Skip to main content

Home/ Hospitality Technology/ Group items tagged were

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
29More

What's global distribution system? - 5 views

www.programming-pool.com/...lobal-distribution-system.html GDS hospitality
shared by Hui Chen on 19 May 12 - No Cached
  • A global distribution system (GDS) represents a computerized system used for managing different transactions within the air travel and hospitality industry. At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • However, due to the fact that GDS’ were originally created to distribute plane tickets, their database structure was specifically designed to store information about this product.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and mor
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.
  • However, due to the fact that GDS’ were originally created to distribute plane tickets, their database structure was specifically designed to store information about this product.
  • At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.
  • The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.
  • As mentioned before, one of the first products distributed by GDS was hotel accommodation. Hotels have loaded the information related to their different types of rooms, description and price categories within the airline reservation system database. When this information became available online, thousand of clients started making bookings all around the world. This fact was advantageous for each participant. Hotels benefited from distributing their products to a larger audience, travel agencies had the opportunity of booking more products through their computerized system and GDS benefited from a growth in booking volume, which helped them to lower operating costs.
  • The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.
  • The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.
  • The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.
  • The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.
  • The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.
  • Nowadays global distribution systems interconnect almost everything within the hospitality industry, from hotels to car rental companies and travel agencies. There are four major GDS available: Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and WorldSpan. Some of the advantages provided by GDS are their availability (99,9% of the time), their response times (up to a fraction of a second), their multiple booking capability, as well as their top of the line architecture. On any given day, a GDS will be capable of accessing over 50000 hotels and approximately 1000 airlines. Through GDS systems, people are able to book various hotel rooms, tours, airline seats, cruises and even limousines.
  • The working idea behind a GDS is this: any GDS provides services to an electronic shop for all information related to travel and reservation-related needs. In other words, the GDS has become a very important distribution channel for any product sold through travel agencies. Basically, if a vendor wants to be sold through travel agents, he must be listed on a GDS
  • Hyeyoung Jang on 19 May 12
     
    The first products distributed by GDS was hotel lodging reservation system, such as different types of rooms, description and price categories with the airline system. GDS has been increased on the travel market, such as number of flights. Travel Agencies (TA) also use GDS to offer complimentary products, such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation tickets, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne,That means, GDS has become more important distribution channel for nay product through TA. Also TA had more opportunity of more products their own system and GDS system from increase number of booking volume with lower operating costs. It was the first and major goals of GDS being used in the hospitality industry. Even though hopitality ingustry use GDS system, there are few problems, such as show only simple structure. For example, there are 4 different kinds od room and 3 categories od comfort, it means they have 12 different kinds of combination. Because of the GDS database structure, only there 12 combination could be displayed. It took a while to fit all the multiple types of comport rates, rooms and services in GDS standard database structure. Instead of choosing GDS system, they cans choose other alternative system with develop several computerized system to make a database structure closer to product specification. Nowadays, GDS using all of the hospitality industry from reservation hotel rooms to car rentals and Travel Agencies. Through GDS as globally, people are able to to book different kinds of hotel rooms in different destination all around the world, tours, airline seats, cruises and eeve limousines.
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Casrine Kelly on 15 Jul 12
     
    Global Distribution System were develop and meant only for the airline reservations. The impact of the GDS on the travel industry is that it increase competition, more flights were available and this reduce cost. With the increase and cost reduction travel agents start to see decrease in their earnings they received from airline sales, so with the GDS they were able to book other services such as hotels and car rentals with airline reservations. With GDS it is much easier and convenient to make a reservation from flight, hotel and car rental because everything is link together.
  • Irine Wallace on 03 Sep 12
     
    Summary of a global distribution system (GDS) A global distribution system (GDS) represents a computerized system used for managing different transactions within the air travel and hospitality industry. Historically, GDS' were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a result, GDS' are now implemented for hospitality industry as whole. The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights increased which led to increase competition among the players and this brought down the overall prices. The main purpose of a GDS is to provide services to an electronic shop for all information related to travel and reservation-related needs and one of the first products distributed by GDS was hotel accommodation. Hotels throughout the market uploaded the information related to their different types of rooms, description and price categories within the airline reservation system database. When this information became available online, thousands of clients started making bookings all around the world. This fact was advantageous for each participant. Hotels provided GDS with a challenge of fitting all the different sizes, styles, amenities, and etc. It took a while to fit all the multiple types of comfort rates, rooms and services in a GDS standardized database structure. A general strategy was therefore needed. Rather than loading hotel products inside the GDS, the accepted solution was to develop several computerized systems with a database structure closer to product specifications. Nowadays global distribution systems interconnect almost everything within the hospitality industry, from hotels to car rental companies and travel agencies. There are four major GDS available: Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and WorldSpan.
  • cbespinel on 12 Sep 12
     
    Looking at these numbers it becomes very clear how important GDS are to the hospitality industry, more rooms booked means increased revenues and more jobs for hospitality professionals. I am sure that this technology will evolve and transform so it is important to stay current and understand how to get the most out of it.
  • Hui Chen on 16 Sep 12
     
    What's global distribution system? This question is kind of cliché in our group, but this article gives a very good introduction about GDS and it's quite easy to understand comparing to many other articles introducing GDS. This article tells us: How GDS develops from being used only in airline industry to being generally adopted in hospitality industry; What is the working idea behind the GDS; Four major GDS including Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan; Advantages provided by GDS.
49More

