About Our Blog

The Delicious Italy Blog has two aims; to provide an insight into the business of marketing Italy abroad for people living and working outside of Italy, and to act as a meeting point for Italian companies seeking to improve their communication via the web or more traditional marketing channels.

We comment on campaigns, brands, advertising, the Italian regions, the image of Italy and anything that has caught our eye and needs more than 140 Twitter characters to be explained.

But not only. Also models offered by digital media for Italy based organizations operating in the Italian incoming industry, and work we have done for non Italy based companies seeking to put into context the food, history and culture of the country.

Ancient Roman garum? Appennine pork history? The story of Venice?

No problem and we may throw in a You Tube video as well.

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AIDA

Aida is one of the great Italian operas, known to everyone in Italy.

AIDA is also one of the fundamental acronyms for marketing communications, ignored by too many Italian hotels and accommodation structures, big and small.

AIDA stands for ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION and is the most basic model for the consumer decision making process.

We are finding time and again, especially in this moment of apparent crisis, that many in the Italian incoming tourism business are drastically cutting their ‘advertising’ budget with the chorus of ’only investing in who brings us direct income or bookings’.

With the web in mind, this is a dangerous call.

Firstly, it is playing directly into the hands of who has more and more control of the ACTION, at least for the smaller hotels and accommodation.

Here we mean online booking sites such as Expedia, Booking.com, Venere etc.

Not only are critical margins being handed over to such entities for ‘bringing us bookings’, but the hotels’ room prices are getting squeezed in a game of biggest discount wins.

2, 3, and 4 star hotels are being pushed onto a battleground where the end consumer is now making a choice between a B&B or a four star hotel – so what, the prices are all the same!

Even worse, what marketing and promotional budgets are being spent by the accommodation structures are being filtered into profts for the said booking giants.

Our view is that hotels should look very carefully at the ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE stages of the purchase process.

Not least to position themselves correctly from a marketing point of view, and to sell the benefits of what would be a stay or vacation.

Only then will they get away from price as the key element of the purchase decision and take control of their revenue streams, customer fidelity and the holy grail of ‘word by mouth’.

A holiday is also territory, people, food & unique experiences which have a cost, normally reinvested locally to the benefit of everyone.

Who, Delicious Italy included, does a fine job in creating ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE in a difficult market place should not be undervalued.

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Giro d’Italia

The Giro d’Italia cycle race starts this weekend and is the greatest sporting event each year in Italy.

Last year’s race ended in Rome, not the usual Milan. Below are our images from 2009.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deliciousitaly/show/

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Servizi

Vorremmo proporre le seguenti soluzioni per aggiungere valore al vostro marketing.

1. www.deliciousitaly.com

Da dieci anni, DeliciousItaly.com è un punto di riferimento consolidato per stranieri appassionati dell’enogastronomia e della cultura locale italiana che stanno programmando un viaggio indipendente nelle Regioni d’Italia.

Con oltre 3000 pagine di contenuto originale e circa 200 operatori in tutta Italia, la nostra Guida Online è consultata da un pubblico di viaggiatori e professionisti consapevoli ed affluenti che cercano un prodotto turistico autentico e d’eccellenza.

Quasi 500.000 visitatori all’anno (95% stranieri) viaggiano sul nostro sito per programmare il proprio viaggio in Italia, informarsi sulle località e cercare contatti diretti.

Proposte d’inserzione 2010

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2. Campagne E-Mail

Disponiamo di un sistema mailing di circa 8,900 indirizzi provenienti esclusivamente da persone che ci hanno contattato negli anni, suddivisi tra privati e categorie di professione tra cui: tour operator all’estero, stampa e media, associazioni e club e stranieri residenti in Italia.

La flessibilità del sistema permette di lanciare campagne mirate costruite in base alle vostre esigenze, un report permette di valutare l’esatto andamento.

Esempio Newsletter

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3. Comunicati Stampa e Canali Tradizionali

Tra le diverse organizzazioni e società all’estero con cui abbiamo svolto rapporti lavorativi direttamente in Italia ci sono: Condé Nast House and Garden Gourmet Food Supplement; Optomen Television (Feast with Heston Blumenthal), The Automobile Association, UK; LEGO Nederland B.V., Holland; Ajinomoto Europe SAS, France; Herbarella Magazine, Zurich; BBC Countryfile, UK.

Possiamo offrire un supporto alla divulgazione dei vostri comunicati attraverso la scelta e la valutazione dei canali digitali più adeguati ed i contatti diretti maturati in questi anni.

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4. Piani di Marketing Strategico Digitale

Consulenza di marketing online per ottimizzare la vostra presenza online, a partire dall’analisi del contenuto del vostro sito per i principali motori di ricerca, fino a sviluppare un vero e proprio piano di comunicazione strategico che utilizza le opportunità offerte dal Web 2.0 (Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, Flickr etc) e Pay Per Click.

Web analysis; identificazione obiettivi;  pianificazione & monitoraggio dei risultati.

sondaggio effettuato ai lettori

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5 Supporto Tecnico

Se integrato bene nel vostro piano di marketing, l’utilizzo di tecnologie come ad es.Video Streaming e nuove piattaforme web (es. Ning, Word Press, Flash Moto CMS) possono aprire  nuovi mercati con investimenti moderati e gestione autonoma.

