Online marketing: challenge and opportunity for hoteliers’ was at the heart of the debates during a seminar recently organized in Essaouira by the National Federation of the Hotel Industry (FNIH).
The Essaouira meeting, which comes after the success of the previous editions held in Marrakech, Tangier, Agadir and Casablanca, was enhanced by the presence an audience of professionals from the hotel and tourism sector, managers, experts and researchers in digital, digital marketing and E-Distribution, as well as students from the Higher School of Technology (EST) of Essaouira, reports MAP.
The objective of this meeting, organized in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Air Transport, Crafts and Social Economy, was to transmit to the participants a body of knowledge and process, in addition to the tools necessary for designing a digital strategy adapted to current competitive contexts.
This seminar also offered the opportunity for participants to exchange and debate the challenges as well as the opportunities that digitalization offers for strengthening the competitiveness of tourist accommodation establishments.
Speaking on this occasion, the president of the FNIH, Lahcen Zelmat, noted that this meeting is part of a series of seminars planned by the Federation in different regions of the Morocco with the aim of debating current topics for the management of accommodation establishments.
He highlighted the interest in digital marketing, which represents a real opportunity for accommodation establishments and an undeniable comparative advantage for the development of their turnover, noting that it is indeed a new communication and marketing approach in order to reach a wider audience and improve the profitability of accommodation establishments.
»Digital transformation is an essential process to adapt to new technologies and customer booking habits, » explained Mr. Zelmat, believing that digital transformation also constitutes a break from to usual commercial management practices, due to the fact that today’s connected customers are adopting new channels to compare, choose, and reserve their hotel rooms online.
This change, he continued, strongly impacts the actions of hospitality professionals who have no other choice than to opt for digital in order to optimize the revenue of their establishments.
According to him, the integration of the digital marketing dimension must also be accompanied by the improvement of the customer experience from their reception to their check out, before concluding that this experience could thus influence others potential customers.
The provincial tourism delegate, Mouhsine Chafai Alaoui, highlighted the importance of the chosen theme, namely digital which impacts the hotel business today, noting that « digital support is increasingly disseminated, particularly through the various platforms that have opened the doors of flexibility to the traveler, accessible and lightweight, on computer or smartphone, regardless of location and environments. »
Salaheddine Naciri, president of the Regional Association of the Hotel Industry (ARIH) of Marrakech-Safi, welcomed the holding of this seminar in Essaouira, highlighting the relevance of the theme of this conclave.
For his part, Abderrahim Hansali, president of the Digital Morocco Foundation, highlighted the advantages that digital technology offers as a tool that carries the values of transparency and sharing, inviting tourist and accommodation establishments to opt for digital technology and seize the different opportunities it offers in order to optimize their output and improve their performance and capacities.
At the end of this meeting, a trophy was presented by the FNIH to the provincial tourism delegation of Essaouira, as a sign of recognition of the efforts made so that this seminar, part of regional meetings, was held, exceptionally, in the city of the trade winds.
