Naully Nicolas

In recent years, the topic of "Independent Hotels vs Brand Hotels" has become more and more popular. It's now being discussed in every industry conference. In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carlos Aquino, Co-Founder of Magnum Leap Business Intelligence and VP Sales & Business Development at Tafer Hotels & Resorts. We spoke on: How can an independent hotel compete against large chains? Millennials, the golden market segment everyone has been raving about, also seems to appreciate more authentic and original personalized experiences over a cookie cutter, of the shelve type of product. So for the years to come I would say this is quite a good outlook for independent hotels. And this does not only count for the high-end or luxury market. In the mid-ed and budget or economy segments independent hotels are making in-ways as well. Refreshing concepts with original design, personal guest service are popping up and moving up the charts everywhere. Even in the youth hostel market we have se

The blockchain technology is slowly and steadily carving out a prominent space for itself across different industries. Ideally, blockchain can be recognized as a decentralized, invulnerable ledger system that keeps track of economic transactions that can be implemented to record anything that holds value, other than just financial transactions. What was initiated as the foundation of the cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin, the advantages that blockchain brings to the table has been successfully integrated with the hotel and hospitality industry. I was pleased to receive Hendrik Tanjaya Tan, Co-Founder & CTO at REIDAO. In this episode, we spoke on: Future of Shared Holiday and the impact of #blockchain in Shared holiday homes. Using blockchain technology in the hospitality industry presents several advantages, with the most evident one being the aspect of security and stability. For example, all the information becomes decentralised and easily regulated, and the database would be online at all ti

In less than two decades China has grown from travel minnows to the world’s most powerful outbound market, leapfrogging the US – and leaving it in its wake. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (#UNWTO) Chinese tourists overseas spent $261.1bn in 2016, up from around $10bn in the year 2000 (the figure for 2017 is likely to top $300bn). Collectively, America’s globetrotters parted with a relatively paltry $123.6bn. In this last #travelcast episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anjelica Price-Rocha and Humphrey Ho, Managing Director of Hylink Digital Solutions Solutions USA, China’s largest digital advertising agency — now with international headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif. In this episode, we spoke on: How to leverage the right digital channels to reach Chinese travelers?

Already heralded as a game changer for multiple industries, blockchain is emerging as a powerful technological force that promises to change the travel industry’s status quo. Like eating, drinking and sleeping, taking the time to get away, go on holiday or to travel is instinctive and an important part of life for many of us, key to our well-being and ongoing success. It can motivate, inspire, rejuvenate; and whether it’s a luxury trip abroad, or weekend staycation, in some form or another we all need to take a break. The travel and tourism industry continues to thrive in agreement, directly contributing approximately 2.57 trillion US dollars to the global economy in 2017 alone*. In this #Travelcast episode, I receive Alice Taylor from the blockchain travel startup: Vado App on the topic: How blockchain is transforming travel into a friction-less experience?

Big data brings endless opportunities for the travel industry, but this ever-changing field also brings with it many challenges. With customers creating valuable data at every stage of their journey, how can travel companies do more to collect and connect these data points to improve the customer experience? I was pleased to receive Gilad Berenstein who is Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Utrip. It's is a data-driven personalization platform and A.I. recommendation engine built specifically for the travel industry.

In less than two decades China has grown from travel minnows to the world’s most powerful outbound market, leapfrogging the US – and leaving it in its wake. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Chinese tourists overseas spent $261.1bn in 2016, up from around $10bn in the year 2000 (the figure for 2017 is likely to top $300bn). Collectively, America’s globetrotters parted with a relatively paltry $123.6bn. In this #Travelcast episode, I receive Chinese Outbound Tourism Specialist, Berenice Pendzialek, to speaks about China’s technological trends and shares her expert ideas and strategies on how to connect with Chinese tourists along different touchpoints of the customer journey.

Airlines are being fostered to transform their businesses, to catch up with or be ahead of technological trends, such as social media, cloud computing, mobile connectivity or big data. Considering the current pace of market penetration, we can observe a huge difference in today’s market from a decade ago. For instance, the complete travel experience of the passenger is completely digitized and matured on the digital space, to provide greater travel experience. In this #travelcast episode. I have the pleasure to speak with Ahmed Elemam who is a Senior Digital Marketer at WestJet where he overlooks channel management, analytics, customer segmentation and the Adobe “premium” Marketing Cloud.

