RDA English Newsletter November 2016

RDA English Newsletter

November 2016

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Dear RDA Members, Dear Readers, Welcome to the November 2016 issue of our monthly RDA English Newsletter!

Poignant and controversial industry issues and themes such as BREXIT and its eventual consequences for coach tourism and for EU tourism politics will be discussed at the forthcoming Day of Coach Tourism 2017 in Bremen (8th – 9th January 2017).

The RDA Board at its meeting on 18th October 2016 in Stuttgart decided to introduce a unified planning grid for RDA-Workshop exhibitions in 2017 in Friedrichshafen and in Cologne. It was also decided that both exhibitions would be of two days duration, Friedrichshafen from 20th to 21st April 2017 and Cologne from 4th to 5th July 2017.

Social media use and its potential in the tourism sector along with supporting wildlife and species conservation and the opportunities they provide for sustainable coach and group tourism development are also thoughts and considerations that provide interesting subject matter for future group tourism programmes, EACT discussions and RDA international coach tourism and strategic partner platforms.

Please note in your diary that the 66th RDA Annual General Meeting will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday, 19th April 2017 in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. Make use of this excellent opportunity to network prior to the exhibition, participate in the proceedings of your federation and in the scheduled RDA Presidential and Board elections.

Therefore, please make sure to save these forthcoming RDA dates: Day of Coach Tourism 2017 in Bremen (8th – 9th January 2017), 66th RDA Annual General Meeting in Friedrichshafen (19th April 2017), RDA-Workshop Friedrichshafen (20th and 21st April 2017) and RDA-Workshop Cologne (4th to 5th July 2017). We look forward to your active involvement!

Wishing you an informative and enjoyable read! Richard Eberhardt Dieter Gauf President CEO

Editor Contact: Dr. Patrick Patridge E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.patrick-patridge.com Phone: +49-69-97840206 Twitter: @DrPatridge Hashtag: #RDAWS17


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CONTENTS Select RDA Dates in 2017 35th Day of Coach Tourism - “Upheaval in the coach tourism market – Challenges & Opportunities” 9th January 2017 in Bremen and Bremerhaven, with informal B2B networking get-together on the evening of Sunday, 8th January 2017 66th RDA Annual General Meeting

19th April 2017 in Friedrichshafen, Germany RDA-Workshop 20th and 21st April 2017 sprin exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany 4th – 5th July 2017 in Cologne, Germany

Federation News

35th Day of Coach Tourism – controversial industry issues and themes

66th RDA Annual General Meeting in Friedrichshafen

RDA-Workshop 2017

Two-day duration and unified planning grid for RDA-Workshop 2017

Industry News Social media use and potential in the German tourism sector

Feature Supporting wildlife and species conservation – opportunities for sustainable coach and group tourism

New RDA Members


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Federation News

35th Day of Coach Tourism – controversial industry issues and themes

The 35th Day of Coach Tourism start-of-year get-together and conference will take place on Monday, 9th January 2017 in the GOP Varieté-Theater Bremen, with an informal B2B networking get-together on the evening of Sunday, 8th January 2017 in the Bremer Überseestadt (http://www.bremen-tourism.de/virtual-tour-of-ueberseestadt). The theme of this ever popular and informative event is “Upheaval in the coach tourism market – Challenges & Opportunities”. Event hosts are Bremen, Bremerhaven and the GOP Varieté-Theater Bremen.

Foto: GOP Theater Bremen, © BTZ

Controversial industry issues and themes will be discussed including: • BREXIT – what are the eventual consequences for the coach tourism sector and

for EU tourism politics? • New, exotic destinations require differential risk analysis and crisis management • How can market shares be maintained? • Deregulation of long-distance public bus transport: will price be a decisive

argument for the choice holiday transport mode once again? • Long-distance buses: alternatives for city tourism, rented buses and association

excursions? • Will school classes, youth and senior tourism operators, clubs & associations use

long-distance bus portals in future? • Splitting of traditional package coach holidays into separate components: transport

- accommodation – event tickets? • bus.de - the portal for coach holidays and non-scheduled transport? • Reduction of barriers to competition: a disadvantage for conventional businesses,

an advantage for fast movers?


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• Discontinued family business model: will corporate groups, venture capitalists, administrative barriers and tendering replace medium-sized coach operators?

Participation at the 35th Day of Coach Tourism 2017 is free and open to trade members only.

Your input and ideas are also appreciated and are most welcome in advance of the event. So please contact RDA CEO Dieter Gauf if you would like to make such a contribution ([email protected]).

