace and is undeniably useful in a wide number of destinations.  Nonetheless, the growing range of cash alternatives adds up to a more diverse payments landscape than anything that has come before and travel brands can reap the rewards from plugging in. Consumers are more likely to spend when they feel comfortable and secure in their purchase, which can be aided by localized payment formats. Introducing seamless payment methods will induce more consumer spending and travel brands that can adopt these methods successfully can help to reduce that most stubborn of e-commerce issues – purchase abandonment – as well as create a more inclusive brand experience that is embedded into social media applications. There are other advantages as well, with newer payment methods and CRM systems richer data streams are possible that can allow operational decisions in real time. There is also potential to reduce fraud through more sophisticated authentication. However, there is also the risk of additional complexity and travel brands will need to consider their customer make-up and ability to adopt new payment methods rather than rush headlong into adopting a new medium. So, please read on and discover how and where the payment environment is changing and we hope you enjoy this piece of EyeforTravel research.
Alex HadwickHead of Research, EyeforTravel 

EyeforTravel have put together a summit – the San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 (April 9 – 10), which will unite leading players from the travel market including hotels, airlines, OTAs and metasearch companies, travel technology companies, as well as the start-up community.
Attendees confirmed to attend include IHG, American Airlines, Hyatt, TripAdvisor, Fairmont, Expedia, Marriott, Choice Hotels, Accor Hotels, Winding Tree, Priceline, Booking.com, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lola, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Disney Resorts and many more!
The event will see attendance from senior level digital marketers, customer experience, loyalty and technology experts, as well as e-commerce, product managers and data specialists - All of whom will tackle and examine the steps needed to develop and deploy a strong digital strategy, to create a customer-centric business which engages the connected traveller in a data heavy world.
Click here to see how you can join the summit: http://events.eyefortravel.com/san-francisco-summit/register.php If you work in travel and focus on digital marketing, mobile, travel technology, and data - this is the only event which will enable you to separate the real from the hype and to walk away with actionable insights.
This event continues to bring something unique every year:
We have topics from Expedia covering AI breaking new ground, Choice Hotels discussing their Approach to Enhancing the Physical Experience Through Digital, Cathay Pacific and Facebook discussing their social media and customer engagement strategies, to Booking.com, Lola, Marriott and Accortackling the use of data and technology for a seamless travel experience to drive loyalty.The 6 BIG Ideas the Summit Will Tackle:

• Nail Your Digital Strategy: Find out the digital tools, platforms and strategies required to understand and serve your customer better than your competition
• Gain A Solid Understanding of Emerging Travel Technology: Between voice, AI, machine learning, VR/AR & blockchain – find out what technologies the top players in the industry are investing in right now and how this can be applied
• Develop A Marketing Strategy That Works and Keeps Your Customer Coming Back: Know at the right time, with the right message what product your customers want. This takes your customer insight to a whole new profitable level and crucially these profits stay within the industry. And Implement proven strategies in social media, content, personalization, brand storytelling and more!
• Enhance Your Mobile and Tech Strategy: Learn how to approach your products with a mobile-first mindset that allows you to personalize your products and messages to increase direct bookings and drive loyalty
• Exploit New Platforms: Conversational commerce backed by AI allows direct sales, better service and cuts costs. Whether via web, brand app or through messenger apps (900 million FB messenger users compares favorably with 100 million Uber users) the industry is uniting chat, service and commerce.
• Drive Data Enabled Personalization: Personalization of product, message, payment and the very relationship you have with your customer is being revolutionized through analytics, data partnerships and machine learning. The result is higher conversion rates, customer loyalty and profitability

With just 4 weeks to the event, now’s your chance to get amongst the movers and shakers in travel – click here to join the travel elite at the West Coast’s largest digital travel summit of 2018!
Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com  EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu KannuEyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 |renu@eyefortravel.com)

This keynote panel discussion will be featured on Day 2 at the upcoming EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 on April 9-10 at Hotel Nikko.
Expert speakers to present on this topic include:

•         Amy Fox, Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Lyft
•         Emre Mangir, Chief Commercial Officer, Mozio
•         Susan Black, Chief Commercial Officer, CIE Tours
•          Jeffrey Lavender, Senior Vice President – Corporate Development & Contact Centers, Avoya Travel 

The panel will cover:

• What is the impact of a changing device and data landscape on product and partnerships?
• Driving the highest value in partnerships to own the customer journey and support a seamless end to end travel experience
• Data dating - How do you sift through the painful flings and find beneficial committed data partners?
• What is the role of the agency model in the current climate and what kind of partnerships does that involve? What is the role of the agent in providing this complete customer experience?

