I have been traveling for professional reasons for some years now, and I have never had anything special to write. My last trip was to Dubai with Emirates Airlines and this time I have something to say.
On May the 1st I had the opportunity to travel to Dubai for the Arabian Travel Market 2011. The trip started with a friendly welcome from the Check in desk of Emirates airlines in Larnaca airport.
The whole process went smooth, the airport services as well the efficiency of the staff of Emirates was simply perfect. We boarded on time and at the airplane door we met more friendly people who inspired professionalism and promised a great trip.
Even though we were flying economy class we had all the attention from the cabin crew. I was impressed by the fact that the passengers had the opportunity to communicate with the crew in their own language. Crew that spoke English, Greek, Arabic, French, Arabic, Tagalog and probably some others I do not recall.
The flight was very good, the 3 and half hours passed very pleasantly since the on board entertainment was suitable for almost every taste, even mine. Food and drink service surpassed my expectations for an economy seat. The crew was there to assist always with a friendly smile and you could see that they really liked their job.
During the flight I was watching carefully the crew and the way they served and assisted the passengers, they dealt with a wide range of nationalities in a very natural way, and this made me think that in order for an airline to have this kind of service needs to have Culture of Service. Well, Emirates airlines has a great culture of service.
My suggestion is that if are going to travel to the Middle East, Africa or Far East from Cyprus do not hesitate, choose Emirates airlines. The team of Khalid Ismail Al Zarouni, the Emirates Manager in Cyprus will be there for you to make your trip a great experience. For your booking on Emirates, contact Joanna at Kalotaxido Travel Services, experts on trips to those great parts of the world.
Travel Freely !!! Greek and Cyprus tourism at your reach.
Whatever TV station you have on, whatever radio station you listen, whatever digital or paper newspaper you read, the news are the same. “Greece is in deep financial problems and this is due to the Greeks, the Greek way of thinking, the Greeks lied to the EU and so on and so forth”.
I am sorry Ladies and Gentlemen, but not all the Greeks are the same. Once, with a friend from Turkey at the World Travel Market in London some years ago, we were talking about how similar are Greeks and Turks. Similar when it comes to culture, food, family links etc. Ahmed though, mentioned an important difference that stayed in my memory. “The difference between Greeks and Turks is that we, Turks are have 2,000 very intelligent people who govern our country but you Greeks have 2000 idiots who govern your country despite that the percentage of university graduates is much higher in Greece than in Turkey and this should be a sign of a more educated and cultivated civic society, but still you elect incapable people to run your country”.
Well my friend Ahmed you were very right, those 2000 idiots are now the ones responsible for the bankruptcy of Greece. For those idiots we cannot blame the rest of the people in Greece. Greeks now understood that the only way to save their country and consequently save the Euro and the Euro-zone is by being more productive. Despite that I am not a Greek citizen, but a Cypriot, I must admit that this comment of my good friend Ahmed made me see the Cypriot political reality from a more pragmatic point of view and since I decided not to vote anyone in any elections.
Greece and Cyprus are two connected economies and even more connected societies, and what happens today in Greece may never happen in Cyprus but it is shaking our economy here as well, and the shake is high on the Richter scale.
Greece and Cyprus have an extraordinary natural resource; Tourism. Greece and Cyprus are maybe not unique when it comes to mass tourism and travel, but defiantly both countries have many things to enjoy, discover and feel. Greek and Cypriot people are very hospitable and the Tourism Professionals in both countries have a great experience in taking care of their customers. The financial tsunami that is today swiping the Greek Economy but mostly the Greek society should stop immediately in order not to swipe the Cypriot economy and society and probably put in great danger the social and financial stability of many Europeans outside the borders of Greece and Cyprus.
In my opinion, the only feasible and “non-violent” way to stop this tsunami is if the Greek and Cypriot people have genuine and honest support from the rest of Europeans, especially from the inhabitants of countries with great recovery capacity such as Germany, UK, Holland etc.
Therefore I would kindly ask you all who read this article to consider Greece and Cyprus as your next vacation destination. I would even suggest you to combine the two places. Live your Myth in Greece and Feel Cyprus this Summer, like this you are contributing to the European Economy and European Social Stability.
