Experience Grand Resort Limassol

We are in Limassol having a great training seminar with the middle management team of one of the most important 5 star hotels of the town and of Cyprus.

The Grand Resort Limassol, formerly known as Hawaii Grand Resort is at this moment closed for minor refurbishment. The ownership and the management of the hotel decided to sign up the staff of the hotel to the Training program supplied by the Higher Hotel Institute of Cyprus, a training program sponsored by the EU Cohesion Fund and the republic of Cyprus.

Today, we are dealing with Marketing and Online Marketing trends.

I would like to thank Marios (HR Manager), Kiki (Executive Housekeeper), Pavlos (Frond Office Manager), Aristos ( Reservations Manager) and Antonis (Purchasing Manager).

The experience for me as trainer is simply fantastic, thank you all for your active participation.
(Thank you http://www.flickr.com/photos/renaissancechambara/ for the picture)

Cyprus Tourism pampering local business, 132 Cyprus Hotels offer special rates for locals

For the past few years the local market gained more weight for the Cypriot hotel occupancies. Cypriots travel abroad a lot but also stay in Cyprus a lot. According to Cyprus tourism Organisation the local market produces approximately 1,500,000 (one and a half million) bed nights to the Cypriot hotels and accommodation establishments. This converts Cypriots to the 2nd biggest tourism market for Cyprus after the UK market.

It was once when Cypriots were an insignificant market share, those times are gone, today, the 1.5 million overnights, means a lot to the local hotel industry and especially this year the Cyprus Hotel Association gave a bigger emphasis to the packages offered from its members to the local consumer.

This initiative is supported by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, the Bank of Cyprus (American Express Credit Cards).

The offer includes 132 hotels in all the tourist areas of Cyprus and you can see the entire offer here below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More cyprus hotels

How could Cyprus Hotels could take advantage of OTAs ( Online Travel Agents)

Viewing today the video on VTV Channel with the interview of Dr. Chris Anderson from Cornell University , I have realised that many of the indications he mentions could be applied to Cyprus as well.

Of course we need to have in mind that the so called dot com brands in Cyprus do not really exist. Cyprus tourism industry is formed mainly by independent hotels that do not belong to international chains. Now this happens it will be our subject for an other post on this blog.

Coming back to Dr. Anderson’s recommendations. Cyprus tourism has been traditionally depending on Travel Agents and Tour Operators. The online revolution is still making its way to Cyprus mainly because of the denial of the Cypriot tourism professional to change his/her marketing habits. In this path of unchanged change the recommendations of Dr. Anderson could fit and be more understandable for the average Cypriot hotelier.

The problem here is that the local travel agent, incoming agent is still wondering what to do online, he is still using old booking engines with no flexibility and without any benefit to the end user. We will not talk about the complete absence of any type of Social Media strategy. So first of all the local incoming agents need to understand how web and especially web 2.0 works and how an offline Travel Agent can become a successful online agent. Here is essential the participation of all the actors like Tour guides, theme park owners, excursion makers and yes the strong support from the local tourist authorities who can bring in tangible travel content.

Anyway pay attention to the video and make your own conclusions and if you are a Cypriot travel agent or a Cypriot hotelier I am sure you will find things here that are applicable to your daily work. In Cyprus we have at this moment a huge gap that is filled by the big players from the UK. So think and act.

In Tourism, innovation, training and collaboration can turn Crisis into an Oportunity

The internet has become the first ally of Tourism Companies to fight Crisis. In the last months there is an increased interest from Cypriot travel companies to get trained on E-Marketing.

This interest is mainly visible among the big travel related companies who are keen to have their top level marketers trained to face the new challenges using The Online as  Major Business tool.