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Per maggiori informazioni :

Philip Curnow DipM ACIM, Marketing and Sales Director

(Member Chartered Institute of Marketing – www.cim.co.uk)

marketing@deliciousitaly.com

Wedding Site in Russian

When we are asked if we could create a website in the Russian language for a wedding planner based in Verona, we of course said yes.

When we said to the wedding planner lets make the website a wonderful Flash based brochure full of imagery to truly reflect the type of experience Russian couples could enjoy for their special day in Verona, Venice or Lake Garda, the reply was also yes.

The result is www.weddinginitaly.ru

How can we sum up the site?

Try this:

Wedding in Italy by I Will Verona – Свадьба в Италии от I Will Верона – это высокопрофессиональная организация, специализирующаяся на предоставлении безупречных услуг и планировании церемонии вступления в брак для тех пар, которые хотят пожениться в самых романтичных местах Италии, например, Верона , Венеция и озеро Гарда.

More Direct Bookings Please

Any accommodation supplier from 5 star luxury hotels to boutique bed and breakfasts should read this timely article on hotelsmag.com.

In short, invest in your own website and push bookings through suitable direct channels and hotels can reduce their client acquisition cost by almost 9 times.

Or even simpler – dont place all your revenue eggs in the Expedia, Booking.com et al basket even if the OTA are selling themselves as marketing portals.

Here is an edited resume of the article:

HeBS estimates that 45% of hotel bookings in 2010 will be via the Internet (direct + indirect online channels).

How did the top 30 hotel brands do in the direct online channel in 2009? eTRAK reports that 70.9% of online CRS bookings came from the direct online channel (i.e. the major hotel brands’ own Web sites), while 29.1% came from the indirect online channel (the Online Travel Agencies-OTAs like Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, etc.).

This constitutes an increase of the contribution from the OTAs compared to 2008, when 75.2% of online bookings came from the direct online channel, while 24.8% came from the OTAs. Compare this to 2007, when the direct channel contributed 76% of CRS Internet bookings.

In other words, since 2007 we have witnessed a significant shift from the direct to the indirect online channel and an increase in the OTAs’ market share.

This is a serious setback for the hospitality industry and a return to the old bad practices of the post 9/11 era.

Since mid-2008 travel supply has outweighed demand and hoteliers have been more susceptible to panic, resulting in deep discounting and embracing of the OTAs.

Not All Internet Bookings are Created Equal

Why should hoteliers care where their Internet bookings come from? The following case study clearly illustrates the cost effectiveness of the direct online channel:

• Direct Online Channel (Hotel Web site): US$12.92 per booking
(Cost per booking via the hotel’s own Web site, including site hosting and maintenance fees, marketing spend, campaign management fees, and Omniture analytics. Based on 530,000+ bookings in 2009 via hotel websites from HeBS’ hotel client portfolio)

• Indirect Online Channel (Online Travel Agency-OTA): US$107.57 per booking
(Based on average 2009 ADR in NYC = US$215.14 and 2 night LOS = US$430.28 x 25% OTA commission)

Difference between the cost of a Direct Online Channel and Indirect Online Channel booking = 8.3 times!

It is far more cost effective to sell your rooms via the direct online channel compared to the OTA channel (indirect online channel). On an annualized basis, just imagine what this difference in distribution cost constitutes for a typical New York City 200+ room hotel.

Naturally, we do not envision a scenario where 100% of Internet bookings are made via the direct online channel. The OTAs and other players in the indirect online channel do play a needed role in certain areas of the travel planning and purchasing process e.g. dynamic packaging (air+hotel+car+tour) for leisure destinations. Even in pre-Internet years, approximately 25% of all hotel bookings in the U.S. came via the indirect channel (travel agents, tour operators, etc).

Now, 15 years after the advent of the Internet distribution channel, the most cost efficient distribution and marketing channel ever, the indirect channel contribution should not be higher than 25%. On the contrary, due to dramatic changes in travel consumer behavior, and the inherent demand to deal with the “manufacturer” of hotel and travel products (i.e. travel suppliers like hotels, airlines, car rental companies, etc.), we should be witnessing a decline in the indirect channel contribution. What we should not be seeing is the current industry average of a 40% OTA contribution.

Just imagine the cost savings if 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% or more bookings are shifted from the indirect to the direct online channel!

In addition to being the most cost effective distribution channel, the direct online channel provides long term benefits and competitive advantages:

• Reduces dependence on OTAs and expensive traditional distribution channels
• Prevents brand and price erosion
• Cross-Channel / Multi-Channel marketing and customer engagement
• Allows the hotel to “own” the customer
• Builds brand loyalty
• Engages customers pre-, during, and post-stay

The Bottom Line: Invest in the Direct Online Channel

Hoteliers need a robust Direct Online Channel Strategy, accompanied by adequate marketing funds, to be able to take advantage of the steady growth in the Internet channel and the shift from offline to online bookings in hospitality.

Hoteliers must carefully employ ROI-centric initiatives including website redesign, website optimization and SEO, paid search, email marketing, online display advertising and sponsorships, mobile marketing and proven social media initiatives.

Even in this economy, you should not decrease or eliminate your hotel Internet marketing budget. The Internet, and especially the direct online channel, is the only growth channel for hoteliers and the only “light at the end of the tunnel” in this environment.

Market researchers envision growth rates in online travel as high as 11% in 2010 as projected by eMarketer. The online channel, and especially the direct online channel, provides hoteliers with the only viable option for any growth during these trying economic times.