Travel Weekly Blog

Just returned from chairing a session at World Travel Market on the future of destination marketing. We had a concern that 10.30am on the last day of the show would mean numbers would be low, but oh no. Full room and people turned away.

Discussions looked at the role of destinations in marketing themselves at a time when consumers are so much more savvy online. It was clear how far there is to go for destinations - they really are unclear about how to get their message/destination content across.

We had a really good Q&A at the end which saw Andy Tomlinson from Harvey World Travel field a lot of questions about online training. Thanks also to Amanda Hills and Kevin Harris at Hills Balfour Synergy for their presentations.

It seemed ironic that while we discussed these issues at WTM our Kev is in Orlando with some of the pace setters in travel - there really are some big gaps in this market. Check out the Travolution blog for updates from the Phocuswright conference.

Martin Couzins, online editor