From our experience we see companies such as Louis Group, the Amathus Hotels, Stademos Hotels, the hotel Four Seasons in Limassol, the Aphrodite Hills Intercontinental, the Hotel St. George, the Capo Bay Hotel, the small Pefkos Hotel in Limassol, the Hotel Grecian Park, the travel agencies Elpis Travel, A.L Mantovani, CTT, Sunhouse and many others including the newly renovated Napa Mermaid (which already is managing its online reputation in a more active and effective manner), to have great interest on Online Marketing training. They want to create the adequate circumstances within their organisation so as the online becomes part of their dayily management routine.

This is the line the Cyprus Tourism Organisation is following as well. After the in house training the staff of the CTO received from October 08 until March 09 they have realised the need to manage their Online Reputation effectively and this is the reason that from this moment we will be able to see and feel online actions with direct and indirect reflections on Cyprus’ good name online.

This innovative initiative is the result of long training and change in the way the CTO sees Online tools. The seed was planted in October 08 and grew especially during the first E-tourism Forum (www.etourism-forum.com) that took place in Cyprus last February. Speakers from all over the world, experts in Online Marketing, have given their views on Tourism from very different, interesting and practical points of view.
Probably is the first time in the history of Cyprus that the Public Sector leads on the online world and this is the greatest opportunity for the Private Sector to join and create a strong cluster of collaboration with the objective to fight crisis and come out of it stronger and more competitive tourism wise.

Online Marketing for Hotels and Travel Agents

I would like to thank all the participants who attended our seminar today Tuesday the 15th of September at the Ajax Hotel in Limassol. Personally I have enjoyed the active participation and the exchange of views on how the Cypriot Hotelier and the incoming agent could face the changes of the global market online.

Special thanks to our hosts , Ajax Hotel, for the great hospitality the excellent quality of the coffee breaks and the fabulous buffet lunch at their restaurant. Great tastes of real Cyprus and Mediterranean food accompanied by the attention of Akis Ioannides the General Manager and the staff of the hotel.

Also I would like to thank each and every participant form the hotels and agencies of the area. From the Holiday Inn Limassol Christos Rousos, from Pekos Hotel Nefytos Efstathiou, from the Mediterranean Hotel Sotiris Kaffa and Christina Lambrou, from Amathus Hotel Eugenios Savva, from Four Seasons Limassol Nick Aristou who shared with us valuable information concerning his activity online, Konstantina Eftathiou from Sun House Travel, from A.L Matnovani Travel Evros Theophanous and Julia Papageorgiou from JPP Marketing.

All of them have shown great interest and very active participation and made me become a better trainer, defiantly their experiences are of enormous value to me and to the seminnar.

Last but not least I would like to thank my assistant Maria Shaili-Papamiltiadous for her uncondtional support and fantastic work following the pace of the presentation and her more than valuable work concerning paperwork.

Next stop, Paphos the 22nd of September. Looking forward to welcoming the tourism sector of Pafos.

Emerging Tourist Markets and the Internet

According to the latest research made by Nielsen, Internet is the favourite means of Chinese when searching for tourist information in their effort to choose their holiday destination.

According always to Nielsen, 61% of the Chinese who travelled for leisure have searched the basic information for their destination on the web and 48% of those have consulted interactive websites like Rating Sites, Forums, Social Media, Blogs etc to confirm that the information found on the destination’s official sites are valid.

As a result of the same research it is mentioned that the comments and experiences shared on the internet from other travellers largely affect the new travellers’ decision. The research also showed that the traditional travel agents are only involved in two out of the five trips that Chinese travellers are undertaking. Furthermore, 70% remember the online destination advertisements more than the other means of communication and 40% remember the corresponding advertisements from magazines, newspapers, radio and even television.

As a conclusion from the Nielsen research, a clear Online Marketing Policy need to be implemented urgently in order to attract a piece of the pie of approximately 50 million Chinese travellers (official statistics of 2008) who are willing to meet new cultures and explore new destinations. This policy is necessary not only to be implemented by government agencies but is even more importantly by the private sector. This is only achieved through specialized training programs which in Cyprus are subsidized by the Human Resource Development Authority.

