You have started recently in the marketing role at Venere. What are you bringing to Venere.com and what exciting new things are you planning to do in the next few months?

I have a broad background in Online travel, Marketing and E-Commerce and I believe the experiences I have gained over the past 11 years in the tourism- and hotel industry in different parts of Europe will enable me to have a real impact on the Venere-brand.

Venere.com has been a pioneer in the European hotel industry since the very beginning of the online travel revolution (going back to 1995) and I am planning on building on that great heritage of innovation and ‘true’ customer focus.

We are currently going through an ‘exploration’ phase and looking at our customers’ needs- and desires in more detail, which will then help us to focus our ‘innovative brains’ on those things that will have the biggest impact on their experiences. I strongly believe that ‘true’ customer-focused innovation doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘loud’ nor involve adapting the latest technology gadgets, but small incremental enhancements that just make their online buying experience a positive part of their whole travel journey are often worth much more.

There are no detailed plans we want to share here – just yet – but rest assured we won’t rest and continue providing a great service to our customers – whether it’s on the web, on the phone or on a mobile device. Stay tuned!

How do you feel about the Facebook and Twitter revolution? Do you think social media are going to have a big impact on the travel industry? How are you planning to further develop social media engagement for Venere?

Social media has already had a big impact on the Travel Industry – just think about the impact sites like Tripadvisor have had on the way we purchase travel today. Travelling is a very engaging and emotional activity and people love to talk about it afterwards and share their experiences.

Social media is a great enabler to make the sharing of those experiences even easier, more exciting and more valuable for others. Social media also enables people to let others ‘participate’ (at least partially) in your experiences while you’re going through them … just think about the number of people who now send regular photo- and status updates to their Facebook profiles while still ‘on the road’.

In the past people used to have to wait until their back from their trips to share those experiences – now it happens in real-time.

What is your favorite holiday destination? What is your best travel experience ever?

I don’t really have a particular destination, but I love holidays in the mountains (i.e. Alps) during Winter- and Spring and I prefer activity-type holidays (i.e. Water sports, Golf, mountain biking etc.) during the summer months.

One of my best travel experiences in the recent years was the wedding of a good friend of mine in India. It was a traditional Indian wedding that went on for several days and we were a great group of friends travelling together to the different venues throughout Rajasthan.

You are German and lived in London, UK, until recently. How do you like your new life in Italy? What do you like the most about living in Rome? Are you learning Italian?

The short answer is ‘I love it!’ I had a great time living in London for the past 10 years, but I felt it was time for a change and Rome has always been at the top of my list of favorite cities in the world.

The lifestyle is quite different here, but I feel I have already adapted to it fairly quickly – almost too quickly when I look at the way I am driving now – there is a chance I lose my license next time I am back in Germany

I have started to learn Italian as I think it is an important part of exploring a new culture, but thus far the progress has been a bit slower than I had hoped…

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your fabulous career?

Well, I’m not sure if you can call my career fabulous but it certainly has been interesting and a ton of fun. I was an Engineering major at college and planned to pursue a technical career. That is until I met my girlfriend in New York City and had to go there to be with her. There weren’t many technical jobs in New York, so joined an small Investment Bank called Allen & Company.

I advised a number of clients in the Media and Entertainment industries in the mergers and acquisitions area. It was a time of great consolidation in the area, and incredibly interesting and exciting. Barry Diller became a client of mine and asked me to join him in a new company that he was building, named Home Shopping Network. I joined as the head of strategic planning in 1998, the early heyday of the Internet.

Over the next 7 years we transformed the company from a small shopping network to a media and internet conglomerate, and bought the businesses that would form the base of what is now Expedia – Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com. In 2005 we decided to seperate the travel businesses from the rest of the portfolio – Expedia Inc. was born and I was lucky enough to be selected as the CEO.

What would you expect to be the next big thing in travel distribution?

