SPONSOR CON-X 2023: Kalina Nikolova, Director of Business Development GIATA GmbH
- We live in a period of high uncertainty, in which the main challenge for managers is decision-making. At Con-X we will talk about this, but could you tell us about your own case? How do you deal with decision-making in your company?
- Once I have been told that a team leader´s strength lies in the strength of the team, and I believe this wholeheartedly. As a result, we always aim to find solutions and make decisions together. A manager doesn't need to be involved in every aspect of daily operations or to be the final decision-maker in every situation. Therefore, trusting your team is fundamental.
- What do you see as the main trends in tourism distribution today?- As the Director of Business Development at GIATA, I see a shift toward more automated solutions in the tourism distribution industry, particularly concerning content distribution. With the rise of "revenge travel" in the post-pandemic world, many hotels are struggling to maintain their online presence and keep their content up-to-date across numerous channels. Automated tools, such as GIATA DRIVE, are becoming increasingly important in helping hoteliers manage their content and increase their bookings. Additionally, AI-driven mapping solutions, like GIATA's MultiCodes, are becoming more accurate and efficient, ensuring data accuracy and improving revenue for our partners. Overall, the trend is towards more personalized, efficient, and streamlined solutions that save time and increase revenue for all the players in the travel industry.
- Have you taken daring decisions in your company, and can you tell us some anecdotes?- Yes, GIATA took a daring decision to launch its hotel product GIATA DRIVE during the Covid pandemic. Long before that, the company listened to its customers and discovered a problem that needed to be addressed - hotels complained that they could not keep up with updating their extranets while tour operators and OTAs complained that they could not update so much content daily. The travel market was growing, and GIATA spotted the opportunity.
Just before the ITB in March 2020, GIATA organized a big launch for this product. However, in February, Covid happened, and most of the hotels had to shut their doors. GIATA launched the product for hotels, but suddenly there was no market for it, as their target group went on long-term breaks instead of organizing holidays for travelers. Despite these setbacks, we decided to continue with the product, and now it is becoming a leading distribution platform for images, facts, and descriptions. This demonstrates the company's courage as well as determination to overcome obstacles and move forward, even in uncertain times.
- What are your perspectives for this year? Where do you want to go?- GIATA's current focus is to integrate our content channel management tool GIATA DRIVE into PMS/CMs to extend direct distribution. With direct integration, hoteliers can manage images, facts, and descriptions, and update all hotel operations and processes within a single platform, which can result in streamlined processes and greater efficiency.
- Why should CON-X participants talk to you, what can you offer them?- First of all, GIATA offers an efficient and convenient way for hotels and travel companies to synchronize their content and images across multiple distribution channels through GIATA DRIVE, a powerful platform that automates content distribution and increases bookings. Additionally, GIATA provides mapping services for the whole travel value chain, and its GIATA IDs and mappings are used by over 21,000 companies worldwide, resulting in 99,998% error-free mapping communication.
- What is your experience with the events organized by TravelgateX, would you recommend them to other companies?- GIATA has been an active participant in TravelgateX's informative and valuable industry events since the beginning. Moreover, we are honored to be a sponsor this year as we believe that these events provide great networking opportunities, insightful presentations from industry experts, and the chance to learn about the latest trends in travel. I would recommend TravelgateX's events for all companies looking to keep up-to-date with current travel trends and network with their peers. See you in May!
ABOUT GIATA
GIATA is a Berlin-based travel technology company that was founded in 1996. GIATA’s data and distribution solutions are used by thousands of OTAs, travel agencies, portals, tour operators, DMCs, and hotels to manage their in-house databases. GIATA has continuously set new standards in the collection, verification, processing, and distribution of non-bookable content, delivering accurate and comprehensive hotel information in 25 languages. With millions of mappings of 431 suppliers for over 1 million unique properties, GIATA serves more than 20,000 customers in over 80 countries.