HSMAI Europe and STR Global form partnership

As briefly mentioned in a report last week, STR Global, the leading provider of market data to the world’s hotel industry, and HSMAI Europe have signed an agreement to work more closely together and support HSMAI Europe and its members.

“We are delighted to partner with HSMAI Europe and provide our hotel market data and knowledge to HSMAI and its members”, commented Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global, adding “I am personally excited to join the European advisory board of HSMAI Europe and help shape the future of the organisation”.

“We have selected pre-eminent STR Global, as our benchmarking supplier, based on their position as leading provider in Europe and worldwide”, says Ingunn Hofseth, president of HSMAI Europe. “We look forward to work together on various events and publications, and to let the members benefit from the partnership, where applicable”.

The partnership agreement includes HSMAI Europe, STR Global and its sister company HotelNewsNow.com, the vital source of information for hotel decision makers and a division of STR. HSMAI Europe will also be present at the inaugural Hotel Data Conference Europe, which will be held 6 September 2011 in London.

About STR Global

STR Global provides clients—including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry—access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and South America. STR Global provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. STR Global is part of the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR, RRC Associates, STR Analytics, and HotelNewsNow.com. For more information, please visit www.strglobal.com.

Latest news on HSMAI Travel Marketer Awards

We are immensely pleased to provide you with updated information on one of this year’s most exciting events in European travel and hospitality taking place at the Hilton Park Lane, London, Tursday 5 May at 6 pm; an inspirational evening with focus on Professional development, Networking and Business, where we also will celebrate:

• The HSMAI European Travel Marketers
• The Young European Hotelier of the Year
• The Young European Travel Industry Leader of the Year

Dress code: Black tie

To top it off we will be presenting awards to the Top Ten Extraordinary Minds in the Hospitality and Travel Industry. Whilst nominations are still in the process of being entered, the evening will see some of the most prestigious industry professionals celebrated for their contribution to the sector.

Nominee	Title	Company
Bjørn Kjos	CEO	Norwegian Air Shuttle
Grace Leo	President	GLA Hotels
Kurt Ritter	President	The Rezidor Group
Michael Levie	Founding Partner and CEO	citizenM hotels
José A. Tazón	Chairman	Amadeus
Petter Stordalen	Chairman and Owner	Nordic Choice Hotels
Sir Richard Branson	Chairman	Virgin Group
Stelios Haji-Joannou	Founder	EasyJet

Many of whom have confirmed his/her presence at the awards ceremony (while some have yet to confirm), where attendees will be offered the opportunity to learn from their extensive knowledge and experience, with winners interviewed live on stage by Jeff Senior, Chairman of HSMAI Global and Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International.

Come celebrate with our industry’s top leaders and enjoy the three-course dinner as well as lots of lively entertainment. Secure a table for your organisation now!

Table for 10 HSMAI members: € 2,100 Non-members: € 2,300

Individual price HSMAI member: € 210 Non-member: € 230

For registration and payment, please click here

The Young European Hotelier of the Year in partnership with

Every year HSMAI hosts a number of various awards events all over the world, of which these two, earlier this year, are the latest:

HSMAI Adrian Awards 2010

The HSMAI Awards Norway 2010

New HSMAI Europe Partnerships

HSMAI Europe has recently entered into three important partnerships that will benefit our members. As previously announced, TripAdvisor has become a collaborating partner and will also take a seat at the HSMAI European Advisory Board.

London, Thursday 5 May is the date and place for the HSMAI Award gala taking place at the Hilton Park Lane. An updated invitation will be distributed during the week. You should be there! Right now there are many cheap flights to London, so make sure you reserve your ticket.

HSMAI Europe wishes to strengthen its relationships with destination companies and travel companies working with leisure tourism. When we were proposed to partner with IFITT (International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism, www.ifitt.org), it was an easy choice to accept. One of their conferences, the Enter conference, is an annual conference gathering several hundred delegates. Next year’s conference will be in Helsingborg, Sweden, 24–27 January 2012. Members of HSMAI will receive a special discount. Book the dates in your calendar now. Further details to follow.

The third partner is the STR Global family, including www.hotelnewsnow.com. This is an extensive agreement and we will also partner with them on their new European initiative – the Hotel Data Conference.

Save the date: Hotel Data Conference – Europe, hosted by STR Global and HotelNewsNow.com, 6 Sept 2011, Park Plaza Riverbank, London. For more information, visit www.hdceurope.com. Members of HSMAI are offered a special discount. This conference is THE conference for hotel owners and managers, and others in positions related to hotel data and finance.