Will your digital strategy stack up in 2018 and beyond? Click here to learn more and don’t miss your chance to be a part of the West Coast’s largest digital travel event!
The San Francisco summit currently holds the hottest attendee list in digital travel with brands confirmed to attend including: Expedia, Marriott, TripAdvisor, IHG, Cathay Pacific, Accor Hotels, Hyatt, Air Canada, Choice Hotels, Singapore Airlines, Booking.com, Lola, The Travel Corporation and many more!
The West Coast’s largest digital travel summit will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & much more. And this is just the start.  
Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com   
EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu Kannu
EyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 |renu@eyefortravel.com)

This keynote panel discussion will be featured on Day 2 at the upcoming EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 on April 9-10 at Hotel Nikko.
Expert speakers to present on this topic include:

• Christine Kettmer, Senior Director, Customer Experience & Innovation, Marriott
• Siobhan Mitchell, Director – Loyalty Marketing, Marketing, & Sales, Accor Hotels
• Biby Notten, Senior Area Marketing Manager, Viceroy Hotel Group

 The panel will cover:

•  Adopting a digital-first approach to your data capture strategy
•  Learn to ascertain a richer picture of each of your customers by developing a comprehensive data strategy – how can you drive loyalty in your business?
•  Measure customer behaviors across multiple devices to build an accurate reflection of consumer activity, media consumption, path-to-purchase and more.

This week alone, attendees confirmed include Expedia, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Trip Advisor, IHG, Cliff Hotels, IHG and more who will be joining our confirmed speaker list including Hilton, Marriott, Choice Hotels, Winding Tree, Priceline, Booking.com, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lola, Air Canada and more!
The West Coast’s largest digital travel summit will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & much more. And this is just the start.  
Will your digital strategy stack up in 2018 and beyond? Click here to learn more and don’t miss your chance to be a part of the West Coast’s largest digital travel event!
Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com  
EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu Kannu EyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 |renu@eyefortravel.com)

Hyatt, TripAdvisor, Fairmont, Hilton, Expedia, Japan Airlines, Marriott, Winding Tree and more will come together on April 9 -10 at EyeforTravel’s San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 .
The summit, just under two months away, will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & much more. And this is just the start.  
This week, we have confirmed attendees from Hyatt, TripAdvisor, Fairmont, and Hilton San Francisco who will be joining our confirmed speaker list including Expedia, Marriott, Choice Hotels, Winding Tree, Priceline, Booking.com, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lola, Air Canada and more!
Emerging technologies such as voice, AI, machine learning, and blockchain are all being talked about by the travel industry, but are they truly getting dissected? The San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 is the only event that will cut through the noise, separate the real use from the hype, and enable travel brands to truly come to grips with the opportunities for digital marketing campaigns.
View the full speaker line up and agenda here
We have so much to talk about, and have split the event into two dedicated tracks:
1.   Tech Innovation Strategies: Mobile, Emerging Trends, and Travel Technology
Case studies to be discussed in this track include:

• A Choice Hotels Case Study: A Holistic Approach to Emerging Tech & Enhancing the Physical Experience with the Right Digital Technology
• A Marriott Case study: The Power of Mobile to Drive Interaction and Develop Unique Digital Experiences to Stay Top of Mind and Engage with Your Customer
• Blockchain Demystified: How Can It Be Applied in Travel and How Will It Change Your Business?
• Leveraging Data Driven Insights & Technology: Keep Up with The Shifts in Customer Behavior to Deliver Relevant and Personalized Products

2    2.  Marketing Strategies: Content Marketing, Social media and Data
      Case studies to be discussed include:

