Palladium Hotel Group Generates Social Buzz For WTM

New biometric and Facebook initiative by Palladium Hotel Group generates in excess of 1,030 finger print registrations and more than 560 unique actions including status updates, check-ins and live photos during World Travel Market 2012 with a social reach of 138,670.

Palladium Hotel Group (formerly Fiesta Hotel Group) and PayTouch have successfully launched a pioneering social initiative, showcased at World Travel Market (WTM) 2012, the leading global event for the travel industry.

The Spanish owned hotel group, in collaboration with Paytouch (creators of a biometric system of identification and payment) merged two existing technology concepts available at their flagship property Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, to allow visitors to WTM to log in to Facebook using just their fingertips at the four Palladium Facebook Pods placed around the ExCeL exhibition centre in London. Once registered, the user’s details are recognised on all four pods via their unique fingerprints, allowing status updates, check-ins and picture uploads taken directly from the camera pods, without the need to log-in.

The pods also offered the opportunity to register with Paytouch, a system that launched exclusively at the Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel in summer 2012, allowing hotel guests to register their card details and pay for their purchases in resort using just their fingertips, giving guests and partygoers a secure, cash-free holiday experience.

In 2011 Palladium Hotel Group successfully pioneered a live Facebook sharing experience. A first of its kind in the hotel, music and travel market, visitors to Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel were able to share their holiday experiences on Facebook in real time using RFID bracelets and totems distributed across the hotel.  In just over two months, Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel had in excess of 70,000 facebook ‘likes’, and more than 2,000 registered users of the new RFID wristbands, of which approximately 90% became facebook ‘fans’. Today Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel has over 176,000 facebook followers and more than 32,000 followers on Twitter.

At World Travel Market 2012, the Facebook and Paytouch systems were merged to offer a pioneering and sophisticated social element to the show; driving web traffic for WTM, increasing WTM check-ins and generating an incremental social reach via Facebook of 138,670. In total, the Palladium Facebook pods were used by visitors to take 150 photos from the show (with in-built cameras), just under 200 Facebook check-ins and over 200 additional status updates and registrations.

Reed Travel Exhibitions Director World Travel Market Simon Press said: “It was great to have the new biometric Palladium Facebook pods at World Travel Market this year. It offered delegates a fantastic new experience, with the newest technology literally at their fingertips.

“Excellent visitor take-up ensured that there was a real buzz around the pods on the exhibition floor over the four days of WTM.”

Alfonso Giménez, Associate Director of Marketing says, “This is the first time that this technology has ever been used and we are delighted with the success of the campaign.  The biometric technology developed by Paytouch, twinned with the existing Facebook sharing options mark a significant advancement for technology and WTM was the ideal platform to launch this exciting initiative. In the week since the show, we have now been approached by additional exhibition organisers, looking to secure our technology for their events.”

Giménez also spoke at World Travel Market about how to merge the online and offline world via Facebook and turn this into tangible return on investment. More details can be found here.

Javier Peso, CEO of Paytouch says, “Our tried and tested biometric technology has demonstrated how hotel guests can take advantage of resort services without worrying about cash or cards which is a considerable advancement for the holiday experience. Merging our technology with Palladium’s Facebook initiative demonstrates just one additional usage of fingerprint identification which will no doubt play a much greater role in society going forward.”

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About World Travel Market

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.

Almost 48,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL - London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.

WTM, now in its 33^rd year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.

WTM 2011 will generate £1,653 million of travel industry contracts, revealed independent research by Fusion Communications.

WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.

In 2010, RE held more than 460 events in 36 countries bringing together more than seven million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.

About Reed Travel Exhibitions

Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry. Its wide-ranging portfolio of events around the globe covers leisure travel, luxury travel, business travel and the meetings and incentives industry.

In 2011 RTE 13 events were the catalyst for £2,807 million worth of travel and tourism business deals. 

The 13 events are; World Travel Market (WTM), Arabian Travel Market (ATM), International French Travel Market (IFTM), La Cumbre, International Golf Travel Market (IGTM), International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM), International Luxury Travel Market Asia (ILTMA), Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) (owned by Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau), Global Exhibition for Incentive, Business Travel, and Meetings (EIBTM), Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (GIBTM), Americas Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (AIBTM), China Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (CIBTM) and Business Travel Market.

April 2013 will see RTE launch World Travel Market Latin America in São Paulo.

RTE is a business unit of Reed Exhibitions. In 2011, six million participants attended RE’s 500 events in 39 countries covering 44 industry sectors from aerospace and aviation to beauty and cosmetics to sports and recreation.

Reed Exhibitions is owned by Reed Elsevier, the world’s leading provider of professional information and online workflow solutions.

About Reed Exhibitions

Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organizer, with over 500 events in 39 countries. In 2011 Reed brought together six million active event participants from around the world, generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organized by 33 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 44 industry sectors with trade and consumer events and is part of the Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider and a FTSE 100 company. www.reedexpo.com

Palladium Hotel Group:

The newly re-branded Palladium Hotel Group is a Spanish hotel chain with over forty years of experience. The chain has 48 hotels in six countries: Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Sicily (Italy) and Brazil and operates eight brands: The Royal Suites by Palladium, Palladium Hotels & Resorts, Ayre Hoteles, Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, Mallorca Rocks Hotel, Fresh Hotels & Apartments, Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel and Sa Talaia Boutique Villa.

The Palladium Hotel Group hotels are characterized by their philosophy of offering customers a high standard of quality in its products and services and excellent value. Palladium Hotel Group is owned by the Group Companies Matutes (GEM).

For more information, please contact Kate McWilliams at Lotus UK (kate@lotus-uk.co.uk/ 02079537470).

PayTouch:

PayTouch is an innovative payment service that enables payment orders and access to various promotions and discounts through the user’s fingerprints. The system uses biometric authentication to link the user’s fingerprints to one or several bankcards. Thanks to this technology, PayTouch unequivocally identifies its users, who can benefit from advantages, loyalty programs and paying with total security and comfort.

For more information, please contact Ana Ruiz (Communication department): ana.ruiz@pay-touch.com/Tel.:0034931770790).