Last but not least, I promise to all my fellow European citizens that I will do my best to keep the idiots out of power. By the way I would like to clarify that the word idiot is used in this article in the context the Athenians used to use it during the golden era of Athenian Democracy (http://budurl.com/GreekIdiots)
This post is inspired on the Mashable post about Social Media and how it can drive revenue to airlines and hotels. Therefore I would like to thank Shashank Nigam, its writer for the inspiration.
As Shashank very accurately says Social media is no longer the “new” thing, especially for airlines. Looking at JetBlue or Lufthansa we understand that social Media is part of their daily routine.
However, most airlines are still wondering or even worse are still doubting that Social Media can drive them Euros in their accounts. In resort areas, and especially in the Mediterranean, things are even “harder” since the big tour operators are dominating the market and the average airline manager is Social Media illiterate and this because of working habits and lack of training. Cyprus Airways, Olympic Air, Egypt Air etc are companies with long tradition in bureaucracy and difficulty in change of Business Culture. Maybe the exception is Turkish Airlines who has lately been very Social Media oriented and I am sure their seeing the benefit.
If Dell can makes $6.5 million from Twitter, why can’t airlines and hotels? The 5 tips given from Mashable are very helpful. Here I twisted them a bit and added ideas for resort hotels and local airlines.
1. Clear Distressed and Early Booking Inventory of rooms and seats on Twitter
Like Mashable points out, running an airline or hotel is much like running a cinema, with more operational complexity though. It costs about the same to operate the plane or the hotel no matter how many seats or rooms are filled up. Any unsold seats or rooms at the last minute are called “distressed inventory.” Combine the last-minute nature of such seat/room availability with the real-time features of tools like Twitter and you create the opportunity for airlines and hotels to generate cold, hard cash. Any seat sold there before departure is less money lost.
Resort hotels and Airlines should be able to create a new tariff category. Twitter tariff that would be valid only for twitter followers and it should have an expiring hour. This will avoid conflicts with travel agents and tour operators. Of course, you have to set clear expectations with your followers that the account will only be sending out deals, and is not a customer service vehicle.
Ultimately, using real-time platforms like Twitter helps the airline circulate cheap very last minute or early booking fares and get people to fly more often, or even for the first time. Hotels could similarly post unfilled room inventory on Twitter. Those rooms they are trapped after the cut off dates of the Tour Operators. Ultimately this could fill up the planes and hotels and drives more revenue. Especially in the two edges of the steam, Early booking and Last minute.
2. Integrate Social Media Into the Booking Engine
Hotels should use social Media driven booking engines as platforms for sharing instead of just booking. Think about personalized propositions with unique URLs and languages, capable of reaching you when you are in your favorite social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook (fan page and profile). Airlines should be able to connect with Social Media seamlessly and the sign up forms could be the start point. Instead of the check box, “Would you like to receive emails about our offers” they could have “ would like to share with us your travel experience on social Media?”.
3. Integrate with Social Media Travel Applications with the frequent flier and loyalty programs.
For example, an airline could integrate TripIt data with their frequent flier database to create a list of their loyal customers and the destinations those customers are planning to visit. The airline could then reach out to them with a custom-tailored travel deal.
A hotel could do something similar, taking into account the location the traveler, and in case the company does not have a hotel in the area suggest a third party one. This will increase trust, loyalty and industry solidarity.
4. Create Private Online Communities
This a great tip for independent hotels that have from season to season repeaters. Small and medium size stand alone hotels could forget the complex loyalty schemes. A small, simple and user friendly online community, will do a great job. Ning is a good start, and it has all the above characteristics. It can be as private as you like and it has the capacity to create groups. People would feel special and defiantly it will increase return business.
5. Remember: Social Media is About Relationships
It’s important to remember that social media is always about relationships first.
A good example of relationship building is Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus, which allows you to share your location with your Facebook and Twitter friends during the flight. Right now, it’s not generating any revenue for Lufthansa, but if they integrate a field to input a passenger’s frequent flyer number, they might be able to mine the data for some unique insights. However, right now, they are concentrating on building a relationship with passengers through social media, not hammering them with ads.
It is important to always set the right expectations with your fans or followers on what you’re going to be doing. If you’re only selling seats or rooms, let them know. If you are providing customer service, let them know that, too.
In the hotel industry we know very well how painful is to loose a relationship and hard it is to create one. So do NOT confuse advertising with Social Media. People will walk away if you bang them every day with sales and offers. So treat your customer online as if he was standing in front of your front-office or even better as if he was having a coffee in your lobby.
