GfK and travel intelligence company ForwardKeys to bundle their travel and hospitality knowledge for a more holistic view of the travel supply chain

Nuremberg, 9-3-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — Leading global market research firm GfK and provider of travel intelligence ForwardKeys announced during the ITB travel trade show in Berlin that they will bundle their travel and hospitality knowledge for a more holistic view of the travel supply chain.

With this partnership, GfK and ForwardKeys will address the market‘s need for more comprehensive, accurate and granular data so that their customers can make better informed decisions about planning and reaching the right audiences for their services.

“In this highly fragmented industry, fact-based decision making is becoming mission critical,” said Laurens Van Den Oever, GfK’s Global Lead for the Travel & Hospitality industry. “Serving and understanding today’s (digital) traveler means our clients take more risks than ever to provide the right service.”

The partnership is aimed at jointly developing solutions for the industry and bundling each other’s data-science capabilities. The companies will merge their expertise on monitoring travel booking behavior and gaining consumer insights across the increased number of channels consumers are using nowadays to plan and book their trips and holidays.

“Evidence based decision making is becoming a requirement in business practices in the travel industry and peripheral businesses – there is a need for live, actionable, tactical, reliable, and forward looking information on traveler trends. Our solutions start by answering some very fundamental questions: What is the potential of the market? What will travel demand be in the coming months, and for each destination around the globe? What are the events that are triggering that demand?” said Olivier Jager, Founder of ForwardKeys.

The Spain-based company focuses on big data and business intelligence for the travel industry, drawn from anonymized and aggregated global Air reservation information. ForwardKeys’ core areas of expertise are complementary to GfK’s, with the result that more in-depth and meaningful insights into the dynamic and fast growing tourism market are possible.

“I’m very excited we can solve another piece of the puzzle by providing an additional layer of relevant insights,” Van Den Oever added. ““This partnership strengthens GfK’s strategy of integrating data from very different sources to turn them into smart business decisions. GfK and ForwardKeys complement each other and serve to fill the void that no one else has been able to fill to date, and present a complete picture of the entire tourism market on a global scale. We take another step forward in supporting our clients within the travel industry to even better understand the future demands of their audiences and to align their strategy accordingly.”

About GfK
GfK is the trusted source of relevant market and consumer information that enables its clients to make smarter decisions. More than 13,000 market research experts combine their passion with GfK’s long-standing data science experience. This allows GfK to deliver vital global insights matched with local market intelligence from more than 100 countries. By using innovative technologies and data sciences, GfK turns big data into smart data, enabling its clients to improve their competitive edge and enrich consumers’ experiences and choices.

To find out more, visit www.gfk.com or follow GfK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GfK_en

About ForwardKeys
ForwardKeys predicts future travel patterns by analysing ~70m booking transactions a day, crunching more daily traveller data than anyone else. It is used by travel marketers, retailers, hotels Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) and other traveler focus businesses worldwide to monitor and anticipate traveler arrivals and stay trends from a particular origin market and time, enabling them to better manage their staffing levels, to fine tune supply requirements, to adjust and measure the impact of their marketing efforts, and to predict future market trends. ForwardKeys Market Analysts and tools help customers to make data based decisions and identify those events that drive market changes. ForwardKey’s data is retrieved daily from all the major global reservation systems worldwide.

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