TOPOSOPHY CLIMBS ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Two major events and a prestigious award make it a big week for Toposophy and our industry partners.

November is always a busy time of year for Europe's industry - not necessarily because of the daily business in welcoming visitors but rather for meeting, learning and planning for the year ahead. Here we’re proud to share some news of what we’ve been up to in the last couple of weeks.

World Travel Market 2015, London

This year Toposophy’s experts were to be found in all corners of London’s ExCel  namely: Manolis - Managing Director, Peter Jordan - Senior Tourism Analyst, Kash Bhattacharya – Blogger Outreach Expert, Semina Sarantopoulou – Content & Community Manager & yours sincerely in my role as Marketing Manager. 
This year’s WTM programme proved – if confirmation were needed – that Toposophy is carrying out projects at the leading edges of tourism industry trends: how to understand and attract Millennial travellers; the place of the Sharing Economy in European tourism; how to manage tourism dispersal in popular cities and how to work better with travel influencers; we’re working with major tourism industry partners in all of these areas, and more. 

What were the highlights of WTM London for us?

- ‘Six New Trends that will Change the World’, hosted by Toposophy and featuring Peter Jordan, Ian Cumming and Sarah-Betty Andrews as the main speakers. With Peter as our guide, we envisioned what the near future holds for the tourism industry especially when resting on the Millennial generation. Peter argued that ‘from now on destinations need to become Millennial-proof’ and that ‘the tourism industry has to understand that not all Millennials are the same’. The session also offered practical tips and insights on how to Millennial -proof your business and get ahead of the game. This was certainly a no brainer for tourism professionals thus we were happy to experience a packed room and a bombardment of Tweets and messages asking us to share our presentation, so here it is. You can also download our recent guide to ‘Putting Your Place on the Millennial Map’

- The Social Silk Road - Manolis Psarros joined the UNWTO's Social Silk Road Seminar and shared a panel with speakers from the BBC, Amadeus, Gogobot & China Tours about the rise of travelers seeking transformative experiences and the booking revolution. 


- How to Encourage Young Asian Travellers to Step Out of the Crowd? Yet another one for Peter Jordan as he hosted the discussion on how popular cities can encourage young Asian Travelers to explore destinations more widely – a hot topic at a time of overcrowding in popular cities worldwide. Speakers included the CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association, the Head of Communications of UNWTO, and the Head of Destination Marketing APAC of TripAdvisor. 

-Are travel brands becoming publishers? Kash Bhattacharya aka. Budget Traveler took part in an interesting panel discussion focusing on whether travel brands can become publishers in their own respect. Topics covered included content strategy, how would you market a fictional coral island in the Pacific, where does content sit in the customer journey and also what the future holds for the blogging community. This was moderated by Steve Keenan from Travel Perspective and included Matthew Barker, co-founder and head of strategy, I&I Travel Media, Lee Gibson, Head of sales at Outbrain & Toni Ambler, Director of brand strategy at Contiki Holidays. If you missed the session you can check out the video. 

HOTREC 71st General Assembly, The Hague

Following keynote speeches by Mr. Taleb Rifai, General Secretary of UNWTO together with officials by European Parliament and European Commission, on 5 November in The Hague Manolis Psarros presented the key points of HOTREC Policy Paper on the "Sharing" Economy. 
Toposophy’s experts have been working over the summer to get a deeper understanding of the positive and negative impacts of the sharing economy on Europe’s tourism industry, in particular the growth of short-term private accommodation rentals. At the Assembly Manolis also summarized the 10 steps suggested by HOTREC towards a sustainable and responsible sharing economy in tourism accommodation.

Last but not least… The Red Dot Award for Communication Design

Have you noticed the rather cool design of our website? It turns out you’re not alone! We’re thrilled to announce that Isobar Greece, (Toposohy’s partner company in Digital Marketing projects) have received the prestigious Red Dot Communication Design Award. 
Toposophy reveals the best that every place has to offer, and Gregory, Vivian, Maritina along with Toposophy’s and Atcom’s core team clearly revealed the best of what Toposophy has to offer! Our award winning designers have worked on projects for the Slovenian Tourism Board and the City of Athens, and they could be working for you too. Why not take a look at Isobar’s behance portfolio or scroll through the Toposophy website for a taste of the real thing. 
Do leave your comments to let us know how you feel about it!