Roche2016_Article_RecreationalDivingImpactsOnCor.pdf - 0 views

diigo.com/0hzzy1
shared by marble_bird on 07 Jul 20 - No Cached
  • Recreational diving on coral reefs is an activity that has experienced rapidly growing levels of popularity and participation.
  • the potential role of dive impacts in contributing to coral reef damage is a concern at heavily dived locations. Management measures to address this issue increasingly include the introduction of programmes designed to encourage environmentally responsible practices within the dive industry.
  • Coral reefs are a threatened, but globally important ecosystem, providing key services to local communities such as coastal defence, sediment production, and fisheries benefits
  • ...45 more annotations...
  • The role of dive supervision was assessed by recording dive guide interventions underwater, and how this was affected by dive group size.
  • Over recent decades, tourism activities benefiting from the pleasing aesthetics and biodiversity of coral reefs, primarily SCUBA diving and snorkelling, have experienced rapidly increasing numbers of participants globally
  • We found evidence that the ability of dive guides to intervene and correct diver behaviour in the event of a reef contact decreases with larger diver group sizes. Divers from operators with high levels of compliance with the Green Fins programme exhibited significantly lower reef contact rates than those from dive operators with low levels of compliance.
  • Damage to corals on dived reefs often occurs as a result of skeletal breakage, particularly in branching species (Guzner et al. 2010;H a s l e ra n dO t t 2008). Tissue abrasion can also result from diver contact (Hawkins et al. 1999), and a recent study reported a higher incidence of coral disease in areas heavily used for recreational diving
  • It is possible that other diver characteristics such as qualification level or dive experience may affect the ability to respond to dive briefings, although several studies have failed to find a correlation between divers’ reef contact rates and experience
  • Due to the difficulties of effectively addressing global stressors, an emerging recommendation is the focus of coral reef management on local scales (e.g. Anthony et al. 2014). A frequent challenge facing managers and policy makers at local levels relates to the maximisation of tourism benefits whilst simultaneously reducing its environmental impacts
  • Alternatively, previous experience and possible affinity and attachment to a specific dive site may influence how closely divers follow pre-dive briefings and affect their behaviour underwater, as suggested by place attachment theory
  • The methodologies which have been developed to minimise the environmental impact of SCUBA diving on coral reefs can be summarised as follows: (1) managing or restricting diver numbers, (2) regulating the locations in which SCUBA diving activities occur, (3) regulating the types of equipment used, and 4) implementing programmes which seek to manage the methods used by the dive industry in providing their services. Restricting diver numbers is based on the concept of a reef dive site’s ‘carrying capacity’; a level beyond which diving impacts become readily apparent.
  • Restriction of SCUBA diving equipment has focused on banning the use of accessories believed to increase reef contacts within marine protected areas such as gloves, muck sticks, or underwater cameras; however, such regulations are often unpopular within the SCUBA diving community
  • Governments and reef managers seek evidence that the effort expended in implementing programmes translates into measurable benefits; however, research into the effectiveness of such programmes at influencing diver behaviour and reducing diving impacts is limited.
  • In this study, we focused on dive operators participating in the Green Fins diving programme at three major dive locations within the Philippines.
  • Nonetheless, levels of dive supervision underwater would intuitively appear to be linked to rates of reef contact, and when examined, the willingness of dive guides to intervene in correcting diver behaviour underwater has been found to significantly reduce diver contact rates
  • Malapascua Island, Moalboal, and Puerto Galera.
  • divers may have been aware that a Green Fins compliance assessment was taking place, but they were unaware that diver contacts with the reef were being specifically recorded. Green Fins environmental assessments and diver observations were conducted simultaneously.
  • Dive guides and guest divers from 44 dive operators participating in the Green Fins programme were followed
  • Diver characteristics with potential to influence underwater behaviour were categorised as the following factors: diver qualification level (three levels), dive experience (five levels), and previous number of dives at site (three levels).
  • Divers were assigned a unique diver number, and then followed and observed underwater for the entire duration of their dive.
  • If the overall group was very large such that the dive guide could not be seen from the rear of the group, the pair immediately behind the dive guide was selected.
  • Compliance with the Green Fins approach was determined by utilising diver contact rates and dive guide intervention rates as at the dependent variables of interest, and by defining dive operators according to those who had received a high score (above the median score) versus those with a low score (below the median score) on the most recent conducted Green Fins assessment
  • The part of the body or item of equipment making contact with the reef was recorded as follows: hand, fin, knee, camera, muck stick (a handheld stainless steel or aluminium rod approximately 30 cm in length) and equipment (e.g. tank, submersible pressure gauges, octopus regulator), and multiple (parts of the body and equipment simultaneously). The time during the dive at which the contact occurred was also recorded.
  • If observable damage (i.e. breakage, obvious physical damage, or injury) occurred as a result of the contact this was recorded, together with the apparent awareness of the diver to the contact, regardless of damage caused.
  • Contacts made with a camera (77.7 %) accounted for the highest proportion of contacts which resulted in damage, followed by contacts made with the knee (43.3 %), multiple body and equipment parts (38.2 %), equipment (30.7 %), fins (29.8 %), hands (24.7 %), and muck sticks (23.5 %).
  • A total of 100 SCUBA divers were observed at three diving locations within the Philippines (Table 1). The majority (72 %) of these divers were male, and diving experience ranged from those completing diving training to those who were instructors elsewhere with experience of hundreds of dives.
  • Following dive completion, divers that had been observed underwater were asked to complete a survey to determine diver characteristics.
  • Most contacts were made with fins (45.5 %, n = 261); however, hands (19.5 %, n = 112) and dive equipment (15.9 %, n = 91) were also major contributors to the total number of contacts
  • Interventions were defined as an event in which the dive guide intervened in diver behaviour through signalling or demonstrating correct behaviour in order to minimise or prevent contact with the reef.
  • A total of 81 interventions were observed (in comparison to 573 reef contacts—see Fig. 4 for the distribution of contacts and interventions);
  • Camera systems were carried by 55 % of divers; camera-wielding divers accounted for 52.7 % of the total contacts made with the reef. Of divers who utilised a camera, 35 % carried a non-specialist compact type and 20 % carried an SLR type within a specialist underwater housing.
  • Mean (±SE) dive time was 49.3 ± 0.42 min. A total of 573 diver contacts with the reef were recorded during all assessed dives.
  • The difference in the frequency of interventions was statistically significant (ANOVA, f = 4.81, P = 0.03)
  • although a significant portion (36 %) appeared unaware of the contact they made with the reef.
  • In addition to overall contact levels, some studies have also quantified reef contacts either as the mean number of contacts per diver over the duration of a dive or the diver contact rate per minute of dive time. The mean contact rates of 5.7 contacts per dive, or 0.12 contacts per min, which we observed at dive sites in the Philippines are lower than those previously reported
  • All divers observed within the present study were diving with operators participating to various degrees in the Green Fins environmentally responsible diving programme.
  • Identifying factors and policy measures which influence SCUBA diver behaviour underwater can help coral reef managers determine where to most effectively focus effort and funding with respect to dive management. In this study, we found that 88 % of the divers observed made at least one contact with the reef at some point
  • Divers who are more conservation aware and who contact the reef less may preferentially choose to dive with environmentally ‘accredited’ dive operators; indeed, this assumption partially drives dive operator participation in such programmes.
  • Underwater interventions by dive guides have been suggested to be the most successful deterrent to diver contact with reefs (Barker and Roberts 2004). In this study, there was no significant difference in the intervention rates between dive centres of high and low Green Fins compliance. Therefore, we cannot attribute the observed difference in diver reef contact rates to differences in intervention rates between these two groups.
  • Studies examining the effect of carrying camera equipment on the frequency of diver contacts with the reef have produced conflicting results.
  • Additionally, the administration of a pre-dive briefing can influence diver contact rates underwater (Medio et al. 1997). The Green Fins programme incorporates the use of a pre-dive briefing that emphasises the importance of refraining from contacting the reef, which would be expected to result in lower diver contact rates.
  • A concern amongst representatives of the diving industry is the use of muck sticks to manipulate animals unnecessarily—pushing animals out of holes for better viewing, stressing animals to show customers their stress behaviour (e.g. an octopus changing colour), and physically breaking hard coral to be used in photographs.
  • When examining the part of the body or dive equipment which made contact with the reef, we found that the majority of contacts were made with fins, in agreement with Krieger and Chadwick (2013) and Rouphael and Inglis (1998).
  • It has previously been noted that dive guides customarily perform different roles at dive locations globally; at some locations, they act primarily to lead the dive group around the reef, whilst at others, pairing with and closely supervising individual divers throughout the course of a dive
  • this suggests that dive guides carry out the closest supervision during the initial phase of the dive and then switch to a ‘dive leader’ role at the front of a dive group.
  • This study provides evidence that the effective implementation of environmentally responsible practices, via programmes designed to reduce diving impacts, may translate to reduced diver reef contacts.
  • Many diver characteristics which might intuitively be expected to impact reef contact rates, such as level of qualification and overall experience, were not significant influencing factors in this study, and high versus low levels of Green Fins compliance did not influence the number of interventions made by dive guides underwater.
  • For continued economic benefit and conservation of Philippine reef dive locations, we recommend that management measures facilitate high levels of compliance with environmentally responsible diving programmes to reduce the impact of diving on coral reefs.
  • marble_bird on 07 Jul 20
     