What do we do as a destination to attract the interest of the “Red Dragon”? If we take into consideration that by 2013 China will be the first English speaking country worldwide, then as a destination with a strong presence of the English language we should enhance our efforts of attracting Chinese tourists. The different tourist destinations in Cyprus should take action online and reinvent their internet sites so as to become more interactive and human oriented. The Regional Boards of Tourism should at last co operate with the private sector and the professional associations in order to convert their websites into one stop shopping site. Their lack of presence at this moment it only achieves the diversion of internet visitors into the websites of competitors with the meaning of “if you don’t have it, I buy from somebody else”. Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) cannot and should not play this role since the diversity of our resorts should be marketed by the resorts and this is what Brussels is urging on the framework of the programs for Regional Development. Nevertheless the CTO has already started implementing online PR policy in the different Social Media.

In addition, we should mention here the very important role of the airlines. In the case of China we have the chance due to our geographical location to become a stop over to Europe. The millions of Chinese travellers could stay for one week in Cyprus and one week in any other European country either on their arrival or departure of their country. This can be achieved only with a strong air transport policy on behalf of the government agencies and other bodies.

From the Nielsen research we conclude that the sterile protocols of tourist agreements, such as the one signed on the 13th of May by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Mr Antonis Paschalides, are useless unless they are followed by feasible and state blessing B2B agreements.

Business to business agreements can be accomplished with the presence of Cypriot tourist businessmen on the framework of events such as the professional tourist exhibition China Outbound Travel Trade Market (www.cottm.com) which takes place in Beijing every spring (for 2010 it will take place from 28th to 30th April).

Panic in the Cyprus Tourism Industry

For the last two week we have been hearing different and many complaints about the way Cyprus Tourism is facing the financial crisis.

1. The government blames the hoteliers for not lowering prices after the state spent 52 million Euros in measures of Tourism Support.

Well 52 million is peanuts Mr. Minister. You should be ashamed mentioning them. Make numbers and see how much is per bed and these measures are indirect. Not one cent on improving quality, only seeking mass tourism with price reductions. So I suggest you stay away from the microphones.

2. The Hotel associations calling the Minister of Finance ignorant and asking him to rectify his declarations.

Dear Colleagues, please be sensible and look back to your declarations some months ago when you have been applauding the government for the “support” they offered, oh well it was before the euro elections.

3. The consumers associations complain that prices of coffees and beers are more expensive in Cyprus than in Piazza San Marco in Venice.

Good morning gentlemen, it seems that the you have never travelled abroad, or when you do travel you do not pay for your coffees and beers. I forgot the Cypriot consumer does pay your coffees and beers.

4. This shit has hit the fan in unemployment. Hotels are laying off their staff since bookings are more than 35% down.

Hello guys, wake up, bookings could be much better if in winter instead of crying you were upgrading your services and especially your ONLINE services. Mr. Google, Mr. Digg, Mr. Blogg, Mr. Social Media and many others do not know that you even exist, so twenty million travellers that use the services of those gentlemen IGNORE YOU.

I sugest we all stop complaining and start acting. In the meantime the demand on “Karpaz” , “Magusa”, “Girne” etc is sky – high, so I would ask you to act yesterday, ACT do not REACT. The previously mentioned destinations are very well known to the gentlemen mentioned above and to their users.

ACT for tourism Sake, ACT because we will end like the show and clothing industry in Cyprus in the early nineties.

We need clean roads, we need clean and accessible beaches, we need clean archaeological areas, we need nice museums, we need friendly personnel, we need to finish Larnaca Airport, we need to regulate Taxis and get real public transport, we need recycling factories, we need to work a lot and most of the things we need to do are FREE, they cost no money.

Cyprus Tourism Destination and Nature

Once upon a time there was a country in the Mediterranean where you could swim in crystal waters, where you could walk in its green fields, where you could taste the real taste of its veggies, where you could get better water from the taps than from the bottles, where you could pickup mushrooms on its mountains and valleys, where you could meet foxes in its forests, where you could watch eagles in its skies where you could not find rubbish in its forests.