Here I would like to thank again Shashank Nigam for his post.
When Eurocypria was formed as a subsidiary Cyprus Airways airline in March 1995 the idea was to give an alternative way of visiting Cyprus as well as going abroad from Cyprus. As a charter airline, Eurocypria was a failure since the practices followed for many years was that it was the “poor child of the Cyprus state owned companies”.
This is actually where the problem stars. Business practices that were not willing to change; government run businesses do not usually serve business purposes but mostly micro-political purposes.
Eurocypria was another excuse for corrupt politicians of Cyprus to accommodate their own micro-political goals, without taking into account the collateral damage this could bring. I use the word corrupt since in Cyprus is widely accepted even by all the political leaders that political corruption is a fact for the last 30 years.
The Cypriot tax payers have been passive to all what has happening in the last years with Eurocypria. Now things are very tight.
The Cypriot tax payer feels that things need to change. It is a general feeling that the organizations that have to do with tourism need to be ridden out of politicians and micro-politics.
Eurocypria is a very valuable asset of the Cypriot Tourism Industry and a very strong card on the negations table with emerging and existing tourist markets. The flexibility the company has and its ability to be reconverted to a Low Cost Airline in times of crisis is a unique opportunity.
Cypriots have paid for their mistakes for many years and now the time has come to stop paying. I am making a calling that now it is time to capitalise the expenses and look for new opportunities. The company needs 35 million Euros to be able to operate. This means that each Cypriot household will have to pay 100 Euros by next week in order to save the airline. So I say that this since it's high time for the tax payers to take control of the airline and assign a new management team (open interview system) in order to start running the company.
I suggest that the Company makes a call to the general public to buy shares and kick out politicians from the company. This step needs to be taken from inside the company and only ones who can do it are the workers of the company.
We all want to see all the workers maintain their jobs, we believe in their professionalism and we feel that they are the first victims of politics. We trust them to run the company if they manage to become independent of political parties. It is not capable people that we are lacking and I am certain a 100% they will do much better than those hand-picked by politicians.
I have recently had a very nice chat with an expert in Tourism who is very sensitive to how sustainable is the tourism activity. Someone who I respect very much and who I strongly believe his views are valid and very reasonable. Views I share and I find extremely easy to understand and follow.
During our relaxed chat I have realised that he has been around in Cyprus and at one point he was disturbed by the fact that in a traditional Cypriot taverna he has been offered South American wine. Nothing wrong with wines from Argentina or Chile but those wines, he said, are to be drunk in the adequate places. Can you imagine how much gasoline was spent to bring me this bottle of wine all the way from South America in order to drink it with Cypriot Meze?, he added.
This comment made me go back in the beginning of the nineties when an official from the state (hygienic inspection) visited my family’s stone built hotel in Pafos, to make a hygiene inspection. On his report, he wrote down that the hotel was not “up to European standards” since the bread the hotel offered was made in wood oven and without proper installations. This report went on and on for months until the authorities got tired . The bread was made by my grandmother, (today aged 87), who was kneading the dough in a wooden kneading container (see picture here), fermenting covered in white cotton cloths and baked in wood oven at the summer restaurant of the hotel.
Today, 20 years later, I realised how idiot the inspector was and how ignorant we were to let him step in our traditions, I realised that the Europeanization of the Cypriot tourism industry went down the wrong path just because of idiotic reactions and guidelines.
I feel that my friend was very right to be disturbed for having to drink South American wine, I feel that he is very right when he stresses out that sustainability is tradition and that tradition is authenticity. I feel that we deliberately lost those two very important elements in Cyprus, but I also know is totally feasible to recover them fast enough in order to get back on the right track. The question is who is going to start the “fire” first. When I volunteered long ago to do it, some people thought I went crazy, today I know they are the ones who went crazy so I keep the “fire” on waiting for you to join me for a glass of red wine probably from the hills of Paphos, from Vouni Panayias.
The unfortunate black-out of the runways in Larnaca Airport has created in my opinion too much noise. Hermes Airports has proven to be an efficient and very responsible company delivering without one day of delay 2 brand new airports for Cyprus according to the planed and signed schedule.
