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A recent business report on key megatrends and market disruptors suggests that technology and new ways of engaging and interacting with customers are fuelling the rate of disruption as currently businesses are able to reach new customers in new ways and can reinvent customer engagement around service and convenience (Boumphrey, 2019).

One of the most important uses of data is to improve personalisation, travel companies using the information they gather to make specific adjustments to their offerings.

Currently, considerable amount of structured and unstructured data are produced globally (Nunan and Di Domenico, 2013; Verdino, 2013), a so-called “digital exhaust” (Wang, 2013; Barocas and Nissenbaum, 2014) that is passively generated by users of products and services using mobile devices (Shilton, 2009), an abundance of publicly available data shared on social networking platforms (Nov et al., 2010) and customer data and information purposely collected by tourism organisations’ booking systems or customer relations management (CRM) systems

This abundance of data and the act of processing data on a large scale has led to the concept of “Big Data,” which Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier (2013) define as “things one can do at a large scale that cannot be done at a smaller one, to extract new insights or create new forms of value, in ways that change markets, organisations, the relationship between citizens and governments, and more” (p. 6

ndeed, one of the latest Euromonitor International travel industry reports confirms that big data and analytics is expected to be the most influential technology impacting the industry in the next five years (Bremmer, 2019), followed by artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

The use of data is viewed as a disruptive innovation in the tourism and hospitality industry, although it allows organisations in the industry to facilitate personalisation, offer convenience, save costs and overall gain competitive advantage (Evans, 2020).

These technological advances provide significant opportunities for businesses to harness the wealth of data to support their activities and gain competitive advantage. The efficient uses of data and analytics drive process and cost efficiencies and strategy and change (MicroStrategy, 2018).

In particular, in the tourism and hospitality sector, the effective use of big data is associated with revenue management (e.g. using and combining internal data, such as occupancy rates and current bookings, with external data such as information about local events, school holidays and flight information to forecast demand and maximise revenues); market research and strategic marketing purposes (e.g. identifying customer trends to best cater marketing opportunities); customer experience and reputation management (e.g. social media conversations and online reviews, service usage data and internal feedback via customer surveys). A good example of an organisation that successfully uses big data to gain competitive advantage is AirBnB (Evans, 2020; Guttentag, 2019).

These concerns have been intensified by recent global cyber-attacks and more specifically by significant data breaches in a wide range of industries and sectors, including the tourism and hospitality industry (Armerding, 2018; PwC, 2016, 2017). The hospitality industry is now in the media spotlight because of high profile breaches (PwC, 2016, 2017).

One of the biggest data breaches of the 21st century has affected one of the largest hospitality companies, Marriott International. Starting in 2014, the data breach occurred on systems supporting Starwood hotel brands, which were acquired by Marriott in 2016 and affected ∼500 million customers worldwide, with the breach only being discovered in September 2018. Data and information on names, contact information, passport numbers, travel information and other personal information were compromised, and information on credit card numbers and expiration dates of more than 100 million customers was stolen (Armerding, 2018).

Indeed, the 2018 Global State of Enterprise Analytics survey found that globally 49 per cent of companies surveyed believed that the primary challenges organisations most commonly face are data privacy and security concerns (MicroStrategy, 2018). Similarly, another recent industry report shows that over 40 per cent of tourism industry professionals claimed that data privacy and cybersecurity are one of the most influential factors impacting digital commerce in this sector (Bremmer, 2019).

Not surprisingly, privacy is now the top data issue and concern for organisations

When selecting analytics solutions, tourism and hospitality organisations are required to address the growing concerns around privacy and security of customer data by putting in place well-designed data governance frameworks capable of providing quality data and be able to provide effective frameworks of data security and protection for all stakeholders

Potential frameworks for ethical data management and digital privacy specific to tourism and hospitality would need to identify, in addition to the protections afforded under the recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (ICO, 2018), how data is collected, what it is used for and who has access to it and why

Big data and analytics are playing a crucial role in digital transformation efforts of organisations in general and in the tourism and hospitality industry, thus driving greater effectiveness and efficiency and the strategy to define new business models and bring about successful change (Evans, 2020; MicroStrategy, 2018)

Many hospitality business leaders say they believe the workers who haven't returned by this point likely don't intend to.

The labor researcher said there was also evidence that many workers have been reevaluating work and the trajectory their careers were on since the start of the pandemic.

Novello said he believes people who were "on the fence" about being in the service sector and might have otherwise remained decided instead that they wanted to pursue less demanding work.

He attributed much of the success to an emphasis on keeping nearly all of business' staff both employed and in a good mental state throughout the pandemic.

She noted businesses would still have to be competitive with large companies on wages in order to draw workers back.

"They'll go (into Haus of Pizza) and they'll see that and they'll talk to (Pyle) and they'll do the exact same thing," Wallace said.

Social media marketing is a vital

integral part of every hotel's operations

has the potential to increase direct bookings and improve brand awareness

eight new users join TikTok every second

social media marketing increase visibility

generate a higher ROI

you’ll really stand out from competitors who aren’t putting in the effort on these same channels

advises hotels to consider social media as a channel for direct communication with potential new customers

that could lead to bookings

clear connection between the multi-touch opportunities

1. Share slice-of-life content

recommend an 80/20 rule

day to day at the hotel

share “daily snippets, small but heart-warming stories

keep it personal and relatable

2. Use your Google Business Profile

clients tend to overlook is Google’s own business review feature

they should be regularly posting new photos and encouraging customer reviews by sharing their unique link

Any offers, news, and updates should also be added to the posts section to inform potential new customers

helpful for tracking

connecting content to bookings

we have noticed a quick improvement not only on Google 3-Pack ranking but organic searches and direct inquiries are improved

3. Start with music

4. Follow 80/20

Social media marketing also gives hotels creative new ways to interact with their audiences.

content creation

80% of the content should be related to your destination, travel tips, encouraging engagement

20% should be self-promotional

analytics that prove its success

“Always focus on quality over quantity.”

posting consistently, the algorithm will likely reward you for it on any platform

5. Partner up

one strategy that has worked very well for us has been re-posting traveller (reStayer) and influencer photos

the benefits go beyond saving time and money on content creation

8. Use a calendar

Doing this has also helped build up our brand because those who visit our page see us as a hotel with real people visiting and following us, rather than only professionally-produced photos

We choose our influencer and ambassador partners carefully to ensure that the content they produce, their values and key messages resonate with our audience and brand

partner share data on what content performed best, this guides our own content strategy

great way to get direct feedback

love seeing how our stayers interact with the suites and report on what they value to the most

6. Be playful

7. Don’t overthink

By engaging with local influencers and those who have taken photographs of our hotel, we have reached new audiences that we otherwise wouldn't be able to, since the creator will often engage back with our content

Plot out the exact times and dates you’ll post

Create content ahead of time

9. Project manage

10. Choose content pillars

11. Follow SEO rules

2. Analyze the competition

Figure out how you can make it better, fill a much-needed gap, or start a marketing channel none of the others are currently using.

What are other hotels in your area posting online?

13. reStays