A short summary of the ITB Berlin Convention 2013.

2. 1. Unless you are a fan
of overcrowded
public transport
avoid taking the
convention bus!
2. You will at some
point get lost, and
no apps in the world
can help you. Don't
panic.

3. 3. The Funkturm really is quite funky.
4. Get out before the gift-basket
crowd takes over!

4. The World Economic Forum and
the Boston Consulting Group
present their concept of travel in
2025:
IPiTA platform for travel needs
ACiS - automated boarder
control And check-in
Dr. Antonella Mei-Pochtler, Senior Partner
& Managing Director Vienna, The Boston
Consulting Group

5. Facebook graph search is aiming to create
a sophisticated filtering system for friend
recommendations , and will be
increasingly integrated in travel searches.
Lee Mccabe, head of Facebook Travel
OTA's should utilize mobile to stay
relevant in the Future. Bernd
Fauser, Google Travel Inc
Search is really uncomplicated. The Kayak
model is all abort Product/Price
comparison. Why isn't Google doing a
better job here? Jan Valentin, VP Package
Travel, Kayak
New media at the eTravel Lab.
Discussions around friend recommendations as point of departure or just "adding to the noise" in the decision making
process. Could Relevance and Reliability be answered through Social media? More the latter than the former according
to the panel. Facebook as a meaningful transaction tool? Majority of Town hall says no.
However, only 1 individual don't believe that Google will become a major transaction engine. A true visionary?

6. Travel Writer Doug Lansky
Key message: Social media makes you less
social, but the disease is the cure.
Developing social media solutions
geared at cultural exchange and real interaction
will help break down barriers in stead of a
situation where your data screen is a wall
against your surroundings. Using the media to
Organize events in “real life” is a key.
Smart Tourism Management
Lansky also gave several examples on smart tourism management. His point being that if you can limit
access to Disneyland why not to natural sites? Managing a tourist site as “ a hip nightclub” you avoid
diminishing the value of your product and you keep interest (and thus revenue) high.

7. Talks in and on Numbers
• Cell phone use down, tablets and smartphones rising drastically
• Smartphones 51% of total use. 18% tablets. 53% use them daily.
• Airline tickets on top of buy list. Hotel rooms less than 4 %
of total purchases from mobiles.
• Booking channels: half and half mobile web site and app.
• Location based services is not a rising trend. 75% of the
users use navigation based services. 57% use destination based
planning
• 12% know and use the HRS app.
source: Susanne Fittkau, Fittkau and Maass Consulting
Focus: Tripadvisor
Nathan Clapton Vice President, Mobile Partnerships Global,TripAdvisor. Main message: Let mobile be mobile.
To date their app has 60 mill users and 28 apps are downloaded every minute! He identified five characteristics
of the perfect app: joyful, useful, easy, reliable and functional. Smart move: developing city guides that work off-line
(to avoid roaming fees). All in all it makes you think what will be the next functionality/practice/product on mobile
that we never imagined in that context, on that particular platform?