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The article revolves around new technological concepts that the main cruise lines are adding to the cruising experience. While they have heavily focused on the ships hardware, they want to implement new software that will make the experience more enjoyable and simpler for guests to enjoy. Carnival, would like to implement a "medallion" called the Ocean Compass, that is crossover between the Disney Magic Band, and the band seen at the Universal Volcano Bay water park. It fits the Disney aspect, because it holds information,can open doors, and links guest pictures to the technology. It is similar to Universal, because it informs guests of when to attend something, so that they do not have to wait in a line. Royal Caribbean, likes the band idea that Disney presented, and wants to make bands of their own, that have similar functions that the Ocean Compass from Carnival has. In addition, Royal Caribbean wants to expose their guests to Virtual Reality. They hope to create an immersive experience for their guests, from the comfort of their rooms. Norwegian and MSC are mostly developing smart phone applications, that allow guests to check-in, book excursions, and open rooms. It is obvious that Disney developed a great idea with combining a "magical" band and phone application. The concept is so successful, that other players want to utilize the same formula. Let us see how well it works in the cruising industry.

As people travel, they post pictures on Instagram and Facebook in order to show their friends what they've been up to. Hotels are now jumping on board and using these ever growing and popular social media sites to expand themselves. Hotels are trying to see if using these sites does increase their business, since it is hard to measure. As they try to increase their "bookings and customer engagement," marketing teams try to increase their brand awareness among potential customers and travelers. The PR manager for the Four Seasons says that "It's not so much what Pinterest can do for us; it's more what Pinterest is delivering to the people we want to have conversations with and how we can serve them even better." The Four Seasons launched a new program called "Pin. Pack. Go." They are attempting to use Pinterest as an online concierge system. Interested travelers pin pictures of places they would be interested in traveling to on their "board" and from there, fellow travelers can re-pin and start somewhat of a picture- discussion about desirable destinations. Due to the fact that so many travelers research locations these days, all media's are being used. Visual aids grab the attention of so many. It's a great way to get the point across in a short amount of time. To scroll through and see the Four Season in Paris, Tokyo, and Australia, may make the potential guest start thinking about possible destinations. With Instagram, users are able to "check in" to places. Their friends see their enhanced pictures and want to visit as well. From there, the possibilities are endless. The point marketing teams are trying to make is that they aren't necessarily looking for high returns on investments, but rather what is the return on engagement.

Coming from a catering and cooking background I was happy to discover how many ways AR is being used. As soon as we started exploring this topic the first thing that came to mind was what an amazing selling tool this would be. Whenever i sit with clients they always ask me if I have pictures of parties we have done and food we have served. Being able to show it to them with a 3D perspective will make it all the more appealing. The goal of your first meeting with a client is to make them excited about what you have to offer and make not decide not to meet with any other caterers! Take it a step further and what an amazing selling tool it would be if you could say take a picture of a persons backyard where the party is being held and you could place a picture of your buffet so they can actually visualize what it will look like. I am very excited about the potential of this technology

Computer on your desk is contributing to global warming? That is not a joke! Actually, most people don't appreciate that fact. It is true that if the electricity comes from coal power plant it produces as much CO2 as a sports utility vehicle! Especial, the total electricity that needed to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent annually equals the amount required to power over two million homes in the US. Unbelievable! As millions more go online each year, which means there comes out more electricity needed and produce more CO2. As the researcher's saying, it becomes part of the whole sustainability picture.

This article is about a Miami hot dog and sandwich restaurant that is using iPad ordering kiosks with a POS software system built in. In an effort to reduce costs while not reducing customer experiences. Customers can order directly from their tables where the iPad is located. They can view high resolution pictures of menu items, make cooking specifications, as well as pay directly from the iPad terminal.

It is important to lay down a technology investment strategy that aligns with the specific goals of your organization and avoid investing in "pie in the sky" with no guaranteed returns. It will be easier to identify technologies that can help your business if you have a clear picture of where you're heading and what steps you must take to get there. Once you've set down your business strategy, you should appoint a member of your organization to track IT trends and advancements in the marketplace. Sit down with this person and list the sky technology areas they should be monitoring based on your business needs. Once you have projects in mind, talk to a trusted IT advisor and run a cost analysis. Create a short list of IT investments that you can not only afford, but will also help you achieve your stated business goals. Do a risk analysis of significant project you consider to undertake. Make sure the project is coming in on time and on budget. Finally, continue to update your IT investment plan and monitor new technology developments.

Great article talks about what companies should do if they want to invest the technology. Companies will surfer great risk if the company is blindness in investment. The company should firstly Clearfield their business strategy know what kind of the technology needed by the company. Advisor from professional people and the cost analysis is also important. Base on this analysis hotel can find better technology with less risk.