Now in this country you find this….

Open publication - Free publishing - More cyprus

Online customer Scare by Cyprus Hotels

On Friday the 10th of April 2009 I made a survey to 12 hotels in Paphos, Limassol, Agia Napa and Troodos in order to find out how Cypriots book their weekend holidays. The result of this mini survey is:

• 80% make there bookings online
• 10% book over the phone
• 10% with travel agents

Now the Cypriots who use the internet prefer www.bookcyprus.com , www.booking.com and www.expedia.co.uk . This would have been completely normal if the Cyprus Hoteliers did not have what we call special prices for locals. The funny thing is that these special prices are more expensive than the web of the hotels, more expensive than Booking.com and more expensive than expedia.

Then, today Saturday the 10th of April I have made a test on the 12 hotels I mention above. I called their reservations department, I checked their own web, I looked for them on the 3 web sites mentioned above and I also called to a travel agent.

The result was:

• 8 of those 12 hotels had 5 different rates for the same dates for the same room. One rate on the phone, one on their own web, one on expedia, one on booking and one on bookcyprus.com
• 3 of them had the same rates over the phone and on their own web but different rates on the 3rd party web sites.
• 1 hotel had price parity all the way thru.

I felt like an idiot when I mention to one reservation officer of the first 8 hotels that on booking.com I see that they have available rooms for 55 euros cheaper than the price is giving me over the phone and on their own web is 45 euros cheaper than the phone price. The answer was very embarrassing, those prices are for foreigners. I asked what would it happen if I book on booking.com and the poor lady got upset, she told me that I cannot make a booking from abroad if I am a Cypriot, and that the prices for Cypriots are the ones she told me.

I thanked her and I hung up the phone. I stared at my computer and I thought of sending an email to the General Manager of the hotel and the owners with a copy to the CTO and the 2 hoteliers associations. I decided that I will not do it because the reservations lady came all the way from Russia to work in Cyprus and she only follows orders of those I was going to send an email to. I will not mention the hotel, I will only say that is a five star hotel in Limassol.

I am wondering if hotels in Cyprus really want Cyprus residents to stay in their hotels.

Post originally Published on www.emergence2009.com

Let's go to Cyprus for Holidays

The annual conference of the Cyprus Hotel Association was this year really interesting.

We had the opportunity to hear how Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays - TUI Group asked publicly the hoteliers of Cyprus to lower their prices even more so those two companies would be able to help the Cypriot Hotelier. Well I think is time to see reality. Thomas Cook and TUI Group are profitable organisations who are asking us to lose money so they make money because they drive tourist traffic in Cyprus. My question is do we really need them?

I ask the hoteliers to wake up and see that their hotels in Cyprus the only thing they need is to forget about the intermediates and go for the end user alone. This can only be achieved on-line. There are more than 20,000,000 (twenty million) travellers that plan their travel online every week. How much would the Cyprus Tourism Organisation would pay to have a slice of this pie? How much would the hotels invest to have their finger in this honey pot?

With this opportunity I would like to thank Dr. Dimitry Shevchenko for his clear vision and his real support to Cyprus as destination, also I would like to ask Mr. Jez Clarke to be more honest to the hoteliers (According to this customer Thomoson Holidays is selling excursions to "North Cyprus",) as well as Mr. Len Mina to look back and see the history and learn from it. Thomas Cook is recommednding the undiscovered noth of Cyprus.

Both tour operators thanked the Cyprus Tourism Organisation for the support in their marketing campaigns to bring tourist to Cyprus. This support I assume is not moral but monetary.

Last but not least, I would like to ask for our politicians to care more and care with real care for the industry and not use the name of the Cyprus Tourism industry to gain local impressions.

Thanks for your time and I really appreciate your loyalty reading this blog.