NEW YORK— Given the level of hotel bookings coming in via the Internet is growing not in leaps and bounds but rather in billions of dollars, an increasing number of lodging-industry entities are becoming convinced multi-media”is the way to go when packaging their marketing message for the web, as well as other distribution channels. To this end, Hugh Agro— president/CEO of VisualFrenzy Media, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of video-based on-line marketing and sales-conversion tools mainly to the lodging and travel industry, underscored the value of the multi-media approach by stating that with concerns regarding price when marketing and distributing through the Internet, more and more companies are placing greater emphasis on message content and presentation. Where does VisualFrenzy fit into all of this? As Agro explained: “The company uses the latest technology to produce, manage, distribute and track the performance of [marketing-oriented] streaming videos for a growing list of clients.” Specifically, Agro said, “VisualFrenzy’s videos are developed in conjunction with a client’s marketing group, and include soundtrack and voiceover to showcase the specific features and amenities of a hotel or other lodging property.” As for just how important such cutting-edge technological initiatives are to the on-line marketer, Agro alluded to a host of recent numbers and findings purporting: • On-line hotel-room bookings were expected to amount to something more than $6.3 billion in 2002, up 49% over the corresponding result for 2001; • The average daily room rate (ADR) of Internet hotel-room bookings through the GDSs during the third quarter of 2002 was 22% lower than the ADR for such bookings through travel agents; and • On-line advertising activity by the travel industry increased 39% in the third quarter of 2002 over the year-earlier figure, making travel the fourth-largest on-line advertising category. Among those hotel brands, management companies, and individual lodging properties buying into Agro’s appreciation of “an inexorable migration [of hotel bookings]from the GDS to the Internet are: Carlson; Choice; Hilton Hotels; Marriott; Six Continents; Starwood; Wyndham; Adam’s Mark; Aston Hotels & Resorts; Interstate Hotels & Resorts; Ocean Hospitality; Outrigger Hotels; Premier Resorts; Prime Hospitality; Stanford Hotels; Westmont Hospitality; Winegardner & Hammons; and a considerable number of independent properties.
Hugh Agro