Dear Insiders,
The ITB provided adequate opportunity this year to get to know the "Movers & Shakers" who otherwise prefer to remain in the background. Sarah Douag met both CEOs of Fastbooking - the company that intends to push AccorHotels to become a mini OTA, with its new distribution platform under accorhotel.com. To the French journalist, the two Frenchmen Guillaume de Marcillac and Jean-Luc Chrétien provided lots of detail on contracts with the hotels, on commission, loyalty programmes and innovation. Fastbooking is AccorHotel's "digital lab".
The motto on the MICE market is not to experiment but to react. At the IMEX in Frankfurt this week, the "Meeting & EventBarometer 2016" pointed to growth in the German event market, but no longer indicated any huge leaps. Budgets are also rising, but only moderately. New: China mixes among the top 10 preferred conference destinations worldwide. Current facts and figures today in compressed form.
It was less the figures and more the ideas and peculiarities of luxury hotels which interested the 100 buyers at the B2B luxury trade fair "loop" in the Kempinski Gravebruch/Frankfurt. The third such event, and the third time we were media partner as well, loop is a careful reflection of what luxury travellers really want. More than ever before, perhaps as a result of the special turbulence in today's world, luxury travellers are looking for that special something - and security of course. 100 hoteliers put their pearls on the table, and the buyers go hunting for them. A summary - available for all users - can be found on our Page 1.
There you will also find our summary of the ITB Hospitality Day panels on digital natives. Future researcher Andreas Reiter based in Vienna explained why companies must focus on these young people, on their super-egos and demands.
And other news: The French have choosen the holiday apartment provider HomeAway as their official partner for the Euro 2016; and the hotel industry is up in arms, mainly because there's yet again no mention of tax. Boardinghouse Consulting based in Berlin has published its current comprehensive market report on Serviced Apartments in Germany. And at the same time, Deutsche Hypo has also compiled a market overview on this segment. Preferred Hotels Vice President Philipp Weghmann explains why the consortium is growing now and is able to keep growing. And the Austrians realise that their record overnight stays in winter are over.
Apart from that: Two other events are moving closer in June. Have you already looked at the details on the 3rd conference "Spotlight Hotel Investment Poland" in Warsaw. I like how this is developing into a new industry meeting point for CEE, and this is why we are supporting the small but fine event as media partner. With colleagues from "hotelbau" we are also organising a specialist symposium on "Green Hotels" in Munich. The day is planned as compact workshop with lots of time for questions. All details can be found on our Page 1 - click on the text or on the corresponding banner.
Next week, I will meet some of you at ATM and AHIC in Dubai, so my colleague Susanne Stauss will welcome you here.
