Engaging SME Suppliers May Not Be About Technology

I had an interesting discussion with the President of the Finnish Chapter of IFITT and a PHD student from the Basque region of Spain about engaging small travel suppliers, primarily tour and activity providers, in the use of new technologies to help manage and distribute products. I was saddened but still encouraged to hear that both were facing the same challenges in their respective countries that I have been facing here in Canada and more specifically in B.C.. In my ongoing efforts to promote Rezgo.com as a tour operator software solution to small tour and activity operators, I have encountered... Read more »

Eric Basha Keynote Presentation at ENTER 2008, Innsbruck

The following seven videos are 8-10 minute segments of the keynote presentation by Eric Basha at the Enter 2008 Conference in Innsbruck, Austria. The presentation was excellent and provides some extremely valuable insight into the technological opportunities and challenges facing the industry. The thing that I found most relevant to small travel suppliers was Eric’s statement that we, as an industry, must engage and encourage SME travel suppliers to adopt on-line technologies and embrace single inventory source systems. The challenge is converting a group of companies (and individuals)... Read more »

Top 5 Travel & Tourism Technology Trends for 2008

I had the chance to participate in the Enter 2008 Conference held in Innsbruck, Austria last week. “Organised by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT), ENTER 2008 offers a unique forum for academics, industry and government to present and debate state-of-the-art research and industry case studies on the application of information and communications technologies to tourism and travel.” There were several trends that emerged as I listened to and engaged in some of the presentations. The trends I identified spanned across all three tracks;... Read more »

UNWTO & Microsoft to Keynote at Enter 2008 in Innsbruck

2008 looks like it is going to be a very exciting year for travel & tourism technology. I’m really happy to be able to go to Innsbruck this month to represent the fledgling North American Chapter of IFITT. Jens Thraenhart from TourismInternetMarketing.com, who is also on the Board of Directors of IFITT North America will be coming to Innsbruck as well. The theme of this year’s conference is “eTourism:The View from the Future”. The keynote speakers are Geoffrey Lipman from the UNWTO and Eric Basha, Industry Managing Director with Microsoft. I had the opportunity... Read more »

Bringing Long Tail Content to the Fore

There has been a lot of discussion over the last year about the long tail of travel and the move to market and sell specialized travel products. PhocusWright’s Senior Strategist John Bray, in a presentation at the 2007 IFITT Enter Conference, elaborated on the primary differences between Travel 1.0 and Travel 2.0. Mr. Bray pointed out that travel 1.0 was about “Searching for the Lowest Fare” whereas Travel 2.0 is about “Finding the Perfect Trip”. What does this mean exactly? Well, it means that consumers are researching, asking questions, and looking for alternatives... Read more »

Academic Research Supports Industry Trends

As an IFITT member, I’ve had an opportunity to review the materials presented at the Enter 2007 Conference, which took place in Ljubljana. Much of the focus of IFITT is on the research and academic side and I must admit, the quality of the presentations is very impressive. The presentations, which are produced by academics from around the World, reflect research into a wide variety of tourism related areas. One paper I found particularly interesting and relevant to the upcoming Canada-e-connect conference is titled “Assessing eBusiness Models of U.S. Destination Marketing Organizations”.... Read more »

Bringing IFITT to Canada

This year has been a real revelation of sorts for me. I’ve seen a real turnaround in how technology in travel and tourism is recognized both locally and Internationally. For many years Europe has been at the forefront of embracing new technologies that promote travel and tourism and recognizing and supporting the travel technology industry. This year, for example, is the first Canada-e-connect conference which will be focusing on online marketing and use of new technologies to promote tourism from a strategic point of view. As a technologist, I have worked with many traditional travel... Read more »