Online Marketing is the Present… Not the Future….

April 21, 2009 - PRLog -- Online marketing is without doubt not the future of business anymore – it is most definitely the present - with vast opportunities that continue to expand and grow daily.  Despite the global economic challenges, the Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers continues to experience excellent growth in their online booking activities with a 35% growth in online gross revenue in 2008 compared to 2007. The first quarter of this year also continues to look very promising in online activities with every area of possibility being exploited.

"Our aim is to continue to deliver a sustainable, competitive advantage against our competitors in the Riyadh market as we strongly believe that all aspects of online social media & networking are an essential path that provides real-time communication, collaboration and most important of all is that you are able to target a wider audience that will be beneficial for future business" says Stuart G. Birkwood, General Manager of the Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers.

Saudi Arabia alone has registered an extensive growth on internet usage from 200,000 users in 2000 to 6,380,000 in 2008.  The overall Middle East result shows that Saudi Arabia ranked as second in internet usage after Iran according to the recent survey conducted by the internetworldstats.com.  With this in mind the hotel has targeted both the local Riyadh and KSA markets through social networking sites such as Facebook by collaborating with other local groups and integrating marketing initiatives to increase market penetration and exposure.

Social Networking via YouTube, Facebook, twitter and an SMS campaign are some of the many tools being utilized by the Sheraton as part of their online marketing strategy, thus creating ever increasing online visibility and in turn the all important increased branded website traffic views. The first quarter showed an increase of 13% in online traffic views compared to last year and a 76% increase in gross online booking activities. Innovative ideas such as online video recipes & restaurant theme night promotions on You Tube are just a few of the ways being explored by Online Marketing Manager Jose Mari Maglapit

"We will further enhance our online marketing initiatives and will continue the momentum & pace we have set in the Riyadh market with the right strategic online positioning", added Jose.


About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 940 properties in approximately 97 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched AloftSM, and Element SM.  Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

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The Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers is owned by Saudi Oger Ltd and operated by Sheraton Middle East Management Corporation as its agent.