Hermes airports is the only company who made Cypriots proud the last years. The international airports of Paphos (PFO) and Larnaca (LCA) are definitely the only jewel on the Cypriot Crown. The Republic of Cyprus has never been able to deliver any public work without creating a wave of corruption scandals (I remind you XEKTE who built the highway Nicosia – Limassol and many other scandals that have also been pointed in various reports throughout the years) , the 2 airports have been the only public works that have actually finished on time and worked on time sine the independence of Cyprus.
The operation of the two airports is not an easy job, accidents and unfortunate happenings will happen until the “intestine” of the airports is smooth. I was present at a major black-out of the Boston airport due to extreme weather conditions, I was also “captured” by extreme weather in London Heathrow that caused serious problems in the operation of the Airport but I did not experiment the criticism of the politicians.
Cypriot politicians should not make any comment, on the contrary they should think that they live in a “glass house” and a minor stone could demolish it. Politicians in Cyprus have managed in 30 years to convince the Cypriot citizens, that when it comes to public works are incapable to bring them to a good port.
If I were a political figure in Cyprus I would go out to the voters and ask for forgiveness for not doing my job for so many years, because if we dig deeper we could find out that the real responsible for the black-out are not the ones who run the airport today.
When we are looking for a place for business meetings most of the times we think of business environment. Cyprus meetings industry offers a unique scenery for business meetings. Away from the tight corporate environment close to the splendid Mediterranean sea and the green Mediterranean forest, away from high traffic streets and far from stressful situations.
During the EIBTM 2009 in Barcelona, Cyprus presented the wide offer of accommodation, mmeting facilities and activities the meeting consumer can enjoy.
After the WTM (2009) in London, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Mr. Antonis Paschalides has brought a very pessimistic message back to Cyprus. In a press conference he appeared very sure that Cyprus will lose even more on the UK tourism pie since the British Pound is weak against the Euro. Well after this declarations, at least we know who is not going to be the leader in Cyprus Tourism. We could feel the lack of leadership in Cyprus tourism but now we know why. No leadership because of the weakness of the British Pound against the Euro. Well Mr. Minister with this kind of messages you will allow me to look for leadership in tourism in Cyprus elsewhere, outside your ministry.
It seems that Expedia understood that a hotel chain is sovereign. The negotiations between Expedia and Choice produced an agreement the leaves Expedia without last room availability. This means that Choice Hotel members have now the choice to work with the 80 portals of Expedia under conditons that they can manage and support.
I hope that this agreement can be respected and transported to other hotels, smaller players that still feel the “boot of Expedias”.
I would like to thank Max Starkov for bringing up the courageous decision of Choice hotels to leave the conversations with Expedia.
Yes finally we have a big player in accommodation supply to stand up and protest actively against the “Market Dictatorship” of a portal that acts as hotel rooms online are of its property.
We keep experiencing this same authoritarian approach by wholesalers, even now after the appearance of the internet. Hoteliers in coastal resorts and especially in the Mediterranean, are under the “boot” of the tour operators. In Cyprus, due to the flight “embargo” imposed for so many years by the State of Cyprus its through its Flying Department, Cyprus Airways, we suffer by what we can call Tour Operator Stockholm Syndrome. Big and small Tour Operators have found the perfect ground in Cyprus so as to have the last word on pricing and availabilities.
Choice Hotels is an example of a non homogeneous group of hotels that has put the interest of their owners above all other priorities. Sharing interests today is a virtue, but sharing them and making common actions in Cyprus is impossible.
In a meeting I assisted recently with tourism businessmen in the chamber of Commerce I have noticed that the interests are not shared. The tourism entrepreneurs are divided and do not share the same objectives and goals. Some think about today, some think about tomorrow some others about 2010 and many are simply pessimists that tourism industry has reached its end. Well here I need to say that if we keep suffering in silence our “Stockholm Syndrome” then for sure we will loose the only recourse we have left on this island.
I am wondering if hoteliers, and especially the independent ones, will soon wake up and with one united voice take strategic actions and recover the lost ground. I am wondering if we will stand up and ask for real flight freedom, I am wondering if will stand up and ask for accesible towns, I am wondering if will stand up and demand more funds Technology and Internet applications, I am wondering if we will stand up and claim the abolition of "Taxi Dictatorship" and invest in honest public transport.
Change is hard and painful but defiantly is the only way to achieve profitable numbers and quality. We are looking into change as a thread in Cyprus, we always did, now is time to see it as opportunity.