Pour de nombreux secteurs, la transformation digitale n’a pas grand-chose à voir avec des vacances au soleil. Mais qu’en est-il du tourisme et des voyages ? Quelles sont les tendances digitales dans ce secteur qui a priorisé dès le départ l’expérience client ? Selligent Marketing Cloud dévoile les leçons à suivre pour les marketeurs souhaitant améliorer leur expérience client. Les voyagistes ont bel et bien le vent en poupe, avec des ventes atteignant la somme record d’1,33 mille milliards de dollars en 2017 (selon J.P.Morgan). Malgré l’instabilité de l’économie mondiale actuelle, le secteur devrait même continuer son ascension et passer la barre des 5 %, soit 1,5 mille milliards de dollars de ventes d’ici à 2020. Le moteur de ce phénomène ? L’évolution des besoins des consommateurs, plus enclins à dépenser dans des expériences que des biens de consommation. En compagnie de Frederic Chanut, on a discuté sur ce que nous réserve 2018 en termes de tendances marketing digital ?

The SMEQ (Social Media Emotional Quotient) is the art and influence of creating, attracting and building better business relationships through digital media. We need to understand the importance of keeping our online activities interactive and with a human feel. In this #travelcast episode, I was pleased to receive Elise Quevedo, Author, Global Key Opinion Leader, Keynote Speaker. We live in a world where peer to peer recommendation is more important than brand promotion and Elise Quevedo will talk how although we are moving into a world of automation, bots and AI, there are some aspects we still need to keep more personal. Remember that there is still a human being behind pretty much everything we create in the cyber world and by keeping some of those areas more emotional and real, we can make our business grow.

Guests now rely on peers and online recommendations rather than traditional star ratings to make their booking decisions. Today, 95% of leisure travelers report spending an average of 30 minutes reading reviews prior to booking a hotel and they are quick to say what they think on social media platforms. They expect their hosts to provide them with a holistic experience, not just a great hotel room, and they expect a level of personalization within their interactions with the hotel pre, during and post stay. In this #travelcast episode, I was pleased to receive Eric Shepard CEO / Co-Founder at TRILL. Links On Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/eric-shepard-7270b52/ Trill website: www.trilltravel.co/ Trill on Facebook: www.facebook.com/trilltravel/

COMMENT COMMUNIQUER SUR LES RÉSEAUX SOCIAUX ? / Panorama des réseaux sociaux: connaître les usages et les comportements à adopter en fonction des différents réseaux sociaux / Fondamentaux du Community Management : les bonnes pratiques, les conseils organisationnels, la stratégie de contenu et comment mesurer les résultats pour être efficaces ?

GOING BEYOND THE ESSENTIALS: UNDERSTANDING CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES - WHY DO DIGITAL MARKETING? - ESSENTIAL DIGITAL ACTIVITIES EVERY BUSINESS MUST DO - BEYOND THE ESSENTIALS –DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS - TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL TOURISM MARKETING

Entre les évolutions technologiques et les nouveaux comportements des consommateurs, le secteur de l’Hôtellerie fait face à une véritable révolution. Les voyageurs exigent aujourd’hui des services personnalisés et une expérience unique durant leur séjour. Face à la standardisation des grandes chaînes hôtelières, certains établissements se sont différenciés en misant sur la proximité et sur des services originaux tout en se créant une identité propre. Parmi les révolutions actuelles du secteur, le digital reste la plus importante et a totalement chamboulé la manière de vendre les nuitées… ne laissant d’autre choix aux professionnels de l’hôtellerie que de basculer sur ce canal. Dans cet épisode de #travelcast, nous avons discuté sur: La digitalisation de l'expérience client dans l'hotellerie. Savoir s’adapter dans un secteur en mouvement constant est primordial et se différencier sur un marché concurrentiel est un facteur clé pour continuer à être compétitif.

Leo Tolstoy once said, “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” Anytime a traveler embarks on an adventure, they return home not only with memories of where they went, but with stories of being changed by their experiences. In no other vertical is the possibility for rich and engaging storytelling more prevalent than in travel. In this #travelcast episode, I was pleased to receive Zoe Dowling, Lead Research Strategist at FocusVision and we spoke on: When Virtual and Physical Worlds Collide. Stunning locations, thrilling encounters, and provocative anecdotes provide more than enough content fodder for travel brands to appeal to those thirsty for adventure. And if Google’s report on travel video content is any indicator, brands who are including elements of storytelling in their marketing strategies are leaving their competitors in the dust.

