This week’s conferences in Oslo and Stockholm featured an introduction to Revenue management confirmed the need for an international certification within that field – regardless your chain affiliation or nationality. The programme, originally developed in the U.S., is currently adapted and tailored for European needs, to be launched on this website in a couple of weeks.

The global financial recession has brought about challenges we need to address, as tourism and business travels alike have taken a downturn, calling for increased focus on maximising business opportunities and revenue management.

We also need to take a closer look at marketing, and to establish how to get the most out of each penny spent, thereby improving margins. Interestingly, we see how the two Special Interest Groups Revenue management and Travel Internet marketing overlap in that respect, which is why we’ve decided to launch the two first. But we acknowledge national differences, introducing both national and pan European SIG’s.

However, we go even farther:

With seminars and the Certified Revenue Management Executive programme we wish to enable our members to optimise income for just their businesses, and it really doesn’t matter where you are, as webinars will be used extensively, both in this particular area of interest and others. What better way to maximise income, than to save both time and money?

All webinars will be held in English and in a number of European languages.

Thanks a lot to all those who have contributed to a memorable and instructive week – and to HSMAI Global’s president and CEO Bob Gilbert, who toured the Norwegian and Swedish capitals with us this week.

A peaceful and enjoyable weekend to one and all!

Ingunn Hofseth
President and CEO
HSMAI Europe

OSLO, Norway — Thon Hotels and First Hotels sign cooperation agreement for Scandinavia. The agreement includes cooperation in the areas of sales, distribution and marketing. The aim is to increase the total availability for both chains in the Scandinavian and Benelux hotel market.

According to a press release issued today, the cooperation will start 1 January 2010. The two chains will offer over 104 hotels throughout Scandinavia and Benelux.

The two chains are major players on the Scandinavian hotel scene and have their strength in different geographical areas. They have strong brands, extensive coverage, large sales organizations and quality hotel products.

First Hotels has 46 hotels in Scandinavia, of which 31 hotels are in Sweden, nine in Norway and six in Denmark. The annual turnover for First Hotels is NOK 1.2 billion.

Thon Hotels is the third largest hotel chain in Norway, with 53 hotels and two more planned for the autumn 2009. Annual turnover is at NOK 2.4 billion. Thon Hotels also has a number of hotels in the Benelux region, also to be included in the cooperation.

The cooperation will primarily focus on sales, distribution and marketing. This will benefit the customers in terms of a larger range of hotel products in a significantly larger geographical area. There are also plans for cooperation between the two chains’ loyalty programmes, thereby enabling the guests to earn and spend bonus points in both chains.

Both Thon Hotels and First Hotels will maintain full ownership and control over their brands under the agreement.

Photo: Mr. Morten Thorvaldsen, CEO, Thon Hotels.