Has been a long time between drinks but your BOOT correspondent attend an "Old School" industry event today. I went along to the ATEC NSW branch meeting and lunch. ATEC is the Australian Tourism Export Council - the industry group for supporting and promoting the inbound tourism industry in Australia. A place/group for Government, Inbound Tourism Operators (ITOs) and Suppliers to meet and promote the industry.
As an event it is not a usual place for an online retailer to spend time. The talk at the event is typically about issues that do not often cross my mind such as "series growth", scheduling of famils, brochure placement and cursing airline capacity constraints and actions (OK maybe I do the the last part). What was on interest was that since my last "traditional" industry event was not just the the increased talk about online retailing and the challenges face by that but of the impacts of dynamic pricing, direct connections, flexible allotments and advanced revenue management techniques. This should indicate a change in the whole industry but the vast majority of this talk was coming from the suppliers (especially hotels) and not from the ITOs and intermediaries. Clear evidence of the continued shift in power back to the hotels in the traditional industry brought about by the overall economic good times. and that the Internet industry is mature and finally changing the way the traditional industry works and operates.
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