I still think that there is a ton of potential in personalizing the travel experience for the traveler. Right now OLTAs [online travel agencies] pretty much treat every customer the same way – show them the same options, give them the same experience. With the wealth of data and tracking available, we should be able to provide a much more tailored experience to the traveler. Hopefully this can drive loyalty in a very competitive environment.

How will the new ownership of venere.com affect users and hotels? How will Venere and Expedia customers benefit from the new situation?

I think it will afford Venere the opportunity to make longer term bets on its future. We are interested in making Venere ten times bigger than it is now. That means many many more customers and hotels all over the world.

What makes Venere special and how do you see Venere’s future?

I love the site – I think Venere is the most distinctive hotel web site out there. There is a certain same-ness that has settled into the industry and I really like the unique look and feel and mapping that Venere has built. We were also very interested in Venere’s terrific inventory in Southern Europe and your success in building out your hotel supply.
I’d like to see Venere aggressively expand not only in its core European markets, but also into Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas.

What is your favorite travel destination?

Lake Como – I love being able to hike up in the beautiful hills and coming down to a great meal with great wine!

Vice President of the Boscolo Hotels group, he belongs to one of the most important families in the hotel industry and has acquired a broad international experience in the opening and management of luxury hotels through his work in Europe, Japan, and America.

He answers questions for the Venere Travel Blog and gives us some news about the opening of the new Boscolo hotel in Nice, South of France.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career in the hotel industry?

The family management environment in which I grew up has inevitably brought me close to the hotel industry. I have always made it a priority to build a solid base of experience around this opportunity. I started at the very bottom, I have worked in the kitchens, as a waiter, cook, and concierge. To work in so many different roles across the board has given me the opportunity to deeply understand the dynamics that rule the hotel environment.

Part of my experience comes also from my work abroad: in London I worked as directorial assistant and food and beverage manager for Jarvis International, in Paris as a vice-president and customer care manager for Golden Tulip Alliance . To compare myself and my skills outside of family management reality has given me the possibility to gain a more mature and responsible view of the international hotel business.

Even when I returned to Italy I sought the opportunity to travel. I collaborated with tour operators and with the Development Office for the Boscolo hotel chain: this has brought me to work in North and South America, Japan and Israel. I worked in the commercial, marketing and financial departments which has led me to gain more experience in tourist accommodation know-how.

Through this I acquired the experience and competence which have enabled me to coordinate an ample network of sales executives, to create and handle co-marketing and partnership deals, to manage the product distribution through the GDS systems and to test new veld management programs for agencies and hotels. Through a bet with my father I founded an organization that overlooks the development and management of the hotel business, keeping it at the highest quality standards. Beginning from what was an almost unimportant company goal I have been able to reach and surpass the goals set by the Company Board.

After acquiring solid competences and a valid experience in the opening of 5 star Hotels, I am now in the role of industrial manager for the Group, and play a major role on the board as Vice President for the Boscolo Hotels.

What do you like the most about your job?

Certainly what I most appreciate about my job is the possibility to compare myself everyday to other people, to their responsibilities and their necessities. I approach new situations and challenges concretely and with humility, trying every time to learn from them and to use that experience which I have acquired through time. However, what simplifies and keeps my work a pleasure is first of all knowing the values of the organization and the group that I am part of. I strongly believe in the Company’s mission which makes our product one of the most prestigious on the market.

Compared to other Luxury hotels in Italy and Europe, what makes Boscolo Hotels special? What does Boscolo offer its guests?

The Boscolo Hotels chain refuses to comply to the homogeneity typical to this business category, underlining instead the unique characteristics of each of the historical and artistic sites in which almost all of the Boscolo Hotels reside. This is certainly the first and foremost characteristic that distinguishes them: each hotel maintains its original peculiarities, keeping true to the styles of the era in which it was built, creating a unique product like the prestigious Hotel designed by Aleph in Rome or the New York Palace in Budapest which is part of the Leading Hotels of The World. This distinguishes Boscolo Luxury Hotels from the rest. We combine a great attention to detail, a refined service and the ever important task of being the spokespersons for Italian hospitality in the world.

