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Mobile marketing is in it's infancy in Africa but better for hotels to be there for its first steps than when it's about to graduate. Accor Hotels has started it's mobile app for online bookings in Africa but has experienced a slow growth in mobile bookings, unlike Kenyan hotel chain Sarova which boosts 10% of all bookings are done through mobile phones. 7 million people carry smart phones in Africa, and Kenya and South Africa are the most m commerce savvy countries with the highest mobile transactions. For optimum exposure as smart phone usage grows start promoting your hotels now with mobile apps.

Airbnb wants to invest in Africa due to the many touristic attractions that bring in people from all over the world. Additionally, through this technology, they will boost people-to-people tourism in Africa, building a new economic engine for local families and their communities.

Nowadays, M-commerce and mobile marketing provide great opportunities in the hospitality industry. Hotels can utilize mobile commerce to hold reservations, promote hotel events, and also can increase general awareness of their rates and services. Currently, mobile technology continues to expand throughout Africa. A large amount of people use smart phones and 2G phones of low cost that allow consumers to surf online. Therefore, an increasing amount of people in Africa are using mobile technology to book reservations and make transactions. Some hotel brands aim to control this market and increase profit. For example, France base hotel group Accor has yet to enter the mobile competition in Africa and start to make a difference. Actually, there are lots of advantages to promote mobile as a channel. On the one hand, it brings lots of convenience to the customer to access all the hotel information and make a reservation wherever and whenever they are. On the other hand, it brings benefit to hoteliers too. The mobile booking process in fact saves online travel agency commissions. Guests can directly book from the hotel instead of from a third party. It can help hotels gain more profit, reduce cost and allow for easy access to hotel reservation website.

"Despite the challenges unfolding at a regional level in the Middle East and North Africa, hoteliers were still able to raise rates enough in February to achieve average rate growth worldwide and capture more bookings than last year. "Consumers are not only traveling, but they are also willing to spend more. Additionally, the corporate market is booking more groups and meetings business from corporations of all sizes as February bookings, rate and revenue growth was coupled with increases in length of stay and booking lead time. Even though at the time, hoteliers continue to raise rates, but people are still continuing to travel and spend money. The traveling public understands that their leisure time is valuable and are willing to pay for peace of mind. Also, bookings made through online channels provide a perfect virtual marketplace for travel inventory sellers.

This article post on the year of 2011, it said that the global GDS hotel bookings grew substantially by 23.5%, which driving revenue up by 36.8% in two years. And the monthly growth of more than 20% through July in 2010 to now. At the same time, the length of stay and booking lead time are also expanded. Compared with the booking rates in 2010, the business travel rates rose about 7% and rates paid by leisure travelers for hotel rooms increased 3.6%. The booking mostly through the ADS or online channels were all declined due to varieties of factors such as regional unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. Despite these challenges, the hotel managers still tried to achieve the high booking rates and capture more bookings than last year. Consumers are not only travelling , but they are also willing to spend more. People are tend to travel by groups in business or meetings, this will increase the length of stay and booking lead time. GDS bookings represent the mostly corporate market, despite of all the problems which could influence the travel rates, bookings made through online channels like GDS made growth rates keep increasing both in tourist on or off season.

This article speaks about, for the most part, how bookings done through systems are now only at an all time high, but continue to grow substantially.  ADS's on the other hand, declined from January's levels declined due a variety of factors including regional unrest, etc. However, growth bounced back in February and even set a new record for North America. Also, despite all the challenges throughout the middle east and north Africa, average rate growth was still achieved throughout the month of February and even outperform last years bookings for that month.

I found this article of the rise of e-commerce in Kenya very interesting. We have been discussing GDS and e-commerce from an American point of view and it is great to note that African countries are also taking note of the importance of catering to customers through e-commerce.  Kenya's hospitality industry understands that more people travel nowadays than ever before, and the industry also understand that most customers prefer to book online on their own. The author of the article suggests and predicts that hospitality companies in Kenya will be capitalizing on the growth of Internet and mobile penetration in Africa. 

