It’s almost time for the EyeforTravel Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010 (Oct 13-14 at the Westin Michigan Ave in Chicago). This is the last of a four part series of posts highlighting the four separate conferences that make up the TDS summit, as outlined below.

EyeforTravel TDS Revenue Management

1. Online Sales & Distribution
2. Revenue Management
3. Mobile Technology & Travel
4. Social Media Strategies

A full introduction to the summit is included in part 1.  The travel industry has seen extraordinary changes in the past 12 months as the US climbs back up and out of the recession, and we’re not done yet.

Those who offered deep discounts during the recession aren’t sure which way to go now – Is there going to be an upswing, and if so, how to reverse the pendulum and own the upswing? Airlines are raking in big bucks by not adding capacity and piling on ancillary fees. What about packaging and ancillary revenue for hotels, resorts and cruise companies?  The market has shrunk, and there’s not enough room for all the old players now. Are there any new revenue management options for a joint corporation venture?

Experts at the Revenue Management summit spread over both days will be discussing all these and other RM issues. A few highlights from the agenda:-

Forecasts & Predictions: The TDS RM agenda begins with some tea leaf peeping on Day 1 as Chinmai Sharma, VP Revenue Management, Wyndham Worldwide Hotels and Resorts and Greg Cross, SVP of Revenue Management, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts tell us what to expect for the future in the Revenue Management field.

Among the questions that will be answered in the opening session – Is talk of recovery premature for the North American Travel industry? How are oil and fuel prices affecting cruise companies and airlines?

Best Practice Discounting to Sustain Rate Integrity: Questions that will be asked and answered during this session, which is one of the most important sessions among all 4 conferences, include – What are the proposed discounting best practices for 2010 and onwards? When is the best time to discount? How do you own the upswing and fix the mess made by too much discounting?

Attendees will learn how to stall demand for discounting and revert price stability, how to re-shift revenue reliance from third party sites to your direct site to capture a higher percentage of direct net revenue, and most importantly – how best to avoid discounting in the first place.

Speakers for this session include:-

Questions that will be answered include the prickly issue of integrating codeshare and mapping from two different RM and Distribution systems, and new revenue management options for the joint corporation venture.

Speakers for this session include:-

Melissa Skluzacek, Director – Pricing & Revenue Management, Midwest Airlines

Brad Hauert, Manager, Forecasting & Operations Research, Frontier Airlines

Capitalize on Packaging and Ancillary Revenues: Doug Hesley, Corporate Director of Revenue Management, Norwegian Cruise Lines, will be speaking about packaging/bundling your product, upcoming legislations for ancillary revenues, and how not to let the push for ancillary revenues damage your brand.

This session will also shed some light on the real numbers and statistics for ancillary revenues, and will try to answer which way this trend is heading.

See the full Revenue Management agenda of EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America.