All about  Mobile Wireless Cell Phone Recycling This articles states how  people know everything about using their cell phone, such as taking picture, recording and dialing but when it  comes time to dispose of the cell phone they are clueless of what to do . Knowing how to dispose of one's cellphone is very important  for our health because improper disposal of one's cell phone  can lead to the intoxication of the ecosystems due to all the  toxins that our cell phones contains such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium,  antimony and nickel. Taking in consideration that most used cell phones can be refurbished, it is important that we use proper disposal process so the cell phones can  be fixed to be given at a better price in third world countries or even if they cannot be fixed, manufacturers can  use the materials that are still good  to make a new cell phone instead of working with raw material to make new cell phones. If  one doesn't know how to dispose of their cell phones properly  they can always give the  to a " Recycling for charity" because these programs  dispose properly of used cell phone and therefore reduce  the toxicity of our landfill.

It is true that most used cell phone can be refurbished for future use. We should aim to go green and make most cell phones restored to full function faster and economically.

This article, although posted in March of 2011, focuses on the misleading ads posted online by hotels. "Photo fakeouts" present "breathtaking views that sometimes owe a lot to the marketer's imagination or reflect additional luxuries not found in the real hotel rooms." Oyster.com has undercover researchers book into these hotels and take photos of the what the rooms and views really look like and then they post them on the website. Although what the hotels are doing is technically not illegal, this is a prime example of invalid information and why what you see on the Internet is not all valid.

This article was about online marketing trends that will prevail in 2014. More and more companies are resorting to using online marketing finding success in its branding and audience growth. The trends that I think will make the biggest impact are that of content marketing being bigger than ever, image-centric content ruling, and mobile-friendly content being necessary. Out of the 7 mentioned trends I believe that these three will have the biggest impact because they are the most necessary. With content marketing, companies should focus more on inbound marketing that is tailored to a specific audience. Image-centric content should be a big hit because its basically that an ad should be simple to understand in order to convey a message. Like the saying says, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Finally, mobile-friendly content is becoming more popular and with the widespread use of mobile devices and tablets, companies are looking for ways to make their content more accessible to users. 

The use of facial recognition software within the hospitality business can be used to determine the age and mood of individuals in a picture. This software can be used to monitor age restricted products from certain age groups, which can also be monitored by their parents. Facial recognition is 30% more reliable and the app is still under maintenance to ensure that the results are a bit more accurate because some times the app can be off by 13 years.

Technology is in the hands of nearly every person this day and age, so why not take advantage of it? When it comes to hospitality people love to see pictures to see both the venue and the experiences people are having. it lets them imagine their own personal experience and creates a ideas to set up their own personal experience. Digital Marketing also allows to build relationships with clients an is a great place to advocate. It also allows for influences. On top of that, it will allow for people to see exactly what functions, features, attributes, etc. is going on without the hassle of having to call and find out. Technology also allows for easy work for the employees. They are able to use smart watched or portable tablets so they can be mobile with assisting clients and guests with their needs and questions. Digital marketing allows for testimonials of the great place it is.

This article introduces 2017 digital marketing trends for the hospitality industry. The first trend is visual content. Instead of the explanation contents, pictures will influence more to catch customers' attention considering the characteristics of the hospitality industry. Second, social media becomes a great intermediate between potential customers and the business. The business in the hospitality industry should be involved in social media to expose their brand and build client relationship. Third, virtual reality becomes popular to demonstrate the various functions and features lively. Also, adopting wearables or using storytelling production can be a new trend as a marketing tool. It can produce ancillary revenue and get customers more engaged in brand concept. Lastly, digital marketing should be monitored and evaluated for sales trends, supplier orders and employee overtime in a real time to improve more marketing strategy.

This article pertains more to small accommodations providers, boutiques, and small private hotels. This article provides information on how to increase the traffic follow on websites for these particular entities. The article emphasis how photograph and the outline of a website can effect the response of the consumer viewing. It provides points that would enhance the layout of a website, and how to in-trig the consumer to view and book directly on a businesses site. Third parties are mentioned if direct contact can not be accessed from the businesses site, which comes with a cost for convenience. This article implements the various resources available to small business in order to enhance their websites and web searches. I would highly recommend this article to be read by those who are just starting with online marketing or would want to increase their customer viewing.

I find very interesting this article as well some of the point you mentioned really made sense in terms of marketing. Pictures are huge , huge tool for marketing. Often lodging firms failed to realize how much is important for the prospective customer to has good pictures and not deceiving ones. You want to picture the reality of your business , of course you make it look the best but it needs to be in concordance with the reality as well.

This article really goes in depth about e-marketing and smart ways to go about when it comes to your business. It highlights the do's and don't in majority of each situation you may be faced and how to always manage your company on a daily. E-marketing is something that needs to be managed, looked through and updated on the daily to attract new and occurring customers.

