Kyros Asfis, Managing Director of Nea Mesa Hotel & Tourism Digital Marketing Agency recommends best integrated digital solutions for businesses’ success.
H.A: With the scenery’s change in worldwide tourist “chessboard” and the weakening of giants like TUI, what are the tips you would give to Greek hoteliers of small, medium and large businesses?
K.A: The pandemic has caused a number of significant changes in tourism industry. One of them is the weakening of T.O(Tour Operators) let alone the O.T.A’s(Online Travel Agencies). The environment is changing. A typical example is that of Thomas Cook, which after the acquisition by the Chinese was transformed into an OTA.
I am of the opinion that the first signs of industry’s transformation are visible and crystal clear. My first advice is to increase the vigilance and harmonization of the product and its communication according to the new data. It is inconceivable to try and simple project a room, a beach or a sunset or even an offer without taking into account the concern of potential visitors and not mentioning the health measures taken by a business as well as the level of health crisis, in which the country we target is found in.
My second piece of advice is to restructure the sales mix, aiming to disperse the risk but also the new partner payment policy. Here I come to my third tip, which concerns the development and strengthening of the digital presence and direct bookings. Essentially we are talking about creating and implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy with definite and unambiguous goals that will take into consideration the marketing and sales plan.
H.A: Do you consider that lack of time, or difficulty in selecting experienced personnel, limited budget or OTA’S dependance(Booking, Expedia) substituted the right digital image of a hotel business?
K.A: In order to properly answer your question, I will start from the fact that there are few hotel businesses acquiring a proper and complete digital image and presence, therefore it was never substituted since never existed. In addition, I believe that there are more than one reasons for this incomplete presence. Incorrect training of several professionals involved in digital marketing services leads to insufficient guidance of businesses resulting in not achieving desired goals and ultimately hearing the phrase “ I have tried digital marketing but it does not pay off”. Of course, knowing less is worse than ignorance.
One additional reason is the digital illiteracy of several owners but also executives (where to some extent is understandable), which is an obstacle on the selection of the right partners, who will take over the responsibility for designing and implementing a proper integrated digital presence and marketing strategy. These are the gaps that OTA’s have exploited and gained a dominant position in the market, controlling, in part, sales and business revenues. As I earlier stated, coronavirus is a good chance for introspection and repositioning.
Coronavirus is a good chance for introspection and repositioning.
Kyros Asfis, Nea Mesa Hotel & Tourism Digital Marketing Agency
H.A: What services does NEA MESA offer to a business for a complete digital image?
K.A: Nea Mesa is a digital marketing agency, which operates since 2015 by providing exclusively integrated services to hotel and tourism businesses. The 10-member team of partners covers the whole range of specialties(marketers, copywriters, google social media ads experts, solicitors, hotel booking and sales consultants) required for the provision of necessary services for businesses. The identification of needs arises from an in-depth analysis of data and objectives set by the respective business. Every and each collaboration is different, as well as strategies and tactics needed to be applied.
“The identification of needs arises from an in-depth analysis of data and objectives set by the respective business.”
— Kyros Asfis, Managing Director of Nea Mesa Hotel & Tourism Digital Marketing Agency
H.A: In one of your blog’s articles entitled « Hack the human, not the algorithm» you refer to ways of creating better content in order to attract clients. According to your experience, to what extent have we succeeded as a country?
K.A: Thank you for referring to this specific article which is one of my favorites, due to the title and not the content.Essentially, in this article I briefly summarize some of the basic principles of a digital marketing strategy, such as the creation of digital personas, based on which we will support our actions. Of course, I also refer to modern SEO where it requires the continuous creation and publication of blog articles following some rules. In regards to your question whether we have succeeded as a country, I believe that we have taken some important steps but there is a lack of a central strategic plan coordinating all stakeholders so as targeted and joined-up actions are taken. The conductor is missing from the orchestra.
Η.Α: In a rather volatile global tourism scene, there have been particularly remarkable informative moves in our country to analyze the data of hotel searches and bookings, such as Tourism Observatory, in collaboration with BookOnlineNow and Syncbnb. What were your conclusions?
K.A: Tourism Observatory begun as an idea in April of 2020, after the pandemic broke out. It was based on the simple need of data collection and big data utilization.
Important allies in this initiative were BookOnlineNow(booking engine for hotels), Syncbnb(channelmanager for short term rentals) and Hotel Availabilities(channel manager for OTA’s). By collecting and analyzing data, from the aforementioned companies, useful conclusions are drawn in regards to the current booking window, the countries of origin of reservations, the cource of searches and reservations etc. These conclusions are publicly posted on https://neamesa.com/demand-trends.
My plans for Tourism Observatory are to perpetually enrich the sources of incoming information and to establish it as a powerful marketing tool for the promotion of tourism businesses and destinations alike.
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