Adaptation, training, creation, information... 2021 walking through our blog

2021 is not going to end exactly as we would have liked... But the truth is that, with its lights and shadows, it did not exactly start off on the right foot either.

The Pandemic, unleashed, continued to force us to give everything, not to lower our guard, while the different Autonomous Communities, still baffled, did not stop trying to come up with formulas to encourage demand , especially international demand.

The postponement of FITUR, despite our efforts , was a severe blow to the sector. Its celebration on the usual dates, without a doubt, would have constituted a more than necessary dose of optimism, but, probably, also imprudence. We, in any case, manage to make a "plan b". If Mohammed could not go to the mountains, the mountains would have to go to Mohammed, and the organization of the Pavilion 8 virtual fair came to fill the gap left by the suspension of all activity at Ifema in a very timely manner, and allowed us not only to promote the reactivation of tourism, but also to present new developments for the first time. Its reception was such that, just two months later, the BTL was also cancelled, it would have its replica in Portugal with equal success.

Although the pre-summer outlook was not particularly encouraging, we had high hopes for the summer season that was yet to come, and we were going to put everything on the grill so that our clients could adequately satisfy the needs of their guests, still mired in uncertainty. His demand for closeness and empathy was a golden opportunity that hotels had to take advantage of to strengthen their brand and build loyalty .

Alliances, exhaustive monitoring of the main competitors , strategic integrations ... We have made many friends whose contribution to strengthening direct sales is indisputable. Not surprisingly, this leg of the distribution has gained market share, even when giants like Booking have continued to deploy their entire technological arsenal to avoid it.

Inertia led us to complete the first four-month period of the year with figures well above those of the same period of the previous year. All was not lost and new marketing opportunities continued to emerge to continue consolidating the direct channel, beyond the fact that certain hotels seemed not to want to find out that it is this channel that, when well managed, provides them with the greatest margin of profitability.



We reached the month of June by building our booking engine with security solutions that are pioneers in the market. If it was finally going to be possible to travel, the question was, on the one hand, to make it easy for tourists to comply with all current prevention protocols. And on the other, to favor that the hotelier had the necessary resources to show himself to the general public as the best available online offer . It should be remembered that sanitary traffic lights rose to fame to play a determining role and, why not say it, also to confuse the traveler a little more. We responded to your questions with a free professional service , courtesy of specialized Ring2Travel agents, who have not stopped talking all year.

With the covered telephone service, the optimized booking engine and booming domestic tourism, we allow ourselves the license to recover and enjoy our Motivation Day. We had done our homework, the hotels felt very well cared for and they were finally breathing again. We could not neglect ourselves , but there were clear signs of recovery.

So much so that, inevitably, we began to focus on the next big event that the sector would have to face: FITUR 2022. Our wish was that those who decided to attend would do so prepared as never before. To this end, we launched the ITV of booking engines , an initiative named PreFitur Paraty Academy, consisting of 7 training sessions, during which we reviewed each and every one of the functionalities available to our engine customers: module for travel agencies , Paraty E-Payments collection system , different types of bonuses , loyalty clubs , Business Intelligence , upselling and cross-sell ling , offers and packages , etc.

Unfortunately, all that glitters is not gold and, once again, the most popular International Tourism Fair in the world will once again have Covid-19 as the protagonist. The contagions are, as the media strive to highlight, skyrocketing. The Omicron variant is already the dominant one and we are once again facing a Christmas holiday marked by the Coronavirus. Everything indicates that in January things will be better for us than they are now. If anything, worse.

Now let's be very clear. It is up to us to act responsibly. Whether Fitur is a success or a failure depends on us. Ifema is clear about it: they are going forward. And the rest? We will be doing the union, and the exhibitors who have ventured to invest in this new edition (like us), a disservice if we stage a mass fright. It is possible to hold a face-to-face event with guarantees, adopting the relevant preventive measures. You just have to want. Let's make it possible together.

Be that as it may, at Paraty Tech we will continue to adapt, train, create, and inform. Thank you all very much for this year as complicated as it is fascinating.