• Hilton Case Study: Brand Building in the Digital Age: The Role of Storytelling in Today’s Customer Journey
• Cathay Pacific Case Study: Incorporating Virtual Content and Mobile Video into Cathay Pacific Airways’ Marketing Strategy
• Air Canada Vacations Case Study: An Air Canada Vacations Case Study: Keep Your Customers Clicking by Delivering Smarter, Personalized, More Dynamic Content
• Melia Hotels International Case Study: Redefine and Rebuild Your Social Media and Digital Strategy Using Data, Personalization & Hyper-Segmentation

Click here to see the full agenda and the confirmed speaker line up
This summit is truly the only place you will be able to meet the cream of the crop in travel, walk away with insights you can action as soon as you get back to the office.
Will your digital strategy stack up in 2018 and beyond? Click here to learn more and don’t miss your chance to be a part of the West Coast’s largest digital travel event!Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com  EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.
Renu KannuEyeForTravel | Project and Research Director (+ 44 20 7375 7197 |renu@eyefortravel.com)

The EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 (April 9-10 Hotel Nikko), just over two months away will tackle the role of emerging technologies in travel, and help travel brands benchmark their digital strategy from some of the best in the industry.The event is perfectly positioned to address the all-important question currently on the minds of travel brands' now: What technologies should they invest in to enhance their digital strategy and how? The summit will provide the perfect platform to ascertain the real tech strategy from the hype, to truly come to grips with the opportunities of these technologies for digital marketing campaigns; and to successfully engage and get closer to the customer.We have so much to talk about, and have split the event into two dedicated tracks:1.   Tech Innovation Strategies: Mobile, Emerging Trends, and Travel TechnologyCase studies to be discussed in this track include:-   A Choice Hotels Case Study: A Holistic Approach to Emerging Tech & Enhancing the Physical Experience with the Right Digital Technology-   A Marriott Case study: The Power of Mobile to Drive Interaction and Develop Unique Digital Experiences to Stay Top of Mind and Engage with Your Customer-   Blockchain Demystified: How Can It Be Applied in Travel and How Will It Change Your Business?-   Leveraging Data Driven Insights & Technology: Keep Up with The Shifts in Customer Behaviour to Deliver Relevant and Personalized Products2.   Marketing Strategies: Content Marketing, Social media and DataCase studies to be discussed include:-   Hilton Case Study: Brand Building in the Digital Age: The Role of Storytelling in Today’s Customer Journey-   Cathay Pacific Case Study: Incorporating Virtual Content and Mobile Video into Cathay Pacific Airways’ Marketing Strategy-   Air Canada Vacations Case Study: An Air Canada Vacations Case Study: Keep Your Customers Clicking by Delivering Smarter, Personalized, More Dynamic Content-   Melia Hotels International Case Study: Redefine and Rebuild Your Social Media and Digital Strategy Using Data, Personalization & Hyper-SegmentationClick here to see the full agenda and the confirmed speaker line upHere is a snapshot of experts taking the stage in San Francisco in 2017!

• Amy Ziegenfuss, VP – Global Marketing Focused Brands, Hilton
• Tim Goodwin, Chief Technology Officer, Vacasa
• Sam MacDonnell, Chief Technology Officer, HotelTonight
• Todd Henrich, SVP – Corporate Development, Priceline Group
• Robecta Ma, VP – Marketing, Cathay Pacific Airways
• Angel Llull Mancas, Senior Director – North America, Booking.com
• Amir Amidi, Managing Partner – Travel & Hospitality Center of Innovation, Plug and Play Tech Center
• Reda Berrehili, Chief Technology Officer, OneFineStay
• Dan Christian, Chief Digital Officer, The Travel Corporation
• Pedro Renaud Anderson, Founder, Winding Tree
• Will Farnan, Client Partner – Travel Suppliers, Facebook and more!

Will your digital strategy stack up in 2018 and beyond? Click here to learn more and don’t miss your chance to be a part of the West Coast’s largest digital travel event!Contact the team directly at – renu@eyefortravel.com  EyeforTravel is a community where the world's top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry. We aim to provide you with industry focused news, events, reports, updates and information. EyeforTravel Limited is a registered company. The Company Registration number is 06286442. It is also registered in England & Wales. Registered office is 7-9 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX, United Kingdom.Renu KannuEyeforTravel | Project and Research Director+ 44 20 7375 7197 | renu@eyefortravel.com