I’m just catching up from a very busy week in Berlin where I attended the travel industry’s biggest trade show. My quick highlights were 1) meeting people in-person that I’ve met virtually through blogging and twitter 2) hearing a few interesting seminars on the future of online travel 3) introducing Joobili to loads of European city and regional tourism offices and watching them get super excited about a new way to promote the festivals they are so passionate about. The most common phrase of the day: “wow, and it’s free? That’s great.”

I won’t bore you with a full recap, put if you’re interested you can find detailed reports here, here, and here. Instead I’ll just share my favorite moment. The European CEO of TripAdvisor was being asked why they didn’t offer a “smart search” feature that customized your hotel suggestions based on your previous searches. His response was that people are far too complex. Just because you searched beach vacations 3 months ago doesn’t mean that you still want to go to the beach. The interviewer then recounted a fantastic quote, “Who is the customer is the wrong question. Instead we should be asking ‘when’ is the the customer”. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Who you are depends on when you are, what mood you’re in, etc. I think you know where I’m going with this. Destinations are like people. They aren’t the same day in and day out. Let’s stop asking where to go and start asking when to go. You with me?