Matt Lederman
Published: Jun 14, 2022 | Updated: Mar 17, 2023
The RocketRez team had a great week at the IPW conference in Orlando! If you were unable to attend the conference, we've put together this summary of some of the key takeaways, trends, and statistics that the thought leaders of travel were talking about all week. Please enjoy our IPW 2022 Roundup!
Vibrant energy, and some breathtaking displays, have overtaken the Orange County Convention Center for a week of fun, education, and building professional connections. We're glad to see a fitting goodbye for legendary outgoing CEO Roger Dow!
The team had many great one-on-one meetings with tour and attraction operators interested in leveling up their ticketing and operations with innovative technology.
One of the best parts about sitting down face-to-face with many different operators in a day is hearing a number of perspectives about the future of travel, res-tech, and digital marketing.
Some topics we've been discussing a lot recently:
Here are a few of the best education sessions from Day One.
Hawaii is a special place for our team. Through our wonderful customers located there, our team has built a deeper understanding of local initiatives to protect the wildlife and environment. We were happy to attend this session on regenerative tourism, and learn more about initiatives like:
The travel industry is collectively an enormous purchaser of digital ads. However, as Google and Apple continue to re-write the rules on cookies and tracking users, there will soon come a time where first-party data is all you'll be able to rely on.
Key Takeaway: Operators who take early action to ensure their compliance with new rules will be well ahead of the upcoming changes.
Our team of tech enthusiasts geeked out on a few cutting-edge new products, including:
IPW Day 2 was a nonstop flow of information and first-party data on the state of travel in 2022 from the experts that know it best.
Let's dive right into the presentation highlights!
As technology advances, so do operator distribution capabilities. This presentation focused on how operators can package and price their offers in conjunction with hotels to offer benefits to both parties.
There is a trend towards adopting a hybrid model, where hotels discount their rates for advance bookings to be combined with a tour or attraction ticket for maximum visibility. You can still use dynamic pricing to increase profit for last-minute bookings.
Travel is a profound force for good in the world. It promotes understanding, inclusion, diversity, and sustainability by bringing different people together. TikTok is a powerful tool to teach a large audience about different cultures and destinations.
Here are a few quick tips for operators to crush it on TikTok:
A new generation of travelers is booking vacations in droves! They bring a social mission and aim to build deep connections with their destination - and leave it a bit better than they found it.
A few surprising statistics:
Here are a few stats that caught our eye:
The top leaders building great personal brands, the next era of leaders in travel tech, and of course the thought leaders of content, engagement, and marketing for the industry.
We heard and learned from all of them on Day 3, then made this summary of the "Cole's Notes" for you.
Let's go to the highlights!
It is always inspiring to see what others are creating in the travel and tour tech space! Here are a few notable innovative businesses in travel tech:
Icons like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk successfully built a personal brand around their vision and values, which drove millions of people to buy their products not as customers - but as evangelists.
Your brand is a representation of a promise to your audience. Improve your brand by increasing reputation and trust from your audience.
Here are a few travel leaders building great brands, worthy of following (and taking notes):
Boost your blog, email, and social media engagement by focusing on pillar content on the following topics.
Marketing for a single attraction is complex enough. Try marketing for a destination that features many different attractions! Most importantly, how do you determine the ROI of your marketing efforts?
Start with this four-step roadmap:
That's it for our IPW recap. We hope you enjoyed it - see you next year!