Further information and registration: http://tag-der-bustouristik.de/index.php?id=29 Information about Bremen and Bremerhaven: www.bremen-tourism.de and www.bremen.de/schuetting-1507683 Information about the Bremer Überseestadt: www.ueberseestadt-bremen.de/en/start_ueberseestadt Conference venue: www.variete.de/spielorte/bremen YouTube Video Impressions: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3XUSNYc_LY Hashtag: #Tagderbustouristik

66th RDA Annual General Meeting in Friedrichshafen

RDA Members please note that the 66th RDA Annual General Meeting will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday, 19th April 2017 in Friedrichshafen on scenic Lake Constance. Make use of this excellent opportunity to network prior to the exhibition, participate in the proceedings of your federation and in the scheduled RDA Presidential and Board elections. Friedrichshafen is situated in the so-called “Border Triangle” between Austria, Switzerland and Germany. It enjoys very good air, rail and motorway access.


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RDA-Workshop 2017

Two-day duration and unified planning grid for RDA-Workshop 2017

The RDA Board at its meeting on 18th October 2016 in Stuttgart decided to introduce a unified planning grid for the RDA-Workshop exhibitions in 2017 in Friedrichshafen and in Cologne. It was also decided that both exhibitions would be of two days duration, Friedrichshafen from 20th to 21st April 2017 and Cologne from 4th to 5th July 2017. The latter, in particular, is in response to considered exhibitor feedback and to experience gathered during this year’s inaugural Friedrichshafen exhibition.

The RDA-Workshop Cologne trade visitor experience will also be enhanced by the introduction of destination, technical and thematic areas that will bundle exhibitor creativity and imagination, helping to capture emotions, focus perspectives and assist sales.

A limited number of 6 sqm micro-stands exclusively for first-time-exhibitors only may be booked at both exhibitions in 2017. This is an ideal and welcome opportunity for start-ups and for new young enterprises in particular. Companies who are not RDA Federation members may also exhibit at the RDA-Workshop in 2017. RDA members will, however, receive a discount upon the stand booking fees.

Therefore, non-member exhibitors should consider joining RDA in 2017 to benefit not only from lower RDA-Workshop stand rental charges but also to avail of gratis RDA market research, marketing, taxation, safety and legal consultancy services for RDA members. With only six months to go, it is time to start planning for effective and successful exhibition participation.

Further information:

RDA-Workshop Touristik-Service GmbH

Tel. +49-221-12 04 48

E-Mail: [email protected]

Web: http://www.rda-workshop.de/en

Information about Friedrichshafen: http://en.friedrichshafen.info/ and

https://www.messe-friedrichshafen.de/mfn-en/

Twitter Hashtag for RDA-Workshop 2017: #RDAWS17


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Industry News

Social media use and potential in the German tourism sector

The recently published German public TV networks’ ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie 2016 has highlighted that 84% of Germany’s German-speaking population (58 million) are online on a regular basis (+4% over 2015). 70% enjoy high-speed broadband and 65% are online daily (45 million). 66% use smartphones as their primary means of accessing the internet, almost 100% of 14-29 year olds (this latter fact, in particular, is highly relevant to adaptive website presentation and design and to booking processes).

Online activities, according to the Institute for Future Studies, also constitute a major source of modern Germans’ leisure-time activities (76%); in fourth place behind TV (97%), radio (90%) and telephoning (90%). Internet use has grown by 56% over the past five years and has increasingly come to replace other traditional social interactions such as going out and meeting friends and relatives.

Of interest to our branch is the fact that 82% of the 50- to 69-year olds are online while less than 45% of the over 70-year olds use the internet. This means that our industry has to address its current core client and potential client base with a two-track approach - traditional marketing and sales on the one hand and modern online media, SEO and sales, including social media, on the other.

These are now basic facts of German life and changing consumer behaviour that cannot be ignored by the international coach tourism sector. Social media networks in particular such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are gaining increasing importance in the tourism sector as a whole. The goal for most tourism suppliers is to increase consumer awareness, win new customers and increase client retention. But are social media being effectively employed by German tour operators?

A recent study of 93 leading German tour operators by communications agency Ad Publica discovered that 95% used social media for company communications, two-thirds of these on a daily basis. Monitoring occurred on a regular basis and most appeared to understand how to strategically employ social media channels. While many tourism companies employed social media and content managers, most were still not availing of the opportunities presented by monitoring and data analysis.

Most German tour operators used data gleaned to measure customer / message reach (74%) followed by success control. Only 30% used information collected to gather


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targeted data, tweak and optimize their products. There is, therefore, still plenty of potential for improvement and progress here.

