Here are the most interesting, informative & industry-changing hospitality news articles that we’ve read during the week of April 19, 2021.
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Let’s start with some amazing news for the travel industry & hopefully, a sign of good things to come for other countries who could follow this model to open up their borders once again.
Source: IATA LinkedIn
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Wondering about how data analytics should be applied in your revenue management strategy?
Lybra’s Erik Muñoz gives you all of the info that you need in this week’s #LearnWithLybra video
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The New York Times has created a truly fascinating, interactive simulation of how air travels through a plane, and how germs can travel, to illustrate how safe we are when flying.
This is an absolute must-read article for everyone in the travel industry – especially those who are worried about flying once the borders open up again.
Source: The New York Times – How Safe Are You From COVID When You Fly?
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Google is phasing out third-party cookies… Will it impact hotel marketing?
Google recently announced that they are going forward with their plan to block third-party cookie tracking through Google Chrome (Chrome commands 63% of browser market share). What this means exactly for hotels is not totally clear. Mostly what will be affecting is tracking the source of revenue on a hotel’s website (also called attribution) and the possibility to re-target visitors to your website (unless you use Google’s retargeting ad products). To avoid users getting hit with totally irrelevant ads, like billboards on the highway, Google is creating a new system to target users which involves less tracking. Called FLoC the system essentially groups people into categories based on their behavior and puts a label on top so they can get served ads based on those labels without having any personal information connected. However, it only works if you advertise with Google, which means they are building a taller wall around their garden – an odd choice as they enter a long anti-trust investigation process. But what does this mean for hotel marketing? How will hotels track revenue? Since most non-major brand hotels have two domains (website + booking engine) how will this affect tracking?
Read answers to this important question from top hospitality industry experts, including Lybra’s Erik Muñoz: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/panel/125000098.html
Source: HospitalityNet
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GREEK TRAVEL DEMAND REPORT:
Flight Searches Continue to Grow, But Also, Begin to Slow
By Michela Ciccarella, Destinations Data Specialist at Lybra
Greece was among the first Mediterranean countries to organize and implement a recovery plan to save national tourism; in addition to proposing the creation of the European health passport, Greece organized a vaccination program that prioritized the immunization of the population of the islands, announced the reopening to summer tourism in advance, opened the borders to vaccinated tourists and launched a campaign to attract “digital nomads”.
Together with Spain, Greece is a destination that is investing heavily in tourism recovery and is being closely watched – especially by its competitors – to see if the market responds to the countries’ efforts.
TREND. During the last thirty days, 3.7 million searches were made for flights to Greece; when compared to the previous month, flight searches have increased by 20%, or approximately 628,000 flight searches.
It might still seem like a good amount of growth but, in reality, interest is slowly fading after the boom in searches at the end of February triggered by the announcement of the plan to reopen the border. The trend has remained stable, with average growth of 1.2% daily.
The geographic distribution of searches is very concentrated: travelers are mainly looking for flights to reach Attica (30%) and, in particular, Athens International Airport (29%); the Southern Aegean Region – Cyclades (17%); and the Island of Crete (16%). These three regions represent 62% of the total searches, and are also the ones that have grown the most, compared to the previous month. Flight searches to Attica increased by 177,600 (+18.9%); in the Southern Aegean and Cyclades, by 140,500 (+28.1%); and, in Crete, total searches increased by 110,800 (+22.6%). In Central Macedonia (+83,600) and the Ionian Islands (+46,100), searches also increased.
Read more via Lybra Destination Report.
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Passengers Flying to Singapore Can Use IATA Travel Pass From May
Singapore will allow passengers traveling to the island state to share pre-departure Covid-19 test results with airlines and immigration staff upon arrival using IATA’s Travel Pass from next month as the Southeast Asian nation takes steps to reopen its borders.
The International Air Transport Association’s app is a digital solution that can be used by people to store Covid test results from accredited laboratories. The app, being trialled by more than 20 carriers including Singapore Airlines Ltd., will be available for download in the second half of this month. IATA hopes such solutions will help drive the adoption of digital health certificates.
Read the rest of the announcement via BNN Bloomberg.