    This article discusses a study performed at various diving locations in the Philippines to determine whether or not measures taken by Green Fin diving guides were effective in reducing contact with coral reef systems. The study also recorded the average number of contacts with the reef during a dive, as well as the equipment or body part which came into contact with the reef most often, and which actions resulted in the most damage. The study finds that adherence to Green Fin standards or other policies may significantly impact diver behaviors and reduce the level of contact with sensitive coral reefs during SCUBA dives.
7More

In A Covid-19 World, Here's Why You Should Use A Travel Agent - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...-you-should-use-a-travel-agent
shared by davidclark33 on 10 Sep 20 - No Cached
  • Back in March, I wrote about how travel agents helped clients get home as walls of travel restrictions went up, and as airlines cut flights.
  • That story led a number of travel advisors to contact me, sharing their tales. With pictures of stranded travelers sleeping in airports still fresh in my mind, and thousands of others unable to get ahold of their airlines, I thought now would be a good time to remind you why it pays to use a travel advisor. From Classic Travel Connection in Birmingham, Alabama, Christen Perry recalled, “On March 11, during the middle of the President's speech to our nation regarding travel to and from Europe my team began making immediate contact with our clients who were still traveling in Europe.”
  • Closer to home, as millions of folks who booked direct were getting busy signals, Alexis Sherry of As Travel Pro was swinging into action. A family she had in the Dominican Republic were notified by their hotel that the airport was shutting down. Since they had used a travel advisor, as in real person, not an online screen bot, they had no problem getting through. After finding no flights available, Sherry contacted a private jet company, which arrived to pick the family up just seven hours after the hotel notified them of the shutdown. She also obtained a credit for the remainder of their interrupted stay.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • She continued, “We could only assume how crazy the European airports would become when they woke up the next morning to the news from the press conference. Even though it was the middle of the night for them, we called them, woke them up, calmly communicated the situation, and asked them to pack their bags and head to the airport. “While they were doing so, we began immediately changing their flights to get them home as soon as possible. By acting quickly, calmly, and as a team, we were able to communicate with the clients, with each other, and with our suppliers. Our clients were among the first out of Europe that morning.”
  • Back across the Atlantic, Louisa Gehring of Brownell Travel affiliate Gehring Travel, didn’t need to look far to see how quickly the situation was deteriorating. A reporter from The New York Times posted about “bedlam” at Charles de Gaulle Airport as throngs of Americans sought to get home.
  • When the ban was announced, Gehring reached out to a couple were in the City of Lights celebrating the wife’s 40th birthday. She talked them through options to return home, even though it was 2 am. Her clients decided to leave the next day. In cutting their trip short, they were going to miss going to the top of the Eiffel Tower and a dinner cruise by celebrated chef Alain Ducasse, which was also nonrefundable. Within hours, the star advisor moved both experiences to that day, their final day in Paris. They were among the last visitors to the Eiffel Tower before it closed, followed by dinner, where they were among only a guests.
  • davidclark33 on 10 Sep 20
     
    This article is about the value of using a travel agent. The article describes several real-life situations that unfolded as borders and countries were shutting down travel.... all while tourists were still visiting these countries. Luckily these tourists booked their vacations using travel agents so they were able to work with their travel agents on navigating home and not with a computer screen.
59More