The whole area of online video would also seem a given for our sector and is one that requires special attention and investment. Thoughts and considerations, indeed, that would be interesting subject matter for future EACT discussions and for RDA international coach tourism and strategic partner platforms.

Further information:

http://www.ard-zdf-onlinestudie.de/

http://www.stiftungfuerzukunftsfragen.de/en/research/publications/

https://www.adpublica.com/media//ad-publica/meldung/ad-publica-studie-social-media-

in-der-tourismusbranche.pdf

Feature Article

Supporting wildlife and species conservation – opportunities for sustainable coach and group tourism

According to zoologist Desmond Morris in his controversial bestseller, „The Naked Ape“, older people are characterized by a heightened interest in animal preservation and conservation. Their interest is focused on those species that are in danger of extermination, e.g. bees, elephants, tigers and grey partridges. This emotional concern to save species from extinction reflects their desire to extend their own survival.

This is an innate human desire which the coach and group travel sector in particular should pay more attention to as it may very well concern its core customer segment. It presents a unique business opportunity to maintain existing clients while at the same time attracting a new generation of potentially concerned customers. It contains within it the seeds of a sustainable approach to coach and group tourism development and to memorable trip delivery - engaging customers and tour operator staff as it does with pro-active involvement and more meaningful holiday and destination experiences.

In an earlier blog post I wrote about how hotels in co-operation with wholesalers and tour operators, for example, could effect sustainable local environment enhancements by planting native flowers, trees and shrubs instead of foreign species as a CO2 travel offset measure. Such an approach supports and enriches native fauna, songbirds and bees in particular. Imagine hotel guests awakening to the sound of songbirds twittering


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in the morning twilight and to the flavour of locally produced jams and honey on their breakfast toast and warm bread rolls.

Annual reports on species and wildlife conservation are useful starting points in seeking appropriate sustainable initiatives which merit support, e.g. the Artenschutz Bericht 2015 in Germany - https://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/BfN/presse/2015/Dokumente/Artenschutzreport_Download.pdf – or the State of Nature Report 2016 in the UK which, for example, brings together data and expertise from over 50 organisations, providing an update on how wildlife is faring across the UK and its seas, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories – https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/the-state-of-nature-report-2016.

International organisations such as the Species Survival Network - http://www.ssn.org/, World Wildlife Fund - http://wwf.org/ or http://www.wwf.de and Endangered Species International - offer valuable advice to tour operators and holidaymakers and list measures that can be taken both in advance of a tour and on the ground locally during a trip to ensure that coach holidays and group tours are wildlife- and nature-friendly, e.g. on foodstuffs and souvenirs which should not be offered, bought or consumed, e.g. whale meat, shark fins, coral and ivory. See, for example, http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/action.html.

Co-operation with a national wildlife conservation organisation in tourism destinations, e.g. Bird Watch Ireland - the largest independent conservation organisation in Ireland, is also a medium- to long-term option for sustainable tour operator engagement - http://www.birdwatchireland.ie . Customers may also participate in all-important bird counts at certain times of the year – a hands-on, educational and memorable highlight, indeed, of any round-trip to the Emerald Isle. Such occasions are also valuable press and social media promotion opportunities. Bird species now under greatest threat in Ireland include the Buzzard, the Curlew, the Corncrake, Barn Owl and Kestrel.

In Kent – the Garden of England – the Brogdale Collections, home to the UK national fruit collection - http://www.brogdalecollections.org/ - offer not only guided group tours, festivals and events but also group courses, fresh fruit products, local ciders and Kentish wines. Participation and support, in this instance, could involve not only coach group visits and tree-planting occasions but also pro capita and company financial contributions per tour in support of this worthy charitable enterprise.

Customers cannot only see but they can also taste the results of their collective contributions and / or efforts both during and after their visits. The association with


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initiatives such as Brogdale helps reinforce customer identification with broader species and wildlife conservation themes while at the same time enhancing customer loyalty to coach holiday operators and tourism destination brands.

The added bonus in the case of the Brogdale Collections and similar initiatives such as the Pomoretum in Triesdorf, Germany (http://www.triesdorf.de/landwirtschaft-ernaehrung/obstbau/pomoretum.html), is that the healthy, organic and delicious products may also be offered as highlights during consumer promotions, trade exhibitions and other such promotions.

Foto: Brogdale Blossom, Kent, UK © The Brogdale Collections

© TOURISM MARKETING & PR Dr. Patrick Patridge 2016

Web: http://www.patrick-patridge.com

New RDA Members

A big and warm welcome to the following new RDA member:

CL Verlag DE 47906 Kempen 0049 .2152 .8992865 [email protected]

Travel

RDA English Newsletter November 2016