Digital evolution

[L-R] Anita Markiewicz; Artour Severinov; Toufic Tamim; and Elaine Nettleton

At its annual in-house conference, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts demonstrated that a hotel chain’s digital strategy should be a combined effort drawing on the resources of all departments to ensure its success

The buzz surrounding online marketing, social media and electronic distribution has continued into 2010, with many hotel chains ramping up their efforts in the digital arena. To harness the interest of its staff in this field and address the issues that are bringing working practices of different departments much closer, Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts themed its annual conference appropriately and hosted its first Digital Evolution Conference in February.
The event brought together the sales and marketing, revenue management, e-distribution and communications teams from corporate office, with some full group sessions and other targeted seminars over a two-day period.

Hotelier was there to get the inside scoop and meet with the programme organisers — e-distribution manager Middle East Artour Severinov, vice president revenue management Middle East & Asia Anita Markiewicz, vice president sales & marketing Middle East Toufic Tamim and director of communications Middle East Elaine Nettleton. Here, they outline the rationale behind the conference and the feedback from Mövenpick’s employees across the region.

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Why did the four departments team up to organise the Digital Evolution Conference for 2010?

Anita Markiewicz: We all need to work together better for a common “distribution” goal. It is a sad fact that in this part of the world we seem to always be playing catch up with other areas such as the US or Europe who are more advanced and have more adult digital natives than in the Middle East.
But we are surely getting there. This is summarised in the Tom Wilson quote: “Many of us are more capable than some of us . . . but none of us is as capable as all of us!”

Artour Severinov: The reason behind our decision to do this conference as a combined one for all four departments is because digital media has become a driving force in the distribution progress and we have to stay ahead of the industry trends. There has been an incredible development within the digital environment in terms of new technology, processes and e-marketing techniques and we wanted to address those with our hotel teams in order to enhance their knowledge and capabilities so they can utilise it to its full potential.

Toufic Tamim: The digital era is here to stay and we need to embrace it and set future strategies.

In the past 12 months the four departments in the area office — sales and marketing, revenue management, e-distribution and communications — have worked closely together as the boundaries between our roles have become less defined and there is more overlap. This naturally translates into the hotel operation so we wanted to bring everyone together to consolidate skill sets.

Elaine Nettleton: At the heart of all marketing campaigns is a good communications platform and so it is imperative for the communications department to be actively involved with the other departments. This conference was the perfect springboard to bring everyone together for a common goal.

Why is it important for your division to be part of the Mövenpick digital evolution conference?

AM: Revenue management is an integral part of the distribution process, for rates and availabilities, just as each of the other disciplines are equally important, one without the other does not work, so it is imperative for each one of the team to appreciate, understand and support the whole process. One cannot stand alone for long.

EN: The role of the communications manager in hotels is changing. While the basic PR skills such as writing and distributing news releases are still necessary, the focus has shifted to a more active engagement with people in the online arena. No longer can we just talk at our customer, now we have to listen and we have to connect with them in order to get our message across.

TT: Last year 103,000 room nights were generated through our proprietary website www.moevenpick-hotels.com, making it the largest single distribution source. It is therefore important that the sales team continue this momentum by focusing on online content and competitive offers — without losing sight of the other distribution and business channels.