Recognizing-events_4.0.pdf - 1 views

diigo.com/0i3yqb
shared by marble_bird on 22 Jul 20 - No Cached
  • The purpose of this research is to explore and define the digital maturity of events using the Industry 4.0 model (I4.0) to create a definition for Events 4.0 (E4.0) and to place various relevant technologies on a scale of digital maturity.
  • These surveys and the thorough literature review that preceded them allowed us to map the digital technologies used in events to levels of a digital maturity model.
  • This study has responded to calls from the academic literature to provide a greater understanding of the digital maturity of events and how events engage with digital technology.
  • ...54 more annotations...
  • We found that engagement with technology at events and delegate knowledge satisfactorily coexists for and across a number of different experiential levels. However, relative to I4.0, event research and the events industry appear to be digitally immature.
  • Events are in the midst of rapid social and technological change. With a growing variety of technological means, the industry is fast-paced and increasingly delivered to a discerning consumer market while finding ways to connect with consumers through technology
  • Digital technology is the thread of the fabric of organisations (Li et al., 2018). It is an increasingly important part of how they engage with their customers.
  • Moreover, engagement with events as fans, spectators, delegates or organisers can be augmented with digital technology by improving access and sociability capabilities, refining the personalisation of events, and thereby creating enhanced experiences.
  • As we advance into what many in business and academia consider to be a fourth industrial revolution, the capacity to control and exchange data electronically has extended our ability to create, edit, maintain, transmit and retrieve information.
  • I4.0 can be described as the digitisation and automation of the manufacturing environment. It also creates digital value chains to enable the communication between products, their environment and business partners. Digital applications have impacted the tourism sector too giving rise to ‘Tourism 4.0’
  • The events industry is an ideal environment to benefit from the implementation of a widespread digitised approach with numerous organisations empowering managers and improving the overall event experience with the integration of extensive ICT practices and systems.
  • With the more widespread adoption of digitalization in event delivery and as the supply chains of all events become intertwined with technology, we can learn how the digital maturity of events in the 21st century is shaping event management and event control.
  • The team set out to answer the following research questions: RQ1. Can digital maturity in events be defined? If so, RQ2. How should the levels of digital maturity of events be classified with regard to the digital maturity of the events industry and the development of event management theory?
  • Successful events are no longer measured by simply achieving a respectable attendance, a great deal more engagement is manifest through digital technologies
  • Successful events require organisers to create something that is considered by those who attend as a valuable and memorable experience (Pizam, 2010; Tung, 2011). Creating memorable event experiences can be described as being dependent on a number of factors including creating regular attendee engagement, providing appropriate activities, relevant subject matter, topical and contemporary focus and targeted to a sizable receptive audience.
  • technological factors being one of the most important areas of demand for companies along with the implementation of I4.0. SMEs (Small to medium enterprises) are [lagging] behind in developing strategies to implement new solutions.
  • The development of digital maturity in events can be compared to smart tourism, which Gretzel et al. (2015) expressed as a logical progression from traditional activities. Smart tourism is characterised by an ability to transform large amounts of data into enhanced tourist experiences and increased destination competitiveness thanks to the interconnection of the different stakeholders through latest ICT advancements
  • As the components of I4.0 become more prevalent in the events industry, much value can be obtained from understanding how businesses are adopting new levels of digital engagement in order to engage their audiences
  • it is prudent to suggest that the survival, and future success of events can depend upon digital maturity and transformation
  • owever, dealing with digital maturity requires careful attention as Neuhofer (2016) urges caution advising that applied technology solutions have proven to have the ability to create or destruct the value of the experience.
  • I4.0 therefore acknowledges the impact of connected computers with the key constituents being cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and cognitive computing
  • highlighted that the use of communication networks globally has risen dramatically and become ubiquitous due to the rise of smartphone ownership. This has been fuelled by social media, apps and faster broadband speeds to create a networked society
  • By combining the Internet of Things data and big data (extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions), event managers are able to create a competitive advantage.
  • As event companies develop new and innovative ways to connect, the events themselves are absorbing aspects of I4.0 at every stage of the process; pushing the boundaries of event experiences far beyond the physical world
  • They are used to promote events before, during and after delivery and are used to gather data and inform decision-making. Generating responses from an event can be achieved using a number of methods and through both qualitative and quantitative data.
  • With the advent of big data and analytics, new sources of valuable data are available to guide decision-making processes in a more informed manner. Businesses were once looking at historical data, but advances in database technology and system processes have led to near real-time data collection and analytics
  • Failure to adopt aspects of digital technology does not necessarily suggest a poor experience or the end for those businesses less digitally mature; not every event business relies on this kind of data support to survive. Instead, this research provides an opportunity to better understand where event businesses do engage and more importantly, how communication between non-digital and fully integrated individuals/businesses can be improved.
  • Digital maturity and transformation today differs from previous periods as it not only provides the change in the main business processes but also reveals the concepts of smart and connected products through service-driven business models
  • Our analysis begins with an attempt to uncover the potential challenges, on-going developments and various strategies that will provide the events industry and academics with a forward-facing approach to the growth of technology within events. By including industry professionals and academics, the research contributes to bridging the gap between practise and academia.
  • Because the research and empirical data collection includes industry perspectives, we believe this research will provide value to event managers, marketers and practitioners around the world who wish to understand more about the digital maturity of events.
  • After conducting the social media analysis (1), it became evident that the discussions appeared to be around topics that utilise digital technology rather than the technology itself. Furthermore, and probably a reflection on the value of the group, a lot of the data included questions about understanding the topics rather than providing usable information to our research.
  • We did not have detailed information about the precise characteristics of the individuals who contributed to the dataset of posts. However, to an extent, their roles listed in LinkedIn were informative. These included events consultants, social media managers, marketing professionals, EventTech managers, CEOs at tech companies and events students.
  • Although this response rate of 52 academics may be considered low, this did allow for the creation of the initial insights into the E4.0 concept and crucially it provides a starting point to better understand the levels of the developing digital maturity model.
  • The most referenced themes were social media, marketing, apps, GDPR and mobile. The top 14 themes are shown in Figure 1 below.
  • The results of the thematic analysis reveal the most pertinent events and technology topics in this group in the time period specified. The most common topics were social media and marketing. Marketing appeared alongside other topics as a verb, a noun and an adjective. This certainly influenced its prominence.
  • This statement reinforces the knowledge and general use of social media during events. Mobile and event apps were recognised as presenting opportunities to enhance events and were considered to be a permanent part of events.
  • Carefully managed and fully integrated data and digital systems including social media, apps and CRM create digital value chains to enable the communication between events, their environment, and business partners.
  • Event organisers invest heavily on social media engagement and expect a great deal in return through social media retweets, tagging and sharing of images. However, it is just as important to understand if delegates consider technology at events that important.
  • Our expert respondents were asked if they considered the events industry to be at the cutting edge of technology. Responses were largely supportive of the suggestion that it is. 64% agree, 22% neither agree nor disagree and 14% disagree.
  • Online registration/digital booking was very familiar with 65% ‘extremely familiar’ with the technology.
  • The survey also collected a selection of qualitative data as respondents were asked to if there were any specific examples of connected/digital technology considered to be essential to the delivery of an event that had not been discussed in the survey. Significantly, 23% answered no to this question.
  • With regard to the digital maturity of the events industry affecting the development of event management theory, the literature review indicates that academics are making contributions to theory and a broad understanding of digital technology exists.
  • industry appears not to be digitally mature. Also, our findings suggest that relative to I4.0 not all events are digitally mature. Therefore, the ‘digital immaturity’ of the events industry may be having some effect on event management theory
  • It became evident from the survey that many respondents suggested they were not familiar with technology that they would all have experienced.
  • The results from the survey suggest that widespread academic understanding of technology at events is extensive. Some digital technology is considered routine, while other comprehensively used technology appears to be unfamiliar to the end user.
  • The growing digital maturity levels form the foundation for E4.0 and will contribute to what Gerbert (2015) described as greater efficiencies and changing traditional relationships among suppliers, producers, and customers.
  • Therefore, satisfaction from the event comes down to providing delegates with the right communication levels they need to complete their individual objectives. This can range from the most basic social engagement to the gathering or observation of big data. Events are evidently a melting pot of experiences and goals and not all of them demand the highest levels of technology to complete.
  • Artificial intelligence has the ability to provide events with endless systems that sense, learn and decide throughout the delivery process though many gaps exist.
  • The data also indicates that there is good knowledge across all types of digital technology. This is reassuring for the development of education as the events industry embraces digitalisation
  • However, as more value is placed on the use of digital technology and events mature through greater access to technology, we see the emergence of an E4.0 era.
  • Thus, this model anticipates that events will grow in their digital maturity to level E3 and E4. Thus, digital technologies may become sufficiently embedded so that data related to one element of an event will be used to inform other elements of an event in real time
  • Online registration and wearable technologies such as delegate smart badges are superficial digital experiences and only considered as a process rather than as a fully perceived digital experience.
  • Our findings indicate that digital communications have enabled a shift in the content of events, marketing and the use of social media as a communication tool before, during and after the event.
  • On the limitations of our research, one might argue that engagement with technology, or indeed lack of it, does not provide evidence of the immaturity of digital technology in events. However, the digital maturity model that we propose is principally informed by the literature on digital technology and events.
  • This research has provided a revealing perspective on the use of digital technology in events. It has built on theory that has been previously developed in this and similar subjects of research, such as business and tourism. From this, the research can claim a number of contributions. It (i) provides an empirical investigation into how event businesses and individuals engage with digitally technology at events, and (ii) it provides a definition of E4.0 and other preceding levels that contribute to digital maturity.
  • Our research has shown that event delegates are aware of the ability to communicate in a reciprocal process with technology rather than through a linear/top down process. This in itself is evidence of E4.0. Furthermore, this research highlights how industry is continually striving to optimise the delegate/event relationship through apps and other technology. The industry’s on-going mission to create deeply flexible communication opportunities is eliminating the possibility of gaps in the communication process in order to optimise delegate engagement at events.
  • A broader discussion on potential issues such as IT & data security, skill-sets, expensive production costs and outages; these are significant problems within internet and cloud-based technology. Furthermore, the emerging topic of E4.0 itself requires both conceptual and empirical development.
  • This research has shown that there remains a great deal to discover about the use of technology at events and many opportunities exist for further research from academics and practitioners working together to provide mutual benefits for both industry and education.
  • marble_bird on 22 Jul 20
     
