Hotelbeds, one of the world’s leading bedbank, is all set to organise the first MarketHub Asia Pacific in 2017. Currently, the company organises this conference for the Americas market. The event offers a dynamic informal environment of presentations, networking, hospitality and entertainment.
Sam Turner, Sales Director, Hotelbeds said, “Asia Pacific is a huge market for us. Every year we organise the MarketHub Americas to engage with our clients in that region. We are now planning to organise the first ever MarketHub for the Asia Pacific market. In this conference, we will invite all our clients to connect with the industry experts and will be a good platform for networking. The conference will happen in the second quarter of 2017. It is time that we need to upgrade the Asia Pacific market and engage more with our clients here.” Turner said that the venue for this conference has still not been finalised.
Hotelbeds recently celebrated a decade of operations in India market. In the Asia Pacific region, India has emerges as the second largest market behind China. As a source market, India grew by over 27 per cent last year.
Turner said, “India has now come of age and has a lot of potential for our business. Travel in India is growing rapidly and by next year online travel will further grow by leaps and bounds. India is second only to China in the Asia Pacific region for Hotelbeds. Most recently we have moved beyond just operating in the biggest cities and are now working in tier II and looking to tap tier III cities where enormous growth potential still exists. In the last 10 years we have made a lot of relations in the India market and also have learnt a lot about this market.”
Highlighting the success story of innovation and expansion in the market, the key growth drivers were identified as investment in best-in-class technology, cutting edge use of data and analytics, and emphasis on building strong customer relationships.
Turner said, “We see even greater potential from a growing segment of young Indians looking both to travel more and spend more, not just on accommodation but on activities and unique experiences. That´s why we have ambitious growth plans for the next decade and will continue with our current successful formula: investing in best-in-class technology to provide our client partners with the data analytical tools they need to drive increased revenues.”
In the upcoming World Travel Mart in London, Hotelbeds is all set to launch a new and upgraded version of APItude, a hotel distribution API, designed to make the integration process between systems, websites and applications easier and faster. Turner added, “Last November, we launched APItude. Since then we have seen a lot of interest for this product amongst the Indian clientele. We are seeing that a lot of clients are migrating towards this product as this product is much lighter and 30 per cent quicker. The product is 100 per cent mobile responsive, and this becomes an extremely important criterion in the India and China market. During WTM 2017, we will introduce a new upgraded version of APItude. This product is very relevant for the India market.”
