ETRAVEL WORLD OF ITB BERLİN

BERLİN- Exhibitors present innovative travel industry apps and products – papers by travel agency employees – first hackathon to take place on the weekend before the show

This year, more than 50 exhibitors from 19 countries will be gathering at the eTravel World of ITB Berlin, making it an event the eCommerce industry cannot afford to miss. From 4 to 7 March 2015 trade visitors can find out more about innovative products and apps for tour operators, the hospitality industry and destinations in Hall 6.1. A wide range of papers and workshops will offer information on the important changes taking place in the digital world.
This year, for the first time, the event will feature the ’toolsLounge’, a collaboration between ITB Berlin and the ‘tools’ Expo + Conference. Taking as their slogan “working web-based in tourism”, Schober Information Group Deutschland GmbH and United Planet GmbH will be among those showcasing web-based business solutions that target tourism market professionals and show how business processes can be successfully digitised and automated. The ’toolsLounge’ is already booked up.
The eTravel Insiders Lounge invites visitors to meet and network and to view the latest posts about ITB Berlin on the ’Twitterwall’. Travel bloggers from around the world will be gathering at the eTravel World to take part in the ITB Blog Camp and the Blogger Speed Dating event.
From 28 February to 1 March 2015, on the weekend before ITB Berlin, IT developers will be taking part in a fascinating contest at THack@ITB Berlin to find out who has the most innovative ideas. Sponsored by ITB Berlin, Tnooz is organising a hackathon for the first time where developers will be creating software, digital and prototype products for the travel industry. Admission is free for up to 150 developers who will be able to take part. Those with the best ideas will receive prizes worth more than 3,000 euros. Interested? To find out
From 4 to 7 March 2015 at the eTravel World established companies and enterprising startups will be meeting to present innovations and discuss the test developments concerning apps, mobile commerce, social media and the world of blogging. Programme highlights at the eTravel World include a paper on 4 March at 12.30 p.m. by Arne Erichsen, director of Market Management Germany, Austria and Switzerland Expedia, who will be showing how tourism enterprises can optimise their mobile products for a better customer brand experience. On 5 March at 10.30 a.m. Claas van Delden, managing director of SevenVentures, will be talking about a topic that concerns every startup and founder of a new enterprise, namely which criteria venture capital investors apply when deciding on what projects to fund.
Two papers at the eTravel Lab will be examining China’s expanding market. On 4 March at 12.30 p.m. Stephen Chun, Overseas Sales and Marketing Director, Shanghai Media Group BesTV/adSage, will be explaining how domestic providers can target this outbound travel market. On 6 March at 12.30 p.m. James Tan, managing partner of QuestVC, will be talking about how foreign tour operators can share in China’s inbound travel market. China is also the focus of the topic of online marketing. Thus, respectively on 4 March at 3 p.m. at the eTravel Lab and on 4 March at 2 p.m. on the eTravel Stage, Qunar and the search engine Baidu, two heavyweights on the Chinese market, will be presenting their latest company developments.
Another key topic being featured is social media. On 4 March at 3.30 p.m. at the eTravel Lab representatives of the travel blogger collective will be discussing ways of covering events that extend beyond travel blogging with industry opinion formers. On 4 March at 2.30 p.m. on the eTravel Stage the focus of a paper by Günter Exel, a marketing, web and social media consultant, will be on real-time communication in the tourism industry. On 4 March at 11.30 a.m. on the eTravel Stage, social media executives representing TUI Deutschland and Thomas Cook AG will be debating the positive impact of social media on sales. At a discussion round moderated by Kevin May, editor and co-founder of Tnooz, the focus will be on the ’wow factor’ in the travel industry. On 5 March at 12 noon those taking part will be discussing how new trends emerge and evolve.
Sponsors and partners of this year’s eTravel World include Crayon Data, Criteo, Reisebloggerkollektiv, Ezeego1, iAmbassador, Maxymiser, Sabre, Sandstein, Sojern, TNOOZ, Touristiklounge, Traveldudes, Travelmassive, Trevii, VSS, VE Interactive and Xtourmaker.

ABOUT ITB BERLIN AND THE ITB BERLIN CONVENTION
ITB Berlin 2015 will take place from March 4 to March 9. From Wednesday to Friday, ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only. The ITB Berlin Convention is held parallel with the trade fair, from Wednesday to Saturday. It is the world’s largest specialist convention for the industry. More details are available at http://www.itb-convention.com. ITB Berlin is the leading trade fair for the worldwide travel industry. In 2014 a total of 10,147 companies and organisations from 189 countries exhibited their products and services to 174,000 visitors, who included 114,000 trade visitors.