The Travel Marketing Digest: DSM conference udpate, WTTC 2013 outlook, End Point Premier Inn case study, Forrester on digital improvements, mobile connectivity in the air, growth in geo-advertising

The Travel Marketing Digest

3rd March 2013 - Volume II, issue 3

IN THIS ISSUE.....

Dear Industry Colleagues and Friends,

We are more than thrilled with the conference line up for the Digital & Social Marketing Summit. It really will be a unique day and probably the best grouping of specialists in this field that has ever been assembled in The Middle East. If you can make it we look forward to seeing you there.

In this edition we feature:

A case study completed by End Point covering their management of the global roll-out of the Premier Inn rebrand.
The World Travel & Tourism Council who have released their new forecast of the GDP growth contribution for the Travel Industry. We include their animated video.
The growth of geo-advertising and the impact of the HP announcement for the $169 Slate7.
A Forrester report on how to improve digital experience for customers.
The growth of airborne connectivity and the response of consumers.

Thank you for those of you who us positive feedback on the new web site and the use of Arabic art which we felt was appropriate given the roots of the business.

Best regards,

Duncan Alexander

Director

The Travel Marketing Store

www.thetravelmarketingstore.com

Special Feature

Endpoint publish an in-depth case study on the management of Premier Inn's brand assets during a major re-branding

Endpoint, the UK and Middle East based brand assets management company, has completed a detailed case study which has been published in The Directory. The case study presents the huge project that End Point undertook for Premier Inn. In a £10M exercise 500 properties were rebranded within six months. Visit The Directory and download the case study to read this fascinating story.

If you wish to feature a case study please contact us.

The Travel Marketing Store Presents: The Digital & Social Marketing Summit

Jumeirah Creekside Hotel 20th March 2013

The Digital & Social Marketing Summit will be both "a conference and an education".

We have assembled a first class line up of practitioners with whom we will explore the latest tools, techniques and traps of Digital & Social Marketing.

Global Travel & Tourism industry defies economic uncertainty by outperforming the global economy in 2012 - and predicted to do it again in 2013

The Travel & Tourism industry has outperformed the global economy in 2012 - growing faster than manufacturing, retail, financial services and communications. The industry has grown its total contribution to GDP by 3% and increased the number of jobs by five million to 260 million. It means that, for the first time, one in 11 of all jobs in the world are now supported by Travel & Tourism. More than 10% of all new jobs created in 2012 were from the industry.

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council's (WTTC) economic research, in 2012, Travel & Tourism's total economic contribution - taking account of its direct, indirect and induced impacts - was US$6.6 trillion in GDP (a rise of US$500 billion year-on-year), US$765 billion in investment and US$1.2 trillion in exports* (all 2012 prices). This contribution represents 9% of total GDP, 5% of total investment and 5% of world exports.

Do you like to travel?

Among the 20 largest global economies (the G20), South Korea, China, South Africa and Indonesia performed best. Growth of less than 1% in Europe and 2% in the United States was counter-balanced by 10% growth in South Korea, 7% in China and South Africa and 6% in Indonesia.

WTTC is predicting the Travel & Tourism industry will expand its total contribution to GDP by 3.2% in 2013, faster than the 2.4% predicted for global economic growth. The industry is expected to support nearly 266 million jobs in 2013 and again outperform many other industries.

David Scowsill, President & CEO of WTTC, said: "2012 demonstrated again just how resilient the Travel & Tourism industry is. Despite many economic difficulties, last year, for the first time, we saw more than one billion international travellers pass through the world's ports, airports, roads and railway stations for the first time. This industry is an important driver for countries' economic development and growth strategies. Our industry is responsible for creating jobs, lifting people out of poverty, and broadening horizons. But we need international institutions and governments to recognise its strength, to remove restrictive visa and tax regimes and to work with the private sector to stimulate that growth.

David Scowsill continued: "It is clear that the industry is going to be a significant driver of global growth and employment for the next decade. The rise in emerging market destinations explains some of the strong growth in T&T (particularly employment). As the shift from a manufacturing to a services' economy increases in many countries, so the share of T&T employment out of total employment will increase, as will the share of tourism's contribution to total GDP. Growing faster than any other economy is China. WTTC forecasts that China will overtake the United States to be the world's biggest Travel and Tourism economy by 2023".

WTTC is publishing economic impact reports and forecasts on Travel & Tourism's contribution to GDP for 184 countries and for 24 regions. The global report can be downloaded from our Video Collection Page.

Without Frontiers

The Global Travel Marketing Forum

Dubai Madinat Jumeirah

24-26^th September 2013

the marketplace for

travel marketing services

Mobile geo-advertising set to soar especially with the announced HP $169 tablet, Slate7

In mid-February Nick Vivion, a Tnooz reporter, provided a very useful write up on the status of geo-targeted advertising. Mobile advertising is set for huge growth and in some markets this is already happening. Citing a report by Marin Software the UK grew its mobile and tablet paid search budgets from 9.94% to 19.32% during 2012. The Eurozone increased this by 146% going from 4.8% to 11.8%. Search giant Google is projected to see over $20 billion in revenues from mobile advertising in just 3 years - a nearly 10x increase from 2011.

A recent PhoCusWright report estimates that U.S. mobile travel bookings are to top US$25 Billion by 2014. This may need to be revised as HP have just announced that they will be selling a tablet based on the Google Android system for a mere US$169 from this April. This is a direct attack on the Apple mini which current sells for US$329 and Microsoft whose platform has traditionally been used by the number 1 PC manufacturer.

This development is putting computer power and internet access into the hands of the masses. Combine this with a 10 years of huge growth of low fare airlines and the drive by all airlines to retail online and these forward looking outlooks are very obvious.

The tablet will have a 7-inch screen, which is the same size as Google's well-reviewed Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire. This screen is about 1-inch smaller than the screen on Apple's latest tablet, the iPad Mini.

HP's tablet, the Slate7, will run Google's Android operating system, which is a big blow to Microsoft, HP's long-time operating system partner. Microsoft just introduced a new operating system designed specifically for tablets, so the fact that a major PC maker is not going to use it for its next device is bad news for Windows as it is for Apple.

More importantly, the tablet will set a new low mark in the tablet pricing wars, one that will undercut almost every tablet in the market, especially Apple's iPad Mini.

Mobile table devices are therefore set to swamp the market with such a commodity price. This will open up an even bigger mobile advertising channel as many people enable location services on their devices. With this local businesses, restaurants, tours and events can promote themselves to the traveller.

Techniology & Innovation in Airline Distribution