The HSMAI Europe Revenue Management Conference will take place in London for the second time on Thursday 16 February 2012. Feedback from the last conference was exceedingly positive. We are already organising a committee in order to prepare the conference content, including several strong, international brands. If you are interested in joining the committee, please contact us at postbox@hsmai.no.

The HSMAI calendar of events will be updated and distributed in a few weeks.

Forget uni, run a budget hotel

Teenagers terrified of racking up huge debts by going to university are being offered an alternative – running their own Travelodge, according to The Sun.

Five hundred are to be offered the opportunity as the expanding budget hotel chain launches a major shake-up in how it recruits potential managers.

School-leavers will be taken on as apprentices – earning up to £30,000 during the first two years of the programme.

Read story in full

Popular afternoon tea

For a country that considers tea their unofficial national drink, it is cause for great celebration that afternoon tea is back in vogue – and in a big way, according to the Mail Online.

After years of coffee shops spring up on high streets across the country, the humble brew is fighting back.

In fact, afternoon tea has become such big business for leading hotels in the capital, that some are putting on six sittings a day to cope with demand.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1373944/Afternoon-tea-popular-hotels-huge-boost-business-thanks-brew.html#ixzz1IuWUloXj

TripAdvisor Partners with HSMAI Europe to Present the Young European Hotelier of the Year Award

London, U.K.  5 April, 2011 – TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel site*, has partnered with HSMAI Europe, a hospitality and travel industry organisation, to select and announce the first ever Young Hotelier of the Year at HSMAI’s award ceremony on May 5^th in London.

“We’re pleased to be working with HSMAI Europe in recognising the great achievements of an outstanding hotelier over the past year,” said Christine Petersen, president, TripAdvisor for Business. “We hope to continue to collaborate with HSMAI Europe on future projects and help showcase the best talent the industry has to offer.”

Ingunn Hofseth, President of HSMAI Europe, says about the partnership: “We are looking forward to work with a partner that has such a great knowledge base about our members’ clients. With our knowledge and industry network, and their consumer competence, we are confident that this will be a fruitful relationship.”

The Young European Hotelier award will be given to a leader who has set him- or herself apart from his or her peers through great achievement, either through exceptionally good results, or who has been especially innovative in his/her business and role as a leader.

TripAdvisor will also be joining the HSMAI European Advisory Board. For more information and to enter the awards, please visit this page.

About HSMAI Europe

HSMAI – Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International – is a global organisation founded in the US in 1927. HSMAI Europe is the European arm of the membership association. The association provides a forum where professionals within sales, marketing and leadership from the hospitality and travel industry meet for knowledge, inspiration, recognition and professional development, and where they can involve themselves through meeting with leaders, professionals and customers from across Europe. For more information.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor® is the world’s largest travel site, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features (including Flights search, TripAdvisor Mobile and TripAdvisor Trip Friends) with seamless links to booking tools.

TripAdvisor® Media Group, operated by TripAdvisor LLC, attracts more than 50 million unique monthly visitors* across 18 popular travel brands**. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 40 million unique monthly visitors***, 20 million members, and over 45 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 28 countries worldwide****, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also operates TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to TripAdvisor?s millions of monthly visitors. The division includes Business Listings, which allows hoteliers to connect directly to millions of researching travelers, and Vacation Rentals, which helps property managers and individual home owners list their properties and showcase hotel alternatives.

TripAdvisor Media Group websites have been recognized as top travel resources in 2010 by Condé Nast Traveller, Good Housekeeping, TIME magazine and Travel + Leisure.

TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Group are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).

TripAdvisor and the TripAdvisor logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

©2011 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Media Group Sites, Worldwide, August 2010

** In addition to TripAdvisor, The TripAdvisor Media Group of websites includes: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com and www.kuxun.cn.

***Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, August 2010

**** TripAdvisor sites operate in 28 countries worldwide: www.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.co.uk, www.tripadvisor.ca, www.tripadvisor.it, www.tripadvisor.es, www.tripadvisor.de, www.tripadvisor.fr, www.tripadvisor.jp, www.daodao.com, www.tripadvisor.in, www.tripadvisor.se, www.tripadvisor.nl, www.tripadvisor.com.br, www.tripadvisor.com.tr, www.tripadvisor.dk, www.tripadvisor.com.mx, www.tripadvisor.ie, www.tripadvisor.com.au, www.tripadvisor.com.sg, www.tripadvisor.co.kr, no.tripadvisor.com, pl.tripadvisor.com, th.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.ru, www.tripadvisor.com.gr, www.tripadvisor.co.id, www.tripadvisor.com.ar, and www.tripadvisor.tw.