Key Issues Facing Online Marketers in Europe - IMHI Hotel Internet Marketing Strategy Conference Wrapup / July 2004

Key Issues Facing Online Marketers in Europe - IMHI Hotel Internet Marketing Strategy Conference Wrapup / July 2004: "key differences in the behavior of consumers in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. For example, Mr d�Auvigny highlighted differences in travel patterns and specifically the importance of trains in the European marketplace, where far more consumers make use of the high-speed rail network to travel distances of up to three hours than in other regions, a characteristic that has influenced Accor�s marketing strategy and prompted the introduction of their innovative scheme �Train et Hotel�. "

The panel highlighted how localization of both content and sales messages was the key to success. Simple translation or, as the panel phrased it “transliteration” is unlikely to succeed. The challenge is to have an international site but remain local, present the content in a way that is clear, concise and relevant to the local situation. The only way to achieve this is to devolve responsibility for such content down to the local level, which, from a technological perspective, can be facilitated relatively easily using a content management system. However it is the soft factors that are more troublesome, and the corporate level needs to spend a lot of time and effort on training and communication as to the importance of maintaining such data regularly and to the role that it plays in the marketing and distribution process is key.