We have heard about the opening of a new Boscolo hotel in Nice, French Riviera. Could you tell us something about this next Boscolo event ?

After an important renovation process and an accurate refurbishment, at the end of the summer 2008 the long awaited 5 star Nice hotel will open. The Exedra, located in a luxurious Belle Epoque establishment on the central boulevard, will have 113 rooms, a modern congress center and a complete spa. It will cover a space of 600 square meters of which 75 occupied by the pool next to which there will a sauna, a hamman, tropical showers and a gym. All this will give forth to a high scale hotel, a perfect combination of classic and modern, spaces from another era and cutting edge technologies.

How do you see the future of the luxury hotel industry in Italy and worldwide?

The luxury goods consumer, today, is no longer part of a socio-economic elite, but comes instead from an emerging market that is all but in crisis. I believe that the future of the luxury hotel industry is characterized by ample growth opportunities, for those who dare come aboard. In order to do this it will be necessary to continue working to deserve the title of ambassadors of that refinement and hospitality typical of the Italian culture, investing in new international markets.

For our Travel Industry Rockstars series we welcome to the stage Tuscany born-and-bred Stefano Galastri (39), ex opera singer, ham radio operator, marathon runner, licensed German Shepherd breeder, die-hard single, wine connoisseur and… co founder and CEO of WorldBy.com.

Tell us some more about yourself and about your career so far

I worked through high school and university in heavy and manual labor jobs, as a waiter in restaurants or loading trucks for express couriers. In my early career, just out of university, I was working as an investment banker and I was shocked by the revolution that was going on outside the grey world of the “investment bank”. The internet was happening! I decided to quit my job at the bank and start a web design and web marketing business.

How did you get started with WorldBy.com?

It was during that start-up period when we were involved in a lot of different industries that we noticed that Tuscan farmhouses were having a lot of success online as holiday accommodation properties. I instructed my sales people to concentrate on that niche for web site design. Out of a hundred farmhouse owners we contacted, no one accepted our proposal to design a website for them.

I decided I had to put them online anyway, even if it meant designing a web site for free and get paid in commission. This idea was met favorably by the property owners and WorldBy.com was born.

With no private or public funding, we started solely on our own efforts – myself, Bim Nawrin and Lorella Martini – and we created a company that has served about 1 million travelers, and counting.

How is WorldBy.com different from other accommodation booking web sites?

The concept is to provide the service that any traveler would like to receive, but sometimes is afraid to ask: no hidden booking costs; direct contact with the hotels even if they are booked through an agent; best price guarantee; the richest content & photo galleries and the selection of hotels we offer.

A lot of our pluses are not offered by our competitors. We built our company from a traveler’s perspective. A lot of our competitors built their companies from a money making perspective. This is a bit limiting, considering the fact that intermediaries online should have a very limited and transparent role and provide the benefits of a revolution like this to the customers.

How do you think venere.com and WorldBy.com customers will benefit from the new partnership?

WorldBy.com has a very high customer retention rate and now some 10% of our travelers book again. Sometimes these return customers had needs that we could not satisfy, as we are very focused on top destinations only. The introduction of Venere.com properties will help WorldBy.com’s loyal customers to find what they search for in regions and cities currently not covered by Worldby. Moreover, the acquisition could give added availability and prices in areas where WorldBy.com is already strong.

Venere.com customers will benefit from some features of our catalogs like the non conventional accommodation types that will make the already strong Venere.com offer the utmost comprehensive inventory for many international destinations. Also, we are hoping that some of the practices that we developed at WorldBy.com will be adopted by Venere.com, with positive impacts on a much larger organization.

What are some of your personal favorite properties or destinations on WorldBy.com?

I like non-hotel lodging such as Bed and Breakfasts or apartments where you can feel “at home being away from home”. Take Amsterdam Escape. When you check-in the fridge is full and the bar is filled with liquor of all kinds. You probably won’t know what kind of food you will find in the fridge, or the vodka on the bar shelf, but you’ll feel at home. The only rule is that what you use, you must replace before you check out.

