Upcoming Events

The Global Travel Marketing Forum 2013

Wednesday September 25th, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM GST

"the marketplace for travel marketing services". The Global Travel Marketing Forum is an annual conference and exhibition based in Dubai that brings together Travel Marketing thought leaders. The forum provides a platform for travel marketing suppliers to promote themselves through sponsorships, presentations and dedicated meetings with buyers.

Madinat Jumeirah Conference Centre, Mina A' Salam, Dubai.

 

      

The folks at Tnooz source some great material.  For the Travel Marketer we recommend that you review these two.  This first is a review of Facebook and its effectiveness or not and the second is an interesting read on how Google are evolving the display results for hotel searches.  If you are a hotel marketer take note.  

  

  

What hotels need to know as Google expands Knowledge Graph  

  

  

The revelations and allegations being made by the fugitive Snowden are causing big ripples of concern.  The PRISM project seems to be a much wider issue than initially thought.  Most law abiding citizens would readily accept that security services have and will collect vast amounts of communications data from the internet, text massages and social media traffic.  President Obama summed up the dilemma with the phrase "we cannot have 100% security and 100% privacy". 

  

However, the debate has just taken a different turn when the German magazine der Spiegel reported last Sunday that surveillance was carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency on the offices of European Union on both sides of the Atlantic.  

  

The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices".

  

Is there yet more to come on this matter and should we really be concerned?

  

Personally, I never used to be concerned as there is nothing I would do over the phone or internet channels that would be worth evaluating by the security services.  That is unless I am on business....The potential that exists for corporate espionage and IPR theft is large.  Companies need secure communications and this was one factor that supported the use of Blackberries.  However, I am now a little bit more wary from a personal point of view as well for the obvious reasons of personal data such as bank details and access to savings and pension funds.  If Snowden can "walk away" with secrets who else might?

  

There is now a new application on the market that can provide secure voice and messaging costs for a very small outlay.

  

SeeCrypt is a downloadable application that costs as little as $3 a month and allows users to make encrypted voice and text messages using military strength encryption.  The application is provided by Porton Group, a privately held venture capital firm specialising in commercialisation of military technologies.  The timing of their roll-out could not be better.  The application currently runs on Apple, Android and Blackberry 10.  It enables Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls for free with the added benefit of the best in cryptology, key management and information security.  Two users can make unlimited calls and messaging from anywhere in the world at no additional cost.

  

We can certainly see a scenario where business travellers will want to use this on a larger scale and thus will insist that hotels and conference centres offer this level of privacy.  Porton are now also working on secure mail and video conferencing.

  

Seecrypt Mobile - The solution (30 sec.) HD

  

Porton Group are the main sponsor of The Global Travel Marketing Forum.  They will present and discuss this important issue for those involved in the travel industry and in the wider private and government sectors at our event.  

  

  

Arab Aviation & Media Summit

Conceptualised and launched by Air Arabia in 2011, the Arab Aviation and Media Summit is the only aviation industry conference dedicated for media representatives in the Arab region. This year's summit was attended by over 100 editors and media representatives and approximately 100 delegates from the aviation and tourism industry. Themed 'Aviation and Tourism: Enabler of Economic Growth,' the 2013 Summit was organised by Air Arabia under the patronage of Oman's Ministry of Tourism, in association with CNBC Arabiya, Airbus and CFM

Andrew Gordon, Director Strategic Marketing and Analysis Market Forecast, Airbus, who delivered a special presentation on "The future of Aviation," said: "The aviation sector is a major driver of global economy. In fact, if aviation were a country, it would be a member of the G20, with the 19th largest economy in the world. By 2031, Airbus expects global passenger traffic and airplane numbers to double globally. The Middle East aviation market will witness significant growth over the next 20 years with passenger traffic forecast to grow 6.2 per cent annually. Airlines from the region are expected to receive delivery of 1,963 new passenger and cargo aircraft. As a hub for both leisure and business travel, the Middle East is in a particularly advantageous position to benefit from this growth, with emerging economies such as Oman likely to see significant expansion of their aviation sectors in the coming years."

The panel of experts discussed key challenges faced by the industry and what more needs to be done to fully realise the true potential of aviation and tourism sectors.

Adel Ali, Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia, said: "Nobody doubts the tremendous potential of the aviation and tourism sectors in the Arab world, but there are a number of significant challenges that still need to be addressed if it is to be fully realised. The starting point is the implementation of a full open skies policy, the introduction of more liberalised regulations allowing the free-flow of cross-border movements, and the proliferation of privately owned airlines. Together, this approach would help the Middle East aviation and tourism sector to reach its full potential, which is estimated to be equal to the size of the US economy."

Additionally, the experts have placed a greater emphasis on the need for increased skilled and trained manpower availability, which is seen as a crucial challenge for the Middle East aviation industry.

The issue of human capital development will be one of the themes discussed at The Global Travel Marketing Forum in September in Dubai.

  

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