Staged annually in London, World Travel Market is a vibrant must attend four day business to business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to UK and International travel professionals. It is a unique opportunity for the whole global travel trade to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business under one roof. By attending World Travel Market, participants efficiently, effectively and productively gain immediate competitive advantage for their business and stay abreast with the latest developments in the travel industry.
Payment And Booking Issues Hold Back The Development Of Mobile Travel Says EyeforTravel Conference At WTM
ReplyDeletePayment and booking security concerns are the two main barriers to the development of mobile travel services, reveals research at World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry.
Research conducted by EyeforTravel shows consumers are still reluctant about using mobile phones for payments and putting their personal details across the medium.
Despite this some companies are recording some success with mobile as a distribution channel.
Hilton Hotels Corporation says it has achieved a US$44 return for every US$1 it has invested on mobile so far in 2009.
Speaking at the EyeforTravel conference at World Travel Market Hilton director of website strategy and testing, Chris La Rose said that mobile investment represented 0.1% of Hilton’s online spend.
Despite Hilton’s successes, La Rose said the company was looking at alternative payment options.
“Credit cards are not necessarily the way to go in other countries,” he said.
EyeforTravel managing director Tim Gunstone told the audience that mobile was similar to online and was likely to grow in the same way.
He also said the industry needed to consider a number of issues such as whether consumers would pay for content and whether the medium would reduce the cost of distribution before deciding how to invest in mobile.
Other advice came from Steffen Schlimmer of Germany-based mobile specialist NetBiscuits.
He advised the conference to treat mobile internet as a whole new medium and not the ‘little brother’ of PC internet and to take advantage of the opportunities only mobile offers.
About World Travel Market
ReplyDeleteWorld Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on London’s ExCeL Centre every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2009, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.
RE holds more than 500 events in 38 countries throughout Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific covering 47 industry sectors including aerospace & aviation, healthcare, manufacturing and sport & recreation.
In 2008 RE, part of the Reed Elsevier group, brought together more than six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.