I also like the boathouses in Amsterdam and the farmhouses in Tuscany, and certainly a lot of small and independent hotels that we feature because of their warm hospitality. The human touch and personal presence is what makes a difference in a hotel stay.

There is also the business travel segment to satisfy and for those purposes it is the best and most trendy hotels I prefer. I am interested in new inventions applied to hotel design. Out of the nearly 300,000 photographs we publish on our sites, some 10,000 I took myself, and I like the interior hotel design side of things.

The first rockstar on stage is David Scowsill, whose impressive resume includes high profile positions in the travel industry. David was CEO of Opodo; Senior VP Sales, Marketing and IT at Hilton International; Managing Director EMEA at American Airlines; Regional General Manager Asia/Pacific at British Airways and Sales and Marketing Director at easyJet airlines.

He is now working on specific deals in the retail, technology and travel industries for Private Equity and Venture Capital and is Chairman of Yuuguu Limited, non-executive Vice Chairman at World Hotels AG, non-executive Director of On the Beach Holidays and last but not least: non-executive Director here at Venere.com.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your fabulous career?

Studying languages at University and taking vacation jobs with inbound tour operators and cruise companies took me into the travel industry with British Airways. I have worked in various sales, marketing and general management roles with BA, American Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Opodo, easyJet airlines and Manchester Airports Group.

Having worked in large established corporations that have been household brands for many years, I am really enjoying being a non-executive director taking younger organisations through the changes required to turn them into a larger, profitable businesses.

What were some of the most interesting moments in the early part of your travel career?

There are so many different ones spread over the years – waking up in a railway siding with 120 American high school students when the railway company uncoupled the carriages from the train; flight planning for a transatlantic aircraft using a circular slide rule and meteorological charts to calculate the fuel needed; telling a large Texan oil rigger in Saudi Arabia that he was not going home for Christmas as his flight was overbooked; night shifts in Mumbai airport, sending teletype messages from an old telex machine; living with a bodyguard in Venezuela, who only had a gun between 3.00 and 4.00am and was not given any bullets…

What were the technology ‘moments’ that impacted you personally?

VHF radio conversation with a Captain, telling him to divert to another airport for an engine change, despite the fact that my girlfriend was on board; mainframe computer systems that allowed extensive planning and data storage capability; early laptop computers with integrated printers weighing around 15kg; planning the rebuild of a bombed out office in Bogota, using a facsimile machine for exchanging plans; sitting in a hotel in Saigon, e mailing for free all day to the world, when it was impossible to get a telephone connection call through within the city; grasping mobile telecommunications with its complete loss of privacy and freedom, with early mobile telephones that had battery packs the size of bricks; understanding the power of this US government communication and networking system, which became available to the public as the internet; riding the wave from print to digital photography; seeing the arrival of mobile PDA devices, and the blackberry being used on holiday on the beach; using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen sharing and conference calling with www.yuuguu.com to be completely office free in my daily working life….

What have been the key major technology changes that have shaped the travel industry?

Automation and processing power of mainframe computers for airlines, hotels and tour operators; property management systems and central reservations for hotels; airline inventory, reservations and pricing systems; GDS for business and leisure travel agencies; yield management systems for airlines, hotels, car rental and now car parks; huge databases for frequent flyer programmes and e mail marketing; internet distribution and rich content supply ; screen scraping, extranets, API and XML connectivity; video streaming and mobile content…

If you had to pick just one, what would you say is the biggest adjustment the travel industry has had to make in the last 15 years due to technology evolution and increasingly savvy consumers?