    This article covers a study performed to determine the digital maturity of events. The research conducted reveals that the majority of industry professionals are aware of technology in events. The study ultimately finds that events have a low digital maturity, but high potential for advancement. The article also addresses the limitations of the study performs and agrees that additional research should be performed to determine the relevance of technology in the events industry while acknowledging that digital engagement is not necessary or conducive to every type of event.
  • hankunli on 24 Jul 20
     
    This article has discovered the fact that the event industry was digitally immature. It also introduced a new concept which is called E4.0 into the academic literature. The article is meaningful since it has filled a gap in the literature relating to events and digital maturity and responded to some of the calls for research. The authors were also planning to make further research on E4.0, events, and digital maturity. They have mentioned that the studies on E4.0 itself were also requiring deeper research.
14More

Study Touts Mobile Innovation as Major POS Influencer | News | Hospitality Magazine (HT) - 0 views

hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/...n-as-Major-POS-Influencer82236
shared by rebecca Bonet on 04 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • that current POS were not well integrated into other IT systems (28%); that the POS is not ready to grow with their company (26%); and that it is difficult to add additional modules or functionalities to the current POS (30%).
  • negative perceptions of wireless POS have given way to a more positive outlook
  • E-wallet payment was the most widely recognized new payment option with 36% of respondents indicating they wanted it with their next POS.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Three quarters of respondents reported that mobile POS capabilities were the top technology features they wanted for next POS solutions.
  • that current POS were not well integrated into other IT systems (28%); that the POS is not ready to grow with their company (26%); and that it is difficult to add additional modules or functionalities to the current POS (30%).
  • and this was echoed in the VSR study. Three quarters of respondents reported that mobile POS
  • echoed in the VSR study. Three quarters of respondents reported that mobile POS capabilities were the top technology features they wanted for next POS solutions.   Reasons for this vary from improving the customer experience (63%); mobile POS providing associates with better tools (54%); speeding up checkout (39%); and providing a more mobile workforce (32%).
  • Reasons for this vary from improving the customer experience (63%); mobile POS providing associates with better tools (54%); speeding up checkout (39%); and providing a more mobile workforce (32%). 
  • According to the report, restaurant operators have a wish list of anticipated POS platforms that go beyond mobile POS (49%).
  • Improving payment options remains also was named as an important—if not dominant— POS technology for many respondents.
  • All of these payment options require a POS that is PCI Compliant and capable of recognizing the new payment technologies. E-wallet payment was the most widely recognized new payment option with 36% of respondents
  • shuo zhang on 04 Oct 12
     
     In the customer survey the mobile POS requirement is high, and the online payment is also popular among consumers. The trend is obviously and the development of such technology will become beneficial investment for the company.  
  • YUE LI (3325307) on 06 Oct 12
     
    This article shows us the result of VSR Magazine's first annual "2012 POS Study". The result indicated some developments and some worries of end users. 28% current POS were not well integrated into other IT systems, the POS is not ready to grow with their company, and it is difficult to add additional modules or functionalities to the current POS. But it also indicated negative perceptions of wireless POS have given way to a more positive outlook. Most of them wanted mobile POS capabilities to be the top technology features for next POS solutions because of three reasons. Firstly, mobile POS is vary from improving the customer experience. Secondly, mobile POS providing associates with better tools. In addition, it speeding up checkout and providing a more mobile workforce. Most of them wanted E-wallet payment in the next POS. some others were interested in near-field communication payment, while very few people want future POS to recognize near-field communication coupons.
  • rebecca Bonet on 06 Oct 12
     
    The article talks about the results of first annual "2012 POS Study." The study were POS were not well integrated into IT systems 28% that the POS is not ready to grow with their company(26%) and to the additional modules or functionalities to the current POS ( 30%). Secondly, the study also shows the negative perceptions of wireless POS have given way for positive outcomes. For example, they want mobile POS capabilities were the top technology features they want for the next POS solutions. According to reports, restaurant operators have a wish list of anticipated POS platforms that go beyond mobile POS. Finally, E-wallet payment was the most widely recognized new payment option, with 36% of respondents that they want it with their next POS.
46More