This article talks about the DaVinci Hotel in Johannesburg South Africa. It was constructed to 'make use of solar panel power.' This makes the DaVinci a green hotel and gives them a solar powered water heating system. 'The solar powered water system, which has the capacity to warm up 30,000 liters of water, will result in a 60% reduced energy bill for the hotel..."  Saving on operating costs should be enough incentive for new hotels to be built green. Also it appeals to many guests who look to reduce their carbon footprint and however small, the percentage of the population who want to go green is growing. A hotel is a home away from home and homes how are being built green. It is in a new hotel's best interest to follow the trends that will have a major affect on how business and life is run. The article says that the 'DaVinci has set the tone for the hospitality industry' and I believe the actions should be followed. Newly constructed hotels shouldn't be the only eco-friendly hotels in business. Hotels that are currently in business have regular maintenance and upgrades to do. They can add in green items like LED lights, water saving shower heads, and implementing eco-friendly cleaning products and kitchen appliances.

"Etisalat is converting Augmented Reality (AR) from a buzzword in innovation into an easily accessible meaningful customer-facing service. Ogle has already established its viability and will now become the Augmented Reality application of choice on smart devices in the Middle East and Africa. AR adds value by helping businesses to gain brand exposure, improve learning in education and expanding the entertainment experience for consumers."

This report shows Kempinski hotels are going to use cloud PMS. It analysis the limit of local PMS, for instance, which is difficult in updating because individual hotels have to update one by one. It is also hard to manage all the hotels with central standard if the version of PMS are not the same. In this case, one update will take care of this situation if hotels are using cloud PMS. Besides, cloud technology will release IT manager work as a server, IT manager will have more time focusing on customer-side technology to enhance satisfaction and loyalty. On the other hand, area like Africa and China still have some bandwidth limit so that cloud PMS are not available. Kempinski are trying to find out solution for that. Meanwhile, they will make new PMS more effective by reduce intermediates between hotels and distribution company, provide customers more channels to be served, like tablet and mobile phone.

This article takes a look at 3 to 5 star hotels in Zimbabwe and South Africa and their environmentally friendly practices. Research shows that the hotel industry has a huge impact on the environment and the use of natural resources. The hotel industry has been negatively impacting the environment by consuming large amount of energy and water, and by producing large amounts of waste. The government has been demanding that hotels implement green practices, these are methods and products that do not negatively impact the environment. The results from the data collected from these two countries showed that none of the hotels had a written green management policy. Even though some of the hotels insisted that there is a green management policy in effect, it was not written down. It is important for policies like this to be written so there is a clear understanding of what is expected.

It seems the main motivation to implement more eco-friendly practices would be legislation/regulation but I wonder how that would be received? Outside the hotel industry,. I wonder how much focus is generally given to environmental concerns? Interesting research.

The article discusses the crisis of the unavailability of quality water supply for South Africa as a result of poor water supply facilities. This topic is important as South Africa is a popular tourist destination and should have a first-class water supply infrastructure, as well as the availability of quality water is a basic human right under the Republic of South African Constitution of 1996. It appears that the major reasons for poor water infrastructure is due to the lackadaisical attitude and neglect of constant and proper maintenance of the water infrastructure. The methodology involved extensive literature on articles relating the hospitality tourism experience and basic water supply facilities. An increase in investment in the process of sustaining water supply backlogs will need to be the focus of any future work. The points needed to be addresses is ensuring sufficient water supply, quality water, accessible water and sanitation methods, and that the water is affordable.

This article is about ecommerce in Africa, some countries in this region are not allow to use ecommerce, South Africa is able to use this systems, this also enables the country to generate new ways of commerce beside the walk-in-shop and develop the industry in that continent. Most tourism businesses will opt to do both. Like the display in a walk-in shop, any e-commerce offer needs to be put in front of enough of the right potential customers. So it is vital to consider how much distribution can be achieved, beyond whatever your own website can provide, and at what cost. It also comment other different channels of distribution: Via resellers who sell online direct to the public, Via wholesalers who sell to specialist retail travel agents, Via the Global distribution systems.

Mobile web access for emarketing is used more than desktop computer because they are cheaper. Mobile phones connect to the outside world through Web access, voice communication and text messaging.This accessibility is facilitated by an industry that relies on large numbers of micro-payments and subscriptions for revenue.Some countries doesnt have access to phones for example in Africa. Mobile phones have the potential to connect educators with those needing to be educated.Mobile phones and their ability to facilitate communication and provide access to global networks and the Web could change the face of emerging economies.