Tomorrow’s travelers will want to travel the world in just one way – their own way. They'll want to put together their own unique travel experiences, tap into inspiration from other travelers and then share their own personal plans with friends. That’s how they see the future of travel. In this #travelcast episode, I was pleased to receive Juanjo Rodriguez, CEO & Founder at The Hotels Network (https://www.thehotelsnetwork.com/en) and we spoke on: Personalization In Travel. Personalization has become something of a buzzword in business this year. But far from being a passing fad, those hotels that get it right stand to gain a lot. A boutique hotel that understands the importance of customer satisfaction and what drives it, will no doubt recognize why a personalized offering is becoming more important than ever before. Links: On Linkedin Personal profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanjorodriguez/ Hotel Network; https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-hotels-network/

I was pleased to received Gwen Miller who is Vice President, Content Strategy at Kin Community In this #travelcast episode, we spoke on: How to build a corporate culture of data-driven strategy? Data is a fundamental element of digital media. It’s intertwined with everything we do and when you harness it right you can uncover incredible insights that make your content better, build your audiences and increase sales. There’s so much data available that even if you build a specialized and dedicated data team they still won’t be able to manage and interpret all of it. The only way to manage this flood of data in today’s modern digital media companies is to empower every employee to be a data expert. But how do you do that? Links Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwen-miller-40965b24/ How to Build a Corporate Culture of Data (SlideShare): https://www.slideshare.net/gwenim/how-to-build-a-corporate-culture-of-data-gwen-miller-kin-community

In this #travelcast episode, I was pleased to receive Amir Segall who is VP of Global Supply at HotelTonight (https://www.hoteltonight.com/). We discussed on: What is the Future in the Hospitality Industry? For the longest time, the hospitality industry has been this stable, undisturbed market where progress is steady and revenue is pouring in consistently, year in and year out. Big names keep on getting bigger, widening their breadth, tightening their hold on the market.

If you are new to the China market, or in the process of creating a digital strategy to reach your Chinese consumers, there is one tactic you just can’t ignore: KOL (key opinion leader) endorsement. I was pleased to received Lauren Hallanan who is an influencer, Chinese social media marketer In this #travelcast episode, we spoke on: Why Influencers are the Key to Attracting Chinese Travelers. Have you ever heard of a social media influencer with 4.5 million followers selling 100 cars (no, not virtual cars) in five minutes in the West? Probably not, but in China this is not an uncommon event in China’s KOL-driven economy. Qumin has created a brief overview of what makes the Chinese influencers' market far more powerful than in the West. China’s internet is mobile first According to the 2018 Abacus report, while China’s internet penetration is just over 50%, it still has 11x times more mobile payment users (527 million) than in the US. Chinese consumers order food through Eleme (饿了么), look up venues thro

In this #travelcast episode, we spoke on: How Facial Recognition Makes Your Travel Experience A Smooth One After mobile technologies became an integral part of daily life, the offering of services that utilize mobile platforms turned into a necessity for service providers. Companies were forced to either enhance their service offering with the mobile services or digitalize their current offering. Airport operators could not remain indifferent to that rapid advancement in the technology and added kiosk check-in, online check –in and mobile check- in starting from the early 2000s to any of their passenger. Nowadays, these services are provided in the same form, although technology kept evolving and the service needs of passenger started to vary with the introduction of loyalty programs. Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/tu%C4%9Fberk-duman-b0947148/

I was pleased to receive Paul Bulencea who has published the book Gamification in Tourism. In this episode, we spoke on: How to Design Extraordinary Travel Experiences thru Gamification. The travel industry is at a point where market differentiation has become more crucial than ever. Tourism is extremely accessible. More and more tourists have become very skilled at using search and metasearch engines to find the best price-quality ratio for tourism services. Businesses started to do cost-cutting and automation of their services in order to remain competitive. Cheap and fast access to destinations has triggered destinations and tourism businesses to compete in a global market that now has also competitors from the rapid growing sharing economy (Airbnb, Uber, Eatwith). Source: The Experience Economy; www.amazon.fr/Experience-Economy…Pine/dp/1422161978