CloudBasedvsDesktopBased_PMSHotels.pdf - 0 views

diigo.com/0i0bbc
shared by marble_bird on 09 Jul 20 - No Cached
  • Even though keeping up with the modern developments in IT sector is crucial for the success and competitiveness of a hotel, it is usually very hard for new technologies to be accepted and implemented.
  • On the example of hotel property management system (PMS) and comparison between features of its older desktop-version and new web-based programs, this research aims at finding out at which stage and how effective is usage of cloud technology in hotels.
  • Constant innovation in hardware, software, and network developments and applications means that only dynamic organizations that can respond efficiently and effectively to these innovations, will be able to outperform their competitors and maintain their long-term prosperity.
  • ...42 more annotations...
  • It is crucial for tourism and hospitality practitioners to proactively incorporate new technologies into their businesses as these will improve service quality and differentiate their products and services.
  • In order to be able to follow the increasing guests' requests for qualitative services, it is mandatory for hotel management to constantly work on improving its functions and operations. For this it is necessary to keep track of innovations in sectors outside the hospitality, like IT sector that works on creating, developing and introducing new technologies
  • Hospitality is one of targeted sector that is considered appropriate for application of cloud technologies and services. Hotel Management System or widely known as Property Management System (PMS) is one of the system where IT practitioners saw the chance for improvement by ''moving it to the cloud''.
  • Hotels will be forced to upgrade their current systems so that they can respond to various and changeable guests' habits and requirements. However, until today, there was not enough academic papers related to usage of cloud technology in hospitality industry even though this sector is under continuous changes caused by usage of new technologies which made search, evaluation and payment of the hotel rooms easier than ever.
  • After comparing the two groups of hotels, from which one was using desktop PMS and other group cloud- based PMS, the results of the research were derived and presented. In conclusion of the paper, challenges with which the hotels are facing and which affect their decision of starting to use cloud- based technology as well as recommendation for future work will be discussed.
  • As stated by the Sharif (2010), cloud computing is the latest technology that is being introduced by the IT industry as the next (potential) revolution to change how the internet and information systems operate. The term “cloud” was probably inspired by IT text books’ illustrations which depicted remote environments (the Internet) as cloud images in order to conceal the complexity that lies behind them (Sultan,2010).
  • The goal of a new computing world is to develop software for millions to consume by easily accessing it over a network. Cloud service providers are making profit by charging consumers for accessing these services.
  • Products offered via this mode include the remote delivery (through the Internet) of a full computer infrastructure (e.g., virtual computers, servers, storage devices, etc.); the building blocks of an IT enterprise.
  • Services provided in this category include CPU processing on demand, virtual Web hosting, and storage on demand. The most notable vendors are Amazon’s EC2, GoGrid’s Cloud Servers, and Joyent.
  • With cloud computing, services and applications that were managed locally in the past requiring hardware, operating systems, web servers, as well as teams of network, database and system management experts are now provided remotely by cloud providers under this layer.
  • Cloud computing services can be adopted by firms in three different forms (Goscinski and Brock, 2010):
  • Public clouds - online applications that are open to everyone for free, such as Google
  • Private clouds - involves firms deploying key enabling technologies, such as virtualization and multi-tenant applications, to create their own private cloud database
  • Hybrid clouds - mix of the previous two types that are emerging with the intention of providing clients with a level of “control” over their resources
  • The cloud offers enterprises the option of scalability without the financial commitments required for infrastructure purchase and maintenance.
  • Reallocating information management operational activities to the cloud offers businesses a unique opportunity to focus efforts on innovation and research and development. This allows for business and product growth and may be even more beneficial than the financial advantages offered by the cloud.
  • These investments and efforts for a new technology to be presented open a new progress circle of technology advancements and it continues in the same way.
  • When creating software or an application for a hotel, IT personnel have to possess a certain level of flexibility, openness and creativity. On the other hand, hotel employees are expected to have more insightful and openminded approach towards new ways of performing business operations, sometimes take risks and have experiences with using different programs and applications.
  • A hotel's PMS can gather and keep valuable information about hotel guests by incorporating business intelligence tools which help hoteliers organize and make sense of the gathered data. Regardless of whether room reservations come from Online Travel Agency, Global Distribution Systems or by telephone, all of them are gathered, stored and managed in the PMS.
  • low investment costs were main reason for hotels from Group B to decide in favor of cloud based version.
  • Business intelligence options provide hoteliers with a threedimensional view of guest data, which allows easily statistical reporting and increased hotel management efficiency.
  • The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in practical usage of the two types of PMS systems – cloud based and classical (desktop) ones.
  • On the question about the reasons for using the current PMS type in hotels, answers of Group A were based on usage of their current PMS for years and on the fact that employees in all hotel departments were used to work on it. As time passed by, hotels upgraded their system to new versions for several times and additional customization was implemented with regard to hotel preferences.
  • Hotels from Group B were consisted of relatively new boutique hotels that operate for more than a year and from those that were not using any kind of PMS solution (they were using Excel tables and creating reservation records manually). The reason why hotels from this group wanted to use cloud PMS was a desire to try the latest technology used in hospitality industry.
  • Other reasons for using it were: PMS could be reached from any place where Internet connection is available, simple but effective design with lots of visual solutions, more options to enter the important information and the fact that it is working not only on any PC but also on any mobile device due to its mobile applications.
  • Simplicity of the cloud based property management system allows it to be productive. Cloud based PMS's can operate on any advice that has a web browser and the companies are putting their efforts to make it even more friendly on smaller devices like tablets and smart phones.
  • The similar amount of initial investments were confirmed by the Group A. Being considered as great amount of money for newly opened and small sized hotels to invest, management decided to try out the cloud version which allows access to this system based on monthly subscription with very little or no investment cost, depending on the solution provider.
  • After initial investments in the system implementation, hardware, software and training of employees, every year hotel makes a one-year-based contract for additional support services and, if needed, extra training. Support is provided any time a hotel reports an issue or malfunction by directly connecting to hotel's computer through remote programs.
  • Changes are made either for each hotel at a time, or after releasing new version, when provider try to convince all the current users to upgrade to it. Upgrade is provided by the extra charge, so these costs should be also considered during planning investments in classical PMS.
  • Regardless of which type of system they used, all participants were very careful about and interested in the matter of data security.
  • However, it is totally different situation with cloud based system, which is mainly open system where all authorized users and providers from outside have access to. Of course, it is up to hotel management to whom the authorization rights will be given and being an open system it makes support, development and innovation activities much easier. Cloud based PMS are hosted on some of the world's best known servers so there is no need for additional computers to be used as servers.
  • Although there are some great differences in functions and way of managing regarding classical and cloud based system, both have their advantages from which hotels do not want to give up.
  • One of the biggest advantages of cloud based PMS for the Group B is the fact that this system can be directly integrated with hotel online booking engine. This is considered as a great advantage for the hotels that besides having functional web site, wish to maximize use of its online booking engine, receive more online reservations directly from the guests and gain more profit.
  • Such a functional connection between hotel’s PMS and online reservation system allow hotels to have a social media integration as well. This means that hotels are able to receive online reservation through their Facebook page as well as receive direct links to its page from the biggest review sites such as TripAdvior.com.
  • In this paper two different approaches and perspectives on usage of cloud based and classical hotel management systems were exposed. Hotels from Group B have shown a tendency for usage of new technologies and readiness to adopt and continuously learn about them.
  • Among factors, affecting why hotel prefers one system over another, are type and size of hotel, through which channels are guest reservations coming, previous experience with IT stuff and different programs, etc.
  • Cloud based program can help them in order to update prices and room availability information to hotel's booking engine. This prevents overbooking, provides easily management of CRM functions and information, with no first investment costs or extra expenses which results in revenue increase.
  • Hotels that use classical PMS pay a great attention to the security issue because they do not want to risk opening their hotel for external intervention. In recent years we can find in media lots of evidence of information linkage from system that had much higher security measures than an average hotel.
  • Measuring the performance of cloud-provided services is another challenge for the hotel management, primarily due to the lack of measurement standards.
  • While investigating the previous knowledge about the other system solutions, hotels in Group A have claimed lack of information about the cloud technology and its solutions.
  • Even though IT stuff in these hotels has some basic knowledge about it, it is still not enough to convince the other managers about its benefits. Therefore it may be concluded that, besides trying to overcome the above mentioned challenges, developers of cloud based solutions to hotels should also work hard on training the potential clients about the positive aspects and correct usage of cloud technologies.
  • Lack of measurement standards for cloud-provided services in general as well as for hotels is another important limitation due to which qualitative research was conducted. Authors’ recommendation is that academicians should focus more on topics of cloud computing, cloud solutions for other business operations and on defining measurements standards for cloud services.
  • marble_bird on 09 Jul 20
     
    This article, published in 2015, covers a study performed in Turkey to analyze factors in hotels that lead management to prefer desktop-based PMS over cloud-based PMS or vice versa. The study uses qualitative research to determine the reasons for the usage of PMS and the advantages and disadvantage of either system. The study found that, among others, significant factors that contribute to the form of PMS implemented by mangement may include the size of the property, reservation channels, and prior level of IT experience.
9More

Fyre Festival, a Luxury Music Weekend, Crumbles in the Bahamas - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-festival-ja-rule-bahamas.html
shared by natashacastro on 08 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Promoted by Instagram influencers including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski as a never-before-seen V.I.P. event, the gathering — with weekend ticket packages starting around $1,200 and topping six-figures with extras
  • On social media, where Fyre Festival had been sold as a selfie-taker’s paradise, accounts showed none of the aspirational A-lister excesses, with only sad sandwiches and free alcohol to placate the restless crowds. General disappointment soon turned to near-panic as the festival was canceled and attendees attempted to flee back to the mainland of Florida.
  • “Not one thing that was promised on the website was delivered,” said Shivi Kumar, 33, who works in technology sales in New York, and came with a handful of friends expecting the deluxe “lodge” package for which they had paid $3,500: four king size beds and a chic living room lounge. Instead Ms. Kumar and her crew were directed to a tent encampment. Some tents had beds, but some were still unfurnished. Directed by a festival employee to “grab a tent,” attendees started running, she said.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • By Friday morning, the festival, founded by the rapper Ja Rule and the tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland, was in damage-control mode. “Fyre Festival set out to provide a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience,” the organizers said in a statement. “Due to circumstances out of our control, the physical infrastructure was not in place on time and we are unable to fulfill on that vision safely and enjoyably for our guests.” (A second weekend, planned to start May 5, was also scrapped.)
  • internet programming, the ocean and rap music.
  • But the pair soon discovered logistical hurdles, including a lack of proper water systems and transportation. “There wasn’t the infrastructure we needed. We attempted to build a city out of nothing,” Mr. McFarland said. “Neither of us had developed an island or a festival before.”
  • Still, after a few months of planning — including adding sewage piping and buying an ambulance in New Jersey and shipping it to the island — the organizers thought they were ready for the crowds until the storm on Thursday morning washed away some of what they had built.“Our mistake was trying to own all of it in-house,” said Mr. McFarland, who is also the founder of Magnises, an exclusive members-only benefits card for upwardly mobile millennials. “We were in over our heads.”
  • The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism expressed its dismay in a statement on Friday, citing the festival’s “disorganization and chaos.” It continued: “ We offer a heartfelt apology to all who traveled to our country for this event.”
  • natashacastro on 08 Nov 17
     
    This article is a perfect example of how event planning can go terribly wrong with social media usage. The Bahama music festival hosted by Ja-Rule and his company left hundreds stranded on the Island of Great Exuma. The event started off by being promoted through instagram, mainly by famous celebrities such as Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Tickets were sold at $1,200 for the utmost luxurious experience. Come the weekend of the festival, music go-ers arrived into full chaos. Everything that had been promised to the guests such as deluxe lodges, yoga tents and food courts were missing. People showed up to an empty island with no food, water or basic shelter. Clearly the festival was poorly executed and planned and it was canceled. There was a lack of infrastructure on the island to provide safety for the guests along with a lack of proper water systems and transportation. The event planners had not had a proper back up plan for storms that could potentially hit the island (which happened) which completely set back everything. Many viewed this Fryre Festival as a major scam and were extremely upset, but what it turned out to be was a poorly planned and executed music event.
13More

Travel Agents Increase Use of GDS to Book Hotel Rooms - 3 views

www.prnewswire.com/...ook-hotel-rooms-135915248.html
shared by laura kaczkowski on 14 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Advanced Search Search Products & Services    News Releases Close Send a release Member sign in Become a member For bloggers For journalists Global sites Products & Services Knowledge Center Browse News Releases Contact PR Newswire
  • he leading global provider of revenue generating solutions for hoteliers, clearly demonstrates how crucial Global Distribution System (GDS) platforms and GDS Shopping Displays are to travel agents:
  • 84 percent of respondents indicated that they were using their GDS platform the same amount or more often than in the past, with 35 percent stating that they are using GDS more.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • where 26 percent of travel agents stated that they used their GDS platform more often than in the past and 19 percent said they used the GDS Shopping Displays more often than before.
  • "Travel agents are increasing GDS hotel use, and have once again confirmed their confidence in GDS Shopping and Booking Displays,"
  • Travel agents in 25 countries across the Americas, EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and Asia/Pacific regions who subscribe to one of the four major GDS systems were asked to participate.
  • n the survey, travel agents worldwide also indicated that promotional messages are effective and often prompt bookings: 66 percent of all travel agents surveyed who were aware of promotional messages requested additional information by looking at the screen attached to the promotional message.
  • "This survey definitively shows that promotional messages are not only an excellent way to reach travel agents, but also a valuable sales catalyst,
  • s the leading provider of revenue generating solutions for hoteliers across the globe. TravelClick offers hotels world-class reservation solutions, business intelligence products and comprehensive media and marketing solutions to help hotels grow their business.
  • is one of the fastest growing marketing research firms in the United States. With offices across the country and in Europe and partnerships with many of the largest companies in the financial services, consumer package goods, automotive, healthcare, media, technology and travel and leisure industries worldwide, PMI also offers advanced advertising and brand measurement along with direct marketing expertise.

  • Learn about PR Newswire services

    Request more information about PR Newswire products and services or call us at (888) 776-0942.

    Featured Video

    FEMA And The Ad Council Unveil New Series Of Ready PSAs As Part Of Ninth Annual National Preparedness Month
  • laura kaczkowski on 14 Sep 12
     
    In the article, "Travel Agents Increase Use of GDS to Book Hotel Rooms," it talked about how the leading global provider of revenue is generating solutions for hotels, it shows how important GDS platforms are to travel agents. "84 percent of respondents indicated that they were using their GDS platform the same amount or more often than in the past, with 35 percent stating that they are using GDS more." Back in 2009, when the last study was conducted, about 26 percents of travel agents said that they used their GDS platform more often than in the past. This study also states that the annual GDS shopping displays will be over $50 million in 2011, which will increase more than a million bookings compared to 2010. There was another survey that was done and they surveyed different travel agents from across the world that were subscribed to a major GDS system. In the survey the travel agents indicated that promotional messages are effective and often prompt bookings. Out of the travel agents they surveyed, 66% said that they were aware of the "promotional messages requested addition information by looking at the screen attached to he promotional message." From this survey it showed that promotional messages are an excellent way to reach travel agents and from reaching the agent, they also reaching the customer, it's a win-win reaction.
  • Michael Anthony on 14 Sep 12
     
    I enjoyed the part about brand and promotional messaging, that is always a lure for me. When I see an attractive offer, evern If I'm not interested in booking or going to the destination, I often click on it anyway just to see the offer. It is a very effective marketing tool.
19More

Adoption_of_Cloud_Computing_002_.pdf - 0 views

diigo.com/0pt8rs
shared by djohn304 on 30 Aug 22 - No Cached
  • The core requirements for a hotel to be successful were to be aliated to a hotel group and to have a good quality product in terms of rooms and facilities before the age of computer networks and cloud services
  • o ering comfortable home-like environment
  • data about customer habits, desires and preferences
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • This is key to the success of a hotel group in a market where 1) mobile booking on travel websites are increasing at a faster rate (20% annually) than desktop bookings (2% annually), 2) 21% of bookings are originating from smart phones and tablets, and 3) 12% of mobile bookings are implemented by Apps
  • Cloud computing has been used for tourism management, for example to rank popular tourism destinations in cities
  • Cloud computing is a technology that allows the provision and utilization of resources over the internet in lieu of installations on a desktop computer
  • cloud computing de nition: Private, Public, Community and Hybrid clouds.
  • After the 2008 recession, when lowering costs was a key objective for hotels, PAR Springer-Miller, introduced ATRIO as the Next Generation Hospitality Management Software 3 into the market.
  • The cloud related challenges that have stood out from the hotel groups responses were a) the increase in Opex (OPerating EXpense), b) restricted access to the environments and c) concerns about information security.
  • how a Quality of Service (QoS) ranking mechanism enables cloud applications such as airline ticketing systems, hotel booking services and car rental services to interact with each other to deliver services to their customers.
  • OPERA property management system cloud application in over 850 of their hotels. The hotel management system is no longer maintained on the hotel premises and storage of their data is outsourced (MICROS Systems Inc., 2013).
  • InterContinental Hotels Group were able to eliminate hardware infrastructure costs and centralize management activities such as updating prices, at the touch of a button across sixty one of their UK properties by adopting a cloud solution for their restaurant point of sale systems called SIMPHONY
  • Cloud computing is the only way forward for hospitality.
  • The distribution of the usage of cloud information system (IS) or on-premise IS in the studied hotel groups shows that the majority of IS used by hotel groups were running on the cloud, and that the smallest (in terms of number of rooms) hotel groups' (group 2) level of cloud adoption is equivalent to that of the largest (group 4).
  • The most common two bene ts identi ed are: 1) solving the problem of lack of hardware on site, and 2)transferring the risk relating to security and PCI / PA-DSS requirements to the cloud service suppliers.
  • traditional telephone system to a cloud based VoIP solution which is integrated to their SaaS hotel management system solution provided by Protel (16).
  • Alternatively, it could be due to the change in process experienced by IT Managers and now having to depend on a third party for issues which previously could be quickly checked and resolved with servers being on site.
  • The challenge which received the highest average rank (12.38 points) by the participants was the Dependency on bandwidth whilst that of least signi cance was the issue of Software licensing (3.38 points)
  • djohn304 on 31 Aug 22
     
    This article investigates the adoption of cloud computing in the hospitality industry across the world. While identifying the benefits and challenges of this system, the findings suggest that cloud computing is utilized in hotel groups today, more often than not. The article is not an opinion piece but rather an investigation searching for evidence to support the theory that cloud computing is growing in the hospitality industry. It bases its arguments from the observances that in order to operate a hotel group on todays scale, you have to be willing to fall in line with the trends of today- technology + convenience. It also is described how operating systems that streamline property management in terms of reservations, billing, ticketing, etc aren't exactly inventions of right now, but have been developed and corrected more and more as time has gone on and necessity has demanded of them. Four hotel groups, across 2-3 regions were involved in the study where participants were all senior IT directors and managers, across hotels with varying levels of rooms. What they ultimately found was that majority of the information systems used by these hotel groups were based on the cloud system. When the benefits and challenges were surveyed, it was found that the most common reason groups were utilizing this system was relieving the site from not having certain hardware to perform certain functions, and transferring security related risks to the system suppliers instead of the hotel. However, challenges noted was that operating expenses increased, the on site IT leaders don't have access to the environment the hardware lives in, and information security concerns. Working with a cloud computing system daily, I thoroughly understand and appreciate the benefits of having one streamlined services for guest logistics. It creates multiple levels of ease for all aspects of the organization as well as the wider hotel group. For operations that span across the globe, there probably i
13More

Insiders suspected in Saudi Aramco cyber attack | SciTech | GMA News Online | The Go-To... - 0 views

www.gmanetwork.com/...d-in-saudi-aramco-cyber-attack
shared by anonymous on 07 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Hackers from a group called "The Cutting Sword of Justice" claimed responsibility for the attack. They say the computer virus gave them access to documents from Aramco's computers,
  • The hacking group that claimed responsibility for the attack described its motives as political
  • the group said Saudi Aramco was the main source of income for the Saudi government, which it blamed for "crimes and atrocities" in several countries, including Syria and Bahrain.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • According to analysis of Shamoon by computer security firm Symantec, the way the virus gets into networks may vary, but once inside it tries to infect every computer in the local area network before erasing files to render PCs useless.
  • Yet those sources say such protections could not prevent an attack by an insider with high-level access.
  • insiders were implicated in just 4 percent of cases last year.
  • Saudi Aramco has said that only office PCs running Microsoft Windows were damaged. Its oil exploration, production, export, sales and database systems all remained intact as they ran on isolated and heavily protected systems.
  • Because the virus wiped the hard drives, it is difficult for Saudi Aramco to determine exactly what information the hackers obtained.
  • The Shamoon virus is designed to attack ordinary business computers
  • . It does not belong to the category of sophisticated cyber warfare tools
  • The hackers behind the Shamoon attack siphoned off data from a relatively small number of computers, delivering it to a remote server
  • It is standard industry practice to shield plant operating networks from hackers by running them on separate operating systems that are protected from the Internet.
  • anonymous on 07 Sep 12
     
    Saudi Arabias national oil company, Aramco, was attacked by a computer virus, Shamoon, and it is suspected that an insider or employee assisted the hackers. The virus spread through the network and infected about 30,000 PC business computers and wiped their hardrives. This is one