This year at WTM London I will be running a Genesys Session called Must Have Web Technologies for 2019.

I see travel as an information industry. When a purchase is made, our products are just information held on a computer system. This is delivered to the customer or sales agent electronically. Price, availability and product descriptions have all been loaded in a product database, and can be put on sale globally if we so choose.

Ours is also a very visual industry. We have lots to show. Our customers have a thirst for images and these are crucial in persuading customers that our products are worth buying. There are exceptions that require little in the way of imagery, air travel being the obvious one but regardless, we are very reliant on our websites and those of our promoters or resellers to ensure our businesses thrive.

With the importance of the web, I thought that I would bring together a group of speakers who could talk about their experiences of what I see as three of the most important must-have web technologies. When choosing who to speak, I thought it important that their particular fields of expertise were useful to you whatever your size of business, from the smallest to the largest travel company.

So here is what we will be covering:

Images

Daniel Wishnia, Digital Marketing Consultant for GCH Hotel Group will be talking about and, very likely, demonstrating advanced imagery. If you have met Daniel you will know that he carries a 360 degree camera around with him. This is not an expensive device but allows you to take stunning 360 degree photos that really show off any location such as a hotel lobby in a way that a flat photo simply cannot. Advanced imagery and video are really persuasive when it comes to persuading a customer that your hotel or product is the one to buy.

Metasearch

One of the biggest issues facing us is the cost of online advertising. If this is not well handled, the costs can escalate without achieving a positive return. This can result in you cutting online advertising budgets back until you simply lose visibility. Filippo Fasolo is CEO of Adshotel.  He will talk about how his company has developed an artificial intelligence driven solution that manages the bidding for placement on metasearch platforms such as Google and Trivago. The algorithms he has developed make it economic to drive direct sales rather than selling through reseller such as the major OTAs (online travel agents).

Content Marketing

The key to success of SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimisation) is having the right content.  For SEM, you will be paying to advertise and if your content is not persuasive enough you will be paying for click-throughs that simply do not convert into a sufficient number of bookings to make the advertising pay. When it comes to SEO, having fresh content on your site, correctly worded, can boost your rankings on the search engines and move you above the competition.  Online marketing expert, Frank Orman, Managing Director of LeadGeneratorsDigital, will be talking about how to succeed at content marketing.  It doesn’t need to be expensive but it does need to be done right.

If you would like to come along to my Genesys Session, it will be at the World Travel Market London UK&I Inspiration Zone on the Tuesday at 16:00.  Click this link for details and perhaps see you there.