Recent advances in big data analysis and artificial intelligence create powerful incentives for companies to accumulate information about every measurable aspect of their business. Due to the huge amount of information, the company's demand for cost reduction is higher and higher. Research shows that the amount of data recorded is growing at an annual rate of 30% to 40%. At the same time, the capacity of modern hard disks used to store most hard disks is growing at less than half the rate. Most of this information does not need immediate access. For things like this, tape is the perfect solution. In fact, most of the world's data are still stored on magnetic tapes, including data from basic sciences, such as particle physics and radio astronomy, human heritage and national archives, major films, banking, insurance, oil exploration, etc. There is even a group of people (including me, trained in materials science, engineering or Physics) whose job is to constantly improve tape storage.

Email marketing is an effective way to share the information about the new information in a restaurant or hotel.The author mentioned that the key point of this method is find an email service provider that makes it easy to import email address and create HTML email s with pictures and graphics to send it out.Last but not least, an email marketing software is required to send reservation and birthday reminders or separate emails to people .

University of Wisconsin at Madison has partnered up with Physical Plant and the UW police department to upgrade their security system. Instead of the traditional hardwired cameras the university has switched to wireless cameras which should offer more benefits. The wireless cameras will allow all the cameras to be seen at one location instead of at the specific buildings or nearby locations. The new cameras are now color instead of black and white and have a highly upgraded motion sensor compared to the old ones. I think these cameras will help the university and help them bring the crime rate down around campus.

This article shows a new app: PROTEL HOUSEKEEPING for iPhones or Ipads, designed for the hotel industry, a great way to keep connection between the housekeeping staff and the frond desk. This app allows the housekeeping or janitors to introduce any change in the room, take pictures or new request from the guests to be show immediately to the front office. This app seems to be very efficient because it save time for both departments and no matter if some areas of the hotel does not have WLAN, the app keeps running and saves the info; once the device get connected with the WLAN, all the information introduced outside the connection will be automatically synchronized, keeping a real time interaction between front office and the housekeeping staff. In my opinion With this software installed in a hotel, the departments can safe time and can make the work easiest, for instance the daily reports that some hotels are use to apply, wont be a problem any more they will be automatically generated with this app as the employee is introducing every change, request, even photos, in real time, instead to reported to the manager, then send someone again to take the picture or introduce the issue in the system, what usually take more time, will also allow to assigned a room to a guest faster than with other methods.

This article talks about the agreement made between Double Tree Hilton hotel and Google in creating a new You Tube channel that will let travelers share their travel pictures, experiences and other details of their trip. The DTour will allow travelers to upload and post videos from any social network. They can locate the area the website map and then they can add comments, photos and videos. John Greenleaf, global head of DoubleTree by Hilton says "We're really giving people the opportunity not to talk about a specific hotel or airline but about the destinations themselves." D Tour will show all different locations of Double Tree Hotels. According to Megan Danielson, head of the industry travel at Google, hotels should be taking advantage of the increasingly numbers of users of You Tube to advertise their brand. "A Google/Ipsos study last year found that 61% of business travelers used video to help them pick hotels, and 41% of leisure travelers used video to plan or book a trip." The Double Tree hotels can use this tool to build a relationship with customers and people can use this tool to share their travel experiences with other travelers.

As mobile devices become more advanced, particularly cell phones and tablet devices, more pressure to keep up with mobile and social trends is placed on the hospitality industry. People are using their mobile devices more now than they have in the past. So much so, that "two thirds of Americans sleep with their mobile device in range, something we cannot say about desktops". A world of information is at your fingertips because of the capability of mobile devices. Information that can help us make decisions about anything. Even last-minute decisions about hotels and food. More people are using their mobile devices to book rooms and many of the people that do this, are booking a hotel for the same night. The fact most of the people who do this are under 30 means that it is very likely that this trend will increase. People are expecting the technology to be there so that they can pick a hotel and a restaurant to go to if they are unfamiliar with a city. They are expecting a hotel chain to have a mobile site or better yet an "app" that will not only allow them to book a room, but, one that will give them directions from where they are to the hotel. The same can be said for restaurants. Potential customers want to be able to look over the menu and determine if they want to come to the restaurant, all from their mobile device. Mobile guests are also using customer review sites to determine where they will lodge or dine. They are using sites like TripAdvisor which allows you to post comments about your stay. The sight even allows the guests to post pictures. "Customer reviews are also important to the hotel industry, but the jury is still out on exactly how hotels should react with people who post reviews." It is always great when a guest posts a positive review of the hotel, but imagine how one bad stay could tarnish a hotels reputation. And what if there are cleanliness issues that the guest can photograph and upload to the site? Exactly what to do in this type of e

This growing trend is commonly known as foodstagram, a photo taken on a cellphone and quickly posted online. So far, the informal ban has not made its way to the New York State Restaurant Association, which includes 5,000 restaurants in the New York metro area. Andrew Moesel, spokesman for the NYSRA, says the issue is not something that's on the organization's radar. In an email to ABCNews.com, Jacki Spillane of SoHo House said, "SoHo House New York does have a no photography policy within the Club. SoHo House is a private members club, we have this policy to respect and maintain our members' privacy."