Visa recently released a study about the growth of e-commerce in what is known as MENA (Middle East and North Africa). The industry has grown fro approximately $10 billion in 2011 to $15 Billion in 2012. The increase is closely driven by globalization, technology, and modernization in the MENA region. The study, performed by the Visa company, is intended to guide the company's e-commerce strategy and to guide a benchmark in the industry. However, the dramatically changing environment in the MENA region could skew the perceptions of the study. For example, Visa's, or anyones, access to information has been prohibited in the past. Data collected is only recent information.

Ever wonder what happens to the little soaps you use at the hotel you recently stayed at? Hyatt Hotels Corp. has become one of the major hotels to start recycling toiletries through the organization called Clean the World. When guests are done using their shampoos or soaps at a hotel, the housekeeping staff collects all of the used and unused products and recycles them or donates them to other countries. The organization has only been around for a few years, however other hotel chains are joining the cause to helping the environment and also humanity. It is not just in the United States that hotels are getting involved but it is expanding globally. Hotels are sending used soaps that has been re-sanitized to battered women's center and also to countries like Africa to local clinics and orphanages.

It looks like the industry is taking notice of what they can do and stepping up to the plate. It all comes down to the front line workers though, in this case housekeeping staff. Turning a room correctly is labor intensive and time consuming. Adding the step of separating the used soap and shampoo does take time. 1 minute per room per day in a 200-room hotel at 90% capacity comes out to 21 man hours per week. At $10/hr that's nearly $11,000 per year. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I think it's a great idea. It does many people (including the hoteliers) a lot of good. If we consider this as "goodwill" in our operating costs, it probably works out for everyone.

I have never pay attention to where the leftover of the toiletries would go, and it's nice to know that they are going to the charity. This is a great way to recycle, help reduce waste, and help support the people in struggle. Knowing such information doesn't help making the booking decision, but it sure does increase the hotel's reputation.

Wellness based tourism has become very popular lately. This kind of experience is meant for self-actualization. Typically people head to Europe or Asia for a wellness vacation. Asia is attempting to turn this into a luxury safari experience. In my eyes, the way I see Singita going "green" in a way is that their experience has a lot to do with nature itself, includes community work, and contains mainly organic ingredients i their menu.

In southern Africa the hospitality industry is shifting to become more green with the use of solar power and they aren't only doing this for the image, but because it return on investment is very fast and hotels can power many departments with the rise of new solar technology. Not only do they install solar power panels, they use a new technology that tracks the sun movement so that the panels are shifted so they can gain the most energy possible. According to one hotelier they are able to power their laundry and restaurant at 92% fully with the solar power created. This technology has many advantages as not only will it improve the image, it has a ROI within 5 years and the panels could last 25 years when running on 80% capacity.

In 1992 Rotana Hotel Management Corporation (Rotana) was founded, and are one of the leading hotel management companies in Turkey, Africa, and the Middle East. By 2020 they are planning on operating 100 hotels in those markets. It was announced in September 2017 that they will be implementing the xnPOS by Xn protel System for their Centro Hotels in Saudi Arabia as well as for new hotel openings. According to the article, "xnPOS provides comprehensive functionality and scalability that meets the needs of hotel F&B, table service restaurants and hospitality foodservice operations." Further, the article also mentioned that the xnPOS is already in use in approximately 50 countries in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

This article was very interesting because it highlighted the importance of e-commerce. The fact that Africa is hosting its 6th e-commer fair, shows how in every part of the world, and any type of company is using e-commere.

Smart stadiums are growing in popularity around the world. In 2016 was estimated to be 4.62 million dollars and is expected to grow by just over 30% by 2021. There are different models available when designing a smart stadium. The on-demand deployment model will make up the largest share of the market. The leader in the growth of smart stadiums are Europe, Middle East, and Africa. There are six factors contributing to the growth of smart stadiums. However, there are two factors that are hindering the growth of smart stadiums. One of these factors is the investment. There are at least ten major corporations that are offering smart stadium solutions. Five of the ten corporations are based in the United States. However, there are some smaller companies that are forming partnerships to help stadiums implement the new technology.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the event registration industry is expected to boom once large scale events restart. Much of this is attributed to social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It is believed that due to the increasing use of social media and smartphones that event registration software will become more apparent in the event industry than it already is.