No question that it is the pervasive power of distribution provided by the internet that has changed the travel industry for ever. Private communication networks have existed for many years, such as SITA for the airlines’ operational messaging needs. The internet has provided a paradigm shift for the industry: opening up a consumer direct channel of distribution; providing an online advertising capability, better targeted than offline; reducing dramatically agents commissions, as consumers buy direct from suppliers; providing rich content for hotels to sell their product; initiating user-generated content and reviews; changing the world of telecommunications with VOIP; launching weblogs, travelpods, wikis, RSS feeds and social networking sites; providing a platform for companies that are shaping our future – Google, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes and the next generation that people have still not conceived.

Take out your crystal ball! With lots of information readily available to online travel shoppers, what will be the ultimate factor to drive users to one online travel distributor rather than the other?

I do not foresee a time when one online travel distributor will be able to cater for all the travel requirements of a user. This is partly due to the innate promiscuity of shoppers, but mainly that online distributors all specialise in different things – scheduled air, low cost carriers, hotel, car, tour products, business travel, groups. No one global player can satisfy the annual needs of consumers, when they are travelling for different reasons at different times of the year – package ski trip, city break on a low cost carrier, business class air fare, coach trip to a theatre… Additionally, country based or regional players are more adept at satisfying the demands of their consumers, catering not just to language but cultural needs and travel habits.

The web has brought transparency of pricing, but consumers still have a need to shop around online in the same way that they do on in shopping malls. Price fluctuations by the minute mean that a consumer cannot always ‘trust’ his or her preferred site to produce the best price/value proposition. If finding the right hotel is your overriding driver in planning a leisure or business trip, then you might lead off with venere.com in your search. If you know that flights are likely to be more complicated, then you may book the flights months in advance and worry about the hotel later. If there is one factor that will help web-sites dominate, it will be the quality and depth of their unique content, supported by an intuitive site that your grandmother could use…

Are traditional travel agencies dying out?

The impact of 9/11 was profound throughout the world, but particularly in the travel industry. The airlines were flying empty aircraft, with huge fixed costs of operation, and collectively they lost around $25bil in the 12 months post 9/11. They seized on the internet as a way of dramatically reducing the costs of distributing through GDS and travel agencies. Agency fees in USA were removed and leisure and business travel agents either re-engineered their model and consolidated with others, or they went out of business. Northern Europe followed soon after, with many shopping mall and high street retail locations being closed as agents cut back their costs to compete.

Traditional agencies will not die out, as long as they are providing a personalised, value added service, that customers are happy to pay a fee for. There will be fewer of them, but they will provide great service in their shops or on the telephone. In Southern Europe, Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the traditional travel agents still sell far more than the online players, and this will take some years before it shifts to the same balance as the USA.

Web 2.0 and travel: true love?

I am indebted to Markus Angermeier, who produced a mind map in 2005 that attempted to explain all the potential elements on Web 2.0 – When you look at all the elements captured on his mind map, it goes some way to describing why travel is such ideal sector to exploit the trends of Web 2.0.

The power of long tail economics means that any niche travel business can distribute its product on the internet, in a way that previously was impossible. When I took a travelpod feed onto my desktop before Facebook and MySpace, I started to receive travelpod pictures posted by various Australian and New Zealand globetrotters, taken at the midnight beach party in Phuket. It was not quite what I had in mind when I ticked the ‘travel’ box, but again it showed the power of the internet for sharing information in a timely, focussed manner.

The travel sites that find the right balance between hard selling from their real estate, combined with providing a mash-up of content from other relevant content sources, will be the ones that grow market share and survive in the longer term.

What is your favourite travel destination?

I have been lucky to live, work in or visit most parts of the world. Each place has unique memories for different reasons. If I had to pick one, it would be Malaga in the South of Spain. It is the entry point to so many different aspects of Spanish life – beaches of the Costa Luz; night life of Marbella and Puerto Banus; culture and architecture of Malaga, Sevilla, and Granada; windsurfing and kite surfing off the glorious beaches near Tarifa; skiing in the Sierra Nevada; seeing pure flamenco and the Alhambra palace in Granada; picking olives in Competa; wining and dining in Benahavis….