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.
Lately we hear on the news that the measures the Cyprus government adopted to boost tourism will continue for the year 2010.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism through the Cyprus Tourism Organization spends millions of Euros on “bonus plans” to the Tour Operators from almost all over the world (at least all the markets they consider primary) who manage to land tourist in Larnaca(LCA) and Paphos(PFO) Airports. This policy is widely accepted in the Tourism Sector since the bonus is given to the Tour Operators either according to the number of passengers landed or as advertisement fees for the advertising campaigns the Tour Operators make in the country of origin.
The list of the Tour Operators is huge and is of public domain. What is not public is the amount of bonus each Tour Operator received and the agreement signed between the 2 parts. Nevertheless, studying the list we will see companies from the UK, USA, Germany, France, Italy, East Europe, Arab Countries and many others.
Lately we had some rumours that an Italian Tour Operator that had a bonus agreement with the Republic of Cyprus and also had contracts with hotels in “North Cyprus”. This provoked the reaction of the Minister and the Tourism Professionals in the Republic and the Minister promised to investigate the mater in depth.
The fact that tourists land to Larnaca and then taxis, private cars or other means of transport drive them to the hotels in “North Cyprus” is neither a secret nor a lie. It can be for sure verified very easily just by visiting the arrivals hall of Larnaca airport and see taxi drivers holding signs with names of hotels located in the “other Cyprus”. Hotels like “Acapulco Hotel – Kyrenia”, “Manolia Hotel in Lapythos”, “Dome Hotel - Kyrenia” and many others including many casinos.
The big tour operators that land to Larnaca and Paphos such as Thomas Cook and Thomson – Tui do not only offer Tourist Packages with flight, hotel and transfers but they also offer flight-only options to their customers. They do than not only in Cyprus but all over the world and there is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary they cater for the FIT market (Free Independent Travellers) who definitely have a different spending power and interests. Now, in Cyprus since the road blocks to the “North” are still open there is no way to control who and why visits the “North”. What happens the last years is that tourists who the Greek Cypriots taxpayers have paid them to come to Cyprus, land in Laranca and then spend their holidays in hotels that were built on Greek Cypriot occupied land. The internet and especially travel forums and the Social Media sphere are full with comments like “We had a wonderful time in North Cyprus, we flew to Larnaca with Thomsonfly…..”
This shows us that our Government in an indirect but “effective” manner is taking the “North out of the economic isolation”. We, the Greek Cypriot taxpayers even now in times of Crisis and when tourist overnights are down by at least 20%, still support the model of prizing operators and airlines. It is not possible to control who is crossing the Green Line since the road blocks remain open. We cannot prohibit to EU citizens to go on holidays on European land but we can stop paying for that.
At last we have to stop pumping tax money into the bank accounts of the big guys and look into a serious change of tourism policy, we should finally make this policy very personal. We need to look at tourism as face to face relationship with each and every visitor to Cyprus. I would suggest new bonus plans that have direct effect to all the visitors, we need to encourage independent travellers to come to our country and stay here with us. Bonus plans that promote our hospitality and do not give in to the “warnings of the “feudal lords of tourism”. For more information I remind you the speech of a director of Thomson – Tui during the Hoteliers Association Conference in Nicosia the 12th of February 2009 when in front of the minister of Public Works and the Minister of Tourism said, “help us to help you” when in an indirect manner asked us for more money. He and his team were pushing for a 20% discount on the contracted rates for 2009 something that they achieved. During lunch break he also achieved a 5% retroactive discount on the pending invoices in order to “decrease corporate losses”. Nevertheless the biggest achievement for companies like Tui was to assure that the Cypriot taxpayers keep paying them to bring visitors to the legal airports of the country and then let them free to visit “the uncovered Cyprus where time seems stopped, the authentic Cyprus, North Cyprus”
Dear Mr. Paschalides in tourism we need measures without collateral damages, we need measures that assure future to the only industry left which you can be minister of, we need to control those measures and make sure they really bring a benefit. We want those measures to be under the control of those who pay them.
In the eighties Pafos was written on the international airport map with its PFO airport. Then the society in Cyprus was divided. Was Paphos was big enough to host an international airport? The area was basically abandoned by the Cypriot State since the connection between Limassol (Lemesos) and Pafos was made by a narrow curvy and dangerous road and there was indication that the high way was soon to be built. Today after 20 years, Pafos has the highway and Pafos – Limassol is just 30 minutes drive. In November 2008 the new Pafos International Airport was inaugurated. Today I had the opportunity to fly to Thessaloniki (Makedonia Airport) from Pafos.
I invite all of you who want to travel from Cyprus and to Cyprus to choose Paphos Airport (PFO). The building is full of natural light, the decoration is smooth, the walls are decorated by works of art from local artists, the character of the place is modern and is has nothing to envy any modern European Airport, its size is just ideal for the area, human and friendly atmosphere that inspire you security and comfort.
Finally Pafos left behind its 20 years of bad airport history, finally we have an airport we, the citizens of the area and all the Cypriots, deserve. Thank you Hermes Airports for the effort and please keep the quality high, now is time to work to get more flights and boost tourism and business travellers to Pafos.
The Internet has become the means of attraction of tourists for many “inexistent” Tourist Destinations worldwide. Places like New Zealand, Slovakia, Montenegro or regions such as Murcia or Extremadura in Spain almost did not “exist” before the Internet Revolution. They took very seriously their online potential and invested time and money on their online actions and strategies. Here below I try to will give you a different approach with 3 different methods of how Destinations could or do use the power and the potential of the internet to seduce visitors.
1. T.U.I: Traditional Uncovered Influence.
In T.U.I mode the destination gives to Thomas Cook, Thomson-Tui, American Express Travel or whoever other Big Tour Operator, lets say 3,5 million Euros each in form of “marketing expenses” and seeks ROI. This money is used by the tour operators to “market” the destination and of course to market it online since 50% of the sales of the big tour operators are now made online and almost 98% of total sales are confirmed using online tools. Thomsons-Tui for example last week was promoting Tunisia on their UK site and defiantly they were not doing it for free. If Cyprus for example is an expensive destination and Turkey or Tunisia are not so expensive then obviously the tour operator will prefer to promote an easy to sell destination than a hard one, since we are in S.H.I.T, (Stupid Hospitality Industry Turbulence) caused by real estate speculation
2. D.I.Y.O: Do It Yourself Online:
D.I.Y.O is a rather new way of attracting visitors. As all other D.I.Y methods, this requires new skills, new way of thinking, new strategy, new planning and especially lots of courage and faith in what you are doing. It works the same way as D.I.Y for plumbing. If you do not have enough confidence in what you are doing or if your skills are not yet well developed then you may end up with the house flooded. In politics flooding is dangerous, voters can punish you severely, just look what happens in the UK. Ministers fall over their chairs one after the other, but anyway that is in the UK, those things do not happen in the southern areas of the ex British Empire.
3. N.E.T: Neo-technological Effective Tourism:
N.E.T has 3 legs: The Destination, The Suppliers and The Customer all working in a team.
1. The Destination: a.k.a the Tourism Board: With N.E.T the Destination belongs to all and not all to the Destination. It needs to have proven flexibility, credibility and ability, not proven incapability. It needs to give answers online and not orders from-the-line. It needs to share valuable content and in an easy, indexable, universal and accessible environment and not hide content behind bureaucratic monsters and technological myths. In N.E.T “mood” the Destination to has a regulatory role and not a regular role.
2. The Suppliers Travel Professionals : In a N.E.T environment the airlines have online services and not online barriers, the taxis are booked online together with public transport and not “hitched hiked”, the hotels have online price parity and not online price asperity, the incoming agents are destination experts and not the destination desperates, in N.E.T suppliers practice online customer care do not customer scare.
3. The Customer: a.k.a the One who Pays Our Salaries.: The Customer is not only the receiver anymore but also the transmitter. He/She determines online how he/she wants to receive the service, he/she feels the value from home on the PC screen and he/she Pay Palls it. He/She is not scared to share and shout it loud. How does he/she does all that? By Blogging and not Blocking, by Commenting and not Complaining , by Face-booking and not Face-hiding, by Twittering and not Twisting , being on Youtube and not on Our Tube, by Trip Advising and not Trip Forgetting, by being Seduced online and not Ignored even online.
The article was originally published on the Cypriot Newspaper
Financial Mirror on Wednesday 1st July 2009.
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….as well
More Posts
Next page »