Herve Fournier IDC Switzerland: ITS Zermatt Day 2+3

Francois Seppey, Head of the State Department of Economic Development, President of the Ark Foundation and the Marque Valais Association began the session posted on the topic of innovation with the following definition: "Innovation means introducing something new in something established. Innovation is at the beginning and at the end of everything, because it is a source of change in consumer behavior. "
The Deputy Director of the International Tourism Marketing Division, Shandong, Yu Fenggui, explains the tremendous work done on tourist brands at the 2nd largest city in China in terms of population. Indeed, the hometown of Confucius decided to play a full map of the hyper-segmentation by creating brands based on six different aspirations and the type of activities performed by visitors.
Guillaume Thevenot, author of the blog HotelBlogs, launched the conference dedicated to social media with distinguished guests such as Armelle Solelhac, (CEO, Switch, France), Patrick Comboeuf (E-Business Director Swiss Federal Railways), Michael Menzel (Director of Sales at TrustYou) Sara Nanda (Senior Manager of European partnerships at TripAdvisor). Each explains how social media has revolutionized the methods of reservations, consumer feedback and holidays. Armelle Solelhac addressed the contributions of social location in the tourist industry including the EpicMix ™ Vail Resorts Inc. Check the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUwQZ57SSds
The roundtable on "innovation and design in infrastructure and equipment" opens with a presentation by Roberto Francesconi (Regional Manager Finaosta in the Aosta Valley) on the development work and new lifts which will be installed to Helbronner on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. Facilities should be open to the public in 2015.
Reto Rindlischbacher (CEO of Nordica) discusses the repositioning of its brand (50% slopes, 30% back country and 20% freeride freestyleskiing) and describes what the ski resort of your dreams should look like and how it should be managed: "Managing a ski resort company would mean to me" being an event entertainment company ".
Finally, Benno Nager (Director of Consulting Alpine Resort) closed the morning of presentations outlining the Andermatt project, a well-established winter sport location at the foot of the Gotthard Massif in Switzerland which will become an exclusive all-year around holiday destination offering leisure activities with a golf course, six new 4 and 5-star hotels, 490 spacious apartments in 42 buildings as well as 25 villas and an extension of the ski-lifts with a connection to Sedrun-Disentis. http://www.andermatt-swissalps.ch/
Yves Claude Aubert (European Tech Tour Association) opened the session devoted to opportunities for innovation in the tourism industry by saying that "the speed of development of innovations, their adoption and their spread has become dizzying." A statement confirmed when you see the stratospheric progression of HouseTrip, the company created in 2009 by Arnaud Bertrand who quoted "Innovation is relevant only if it is part of a real strategy. To carry out a project, you should know to stay focused on goals. "
Christian March (Vice President of BeMore Holding) then connects with a presentation of the impact of internet sales in ski lifts companies. What to remember:
• Yield management and dynamic pricing are the future of ski lifts conmpanies;
• In France, the cost of the ticket booth on the sale of a skipass is 8%;
• The French resorts do not know 80% of buyers of skipasses, so it's very difficult to provide them with personalized offers;
• The future lies in the fusion of the access card with the method of payment and loyalty tools;
• The future is through developing platforms for aggregation of tourist services in dynamic mode by destination;
• The generalization of smartphones will accelerate the transfer of the turnover from the ticket booth to online sales.
After a presentation by a representative of the capital city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province in China, Olivier Müller (Head of Development for the German market) presents introduces Groupon. It describes the business model and "win - win - win between the client - the merchant and Groupon" a company formed in 2008 in Chicago already present in 250 cities in 47 countries. The benefits and relevance of services offered by this company seem relatively logical for tourism professionals.
Reto Gurtner (Weisse Arena Group CEO - Laax) then describes his work in developing Rocks Resort and how he joined the design in the development of a strong brand accommodations in Laax. http://www.rockresort.com/
François Seppey concludes with great finesse this day dedicated to innovation by recalling the concept of "wintertainement" (winter + entertainment) and to place greater importance on the scene to the customer experience. He then invites the participants to board the metro to Sunnegga at 2278 m for a Swiss Dinner : beautiful scenery with the sun gently setting over the Matterhorn, entertainment with Alphorns and glockenspiel, fine food and wine, a great way to finish the day.
The third day was chaired by Eric Fournier, Mayor of Chamonix Mont-Blanc. Tthe pannel “Who is the best owner” depicted the difficulty faced by hotel and ski resort operators to obtain financing from investors. Yang Luyu, Deputy Director, Commerce Department Division, Province of Jiangsu, highlighted some of the investment opportunities in his region. Finally François Carrard, former Director General of the International Olympic Committee described the current requirements to host the Olympic Winter Games.
Gérald Imfeld, Chairman of the International Tourism Symposium Foundation officially closed the 13th edition. He mentioned the success of the Business Valais Area showcasing innovative companies including those who were selected for the “Five Minutes of Fame” segments : SkyCarve, Visioglobe and Nannoxi. He called for all participants to meet next year in Chamonix Mont-Blanc for the 14th edition.

Source: Text in French by Armelle Solelhac http://www.switchconsulting.fr/blog/