ITB Asia on your mobile phone
October 9, 2009 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
Visitors to this year’s ITB Asia, 21 to 23 October, in Singapore, can download a free guide to the show on their mobile phones.
The first ITB Asia Mobile Guide offers the entire show on your mobile phone. Content includes a list of exhibitors, a floor plan and information on press conferences and sightseeing in Singapore.
The ITB Asia Mobile Guide, provided by Giata & Tourias, will help exhibitors and visitors to find their way around Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre. It also contains the programme of WIT-Web In Travel 2009, a list of ITB Asia events, presentations and receptions.
At the end of each show day, the ITB Asia Mobile Guide can be used to find the best way around town offering ideas on where to enjoy Singapore’s nightlife. Restaurants and bars can be accessed along with tourist information, plus details about key attractions in the city.
This clever system can be easily downloaded onto many commonly available mobile phones at www.itb-asia.com/mobile.
The ITB Asia Mobile Guide will also be available as an internet based version to display additional features such as detailed hall plans, shortly before the show commences on 21 October 2009 at itb-asia.mobi.
The technology is based on a system used by Tourias Tips and Deals, a travel guide for mobile phones. The system was developed by the Germany-based provider of tourism services, Campagnon Media, and Giata, a leading content provider for the tourism sector.
ITB Asia will take place at the Suntec Singapore Exhibition & Convention Centre, 21-23 October, 2009. It is organised by Messe Berlin (Singapore) Pte Ltd and supported by the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau.
The event will feature hundreds of exhibiting companies from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, covering not only the leisure market, but also corporate and MICE travel.
ITB Asia 2009 will include exhibition pavilions and table-top presence for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) providing travel services. Exhibitors from every sector of the industry, including destinations, airlines and airports, hotels and resorts, theme parks and attractions, inbound tour operators, inbound DMCs, cruise lines, spas, venues, other meeting facilities and travel technology companies are all expected to attend.
Probably the best service the ITB Asia Mobile Guide could give anyone is how to AVOID the show altogether, save your company money and wake up to the fact that it is completely propped up by Singapore and almost everyone participating has been sponsored with rooms, airfares and whatever else it is that Bugis has to offer. As with PTM in Hangzhou recently, there is a diminishing value in this kind of travel forum and online-savvy operators will realise that the cost of a booth (however discounted by the desperate organisers at the last minute) is more than the entire infrastructure an SME needs to invest in online trading technology and trained staff.
As for getting around in Singapore, it is easy now they have removed the F1 monster deviations.
The vast majority of ITB Asia attendees pay their own way to Singapore to participate in the show. They do so for the great return on investment which ITB Asia offers. Many of the participants at ITB Asia, and other trade shows, are very savvy online operators. They also appreciate the value of face-to-face contact. They know it’s good for their business. Subject to final confirmation onsite, we believe attendance at this year’s ITB Asia will be up on last year – evidence of a robust and viable trade show brand delivering tangible value to attendees.
Astrid Ehring
Press Officer
ITB Berlin/ITB Asia