OUT NOW: STEPPING OUT OF THE CROWD

Encouraging visitors to leave crowded hotspots and go in search of more enriching experiences has never been more important for destinations looking to capitalise on the rising tide of visitors from Asia’s emerging outbound markets. This is especially the case in Europe, where local residents in some of the continent’s most popular tourist hotspots have already started calling for restrictions on visitor numbers and outright bans in some neighborhoods.

While better visitor management is clearly needed in some cities, we believe that not all solutions to this dilemma have to involve clamp-downs, restrictions, bans and penalties. Just as forward-looking cities are learning to integrate the sharing economy into their tourism ecosystem (something we’ve talked a lot about recently in countries such as Portugal and Croatia), they are also finding creative ways to spread visitor spending further away from the city centre, or even to surrounding towns and villages.

This is something that we make clear in the report ‘Stepping Out of the Crowd, Where the Next Generation of Asian Travellers is Headed and How to Win a Place on their Travel Itinerary’.

This comprehensive 150-page report draws on unique consumer research carried out among Asian Millennials, as well as expert opinion, case studies from leading travel brands and data from PATA’s own forecasts on cross-border travel. It also gives practical recommendations on where to start when putting a dispersal strategy in place.

Main features of the report:

• Unique consumer research from Millennials in 13 outbound markets across Asia on their attitudes towards trip planning, city visits and going ‘off the beaten track’.
• Data from the PATA five year forecast to show how international arrival arrivals will affect APAC destinations in the coming years
• Expert opinion from 14 market-leading tourism organisations, travel brands and influencers on how to set out an effective dispersal strategy.
• Recommendations to public and private sector organisations on how to create more effective and rewarding products that encourage dispersal for Asian Millennial travellers.

How to get the report:
Full report – PATA Store (free for PATA members, US$100 for non-members)
Executive Summary (free download)
PATA press release

Video & Case Study

TOPOSOPHY makes the best of what every place has to offer

As a destination marketing and management agency whose long-term commitment is to help destinations to ‘make the best of what every place has to offer’, TOPOSOPHY is delighted to have been part of such a groundbreaking project. We believe in smart planning that understands market dynamics, combined with innovative marketing that makes use of creative technological solutions. We also know that ‘hidden gems’ are what can put your place on the map. So if you’re interested to learn more about how to make the best of what your place has to offer, just drop us an email or come and meet us at our forthcoming events. We’d be pleased to talk with you!

Click here to watch the case study video 

The Future of eTourism- ENTER 2012

– An Interview with Professor Dimitrios Buhalis.

Just a few days before ENTER 2012 (24-27 January 2012) Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, President of the International Federation of IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT), speaks to us about the latest online technology applications to shape the travel and tourism industry, and what destinations should definitely know entering this exciting gamezone in 2012.

The ENTER Annual Conference organized by the International Federation of IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) specifically addresses the application of information and communication technologies to travel and tourism. The international event which, especially during the last couple of years, has managed to rise as the leading tourism and technology event worldwide, gathers representatives of the global industry, government and academia providing an active platform of knowledge exchange and interaction.

Dr. Buhalis could you tell us what we should expect from ENTER this year?

ENTER 2012, the annual IT and Tourism conference, will be held from 24th to 27th January 2012 in Helsingborg, Sweden.  Organised by IFITT, the leading international organisation for information technologies in travel and tourism, this conference is expected to be one of the biggest tourism events of the year.

More than 150 presenters are expected to attend and discuss state-of-the-art research with some great names including Viktor van der Wijk, Director e-Acquisition, Air France KLM, Ed Parsons, the Geospatial Technologist of Google, Olaf Schlieper, Head of Media Management at the German National Trust Board and Diego J. Lofeudo from Expedia Travel. Further representatives from Facebook, TripAdvisor and VisitBritain will also be participating.

ENTER 2012 is a worldwide community conference, providing an opportunity for individuals to actively discuss the impact of new cutting edge information and communication technologies on the travel and tourism industry.  This conference will focus on the present and future services and applications of eTourism.  It is a global event attracting over 300 participants from more than 60 countries every year.

Click here  for the conference program

In view of the constant changes in sensitive technological and economical balances in the travel landscape, with new and powerful players entering the travel technology arena and increasing consumers’ expectations, which do you see as the three hotter technology trends to affect the Tourism & Travel Industry in 2012 and beyond?

I would expect that smart phones will provide interactivity, personalised services on location and therefore I would suggest that the destinations should invest on a combinations of

• Mobile Technology and Services
• Social Media, Online Communities and User Generated Content
• Electronic Tourism Marketing and Customer Research on Location based services

Considering the game changing trends and the fact that destination managers try to keep up with the latest technological advancements while dealing with budget restrictions what should be the top technological priority for destinations to invest in within 2012?

I think that the key issues identified above should be the key areas of development for all tourism organisations including destinations. Destinations in addition have the issue of integrating all information that is currently available across different organisations, platforms, and systems and invest in the interoperability of this systems and information aggregation to flexible platforms that will enable travellers and industry to interact with current information.

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Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Technology and Tourism. He is currently Established Chair in Tourism and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR) and Director of the John Kent Institute in Tourism at the School of Tourism at Bournemouth University and Professorial Observer at the Bournemouth University Senate. He is also the President of the International Federation of Information Technology for Travel and Tourism (IFITT). He previously worked at the Universities of Surrey, Westminster and the Aegean whilst he had visiting appointments at ESSEC in France, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China University of Aveiro, Portugal, and the Modul University in Vienna, Austria. He is regarded as an expert in the impacts of ICTs in the tourism industry, the management of tourism distribution channels as well as in strategic tourism marketing and management. He has recently included accessible tourism in his research portfolio. He has worked around the world and has written 14 books and more than 100 articles. Dimitrios has been involved with a number of European Commission FP5 and FP6 projects and regularly advises the World Tourism Organisation, the World Tourism and Travel Council and the European Commission on eTourism. For more information see http://www.buhalis.com

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Meet abouTourism @ ENTER2012.