This is a roundup of product news and announcements for marketing in tourism and hospitality for March 2017. Thursday 2 March 2017: KLM uses emojis for directions Passengers using the airline’s Facebook Messenger channel for customer service can now send an emojio (food, taxi, clothing) from their location on a…

Hotels are often reminded of what they should be doing, or encouraged to try new things as the sector gets more competitive than ever. The latest to have a go was Benjamin Habbel, founding CEO of Voyat, the personalisation technology provider for hotels that sold to Intent Media in June…

European OTA eDreams Odigeo says that mobile is now a bigger source of traffic than desktop in the UK and Italy, with the gap closing in almost all the markets it operates in. It found that Italy is the fastest growing mobile market and has reached the tipping point…

This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel people moves in tourism and hospitality for March 2017. Wednesday 1 March 2017: SiteMinder hires two new chiefs Ken Aoyama has become chief product officer at the hotel distribution provider, with David Jaros also moving into the role of…

China’s online package travel specialist Tuniu handled around seven million tours during 2016, more than 50% higher than the previous year. Its 2016 Q4/FY earnings break down the numbers between organized and self-guided tours. During the year it booked 2.8 million international organised tours, 2.2 million local (domestic) organised…

Hotels.ng, a hotel booking site for Nigeria, is adding flights to its site as part of its attempts to diversify its offering and broaden its appeal to an international, inbound audience. The flight channel is powered by Travelstart, the South African-based online travel agency which operates across the African…

In the over-complex world of consumers’ big data, with the infinite possibilities for the travel & hospitality industries, independent hoteliers have not yet embraced the full technological and strategic potential of traveller data. Hoteliers are busy making their guests happy, filling their rooms, keeping up with the tech innovations…

Here’s a comment that is likely to make the hairs stand on end of many a hotelier and critics of online travel agencies. “If I was starting a hotel from scratch, I’d give all my distribution to OTAs and just concentrate on the guest and their experience.” That was…