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Diego Lofeudo, Senior Director of Market Management of Expedia for Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, Middle East & Indian Ocean, talks to TravelDailyNews about the international travel trends, the traditional vs. online business, the "deals" trend and the cooperation of Expedia with Groupon, the new distribution tools of Google as threat and as opportunity, as well as the future of travel distribution and position of Expedia in that future.
Select the topic you like and watch the video… enjoy!
Question 1
The whole Mediterranean region is suffering economical and political crises. How does Expedia monitor this turmoil. Does it affect the bookings and rates?
Question 2
What Expedia sees for the future of travel in the region if the economical problems in Greece, Italy, Spain and other countries continue for long?
Question 3
USA economy is also decline while Asian markets seem to be more stable. How will this affect the incoming travel from these long-haul markets?
Question 4
How do you work with destinations in order to support their efforts in elevating their tourism product?
Question 5
Traditional travel agents are suffering from the booming of the new digital distribution tools that popping out almost every second day and hoteliers are confused trying to manage their inventory though the various channels. I assume that is a challenge for companies like Expedia to train the market on the new tools and trends. How does Expedia deal with this challenge?
Question 6
Deal sites is a great trend nowadays but on the other hand hoteliers started to put them aside because they squize them for even lower rates. In addition, deal sites is considered that they create a new mentality to the travellers who sit back and wait for better and better offers. Having that in mind Expedia recently announced a cooperation with Groupon. How to you see hoteliers to react on that?
Question 7
Goolge slowly but surely is entering the travel and hospitality market with products like google places, google hotel finder. This may create a new status quo in the distribution of the tourism products. How do you comment on this evolution?
Question 8
How do you see Travel distribution to evolve in ten years from now, and of course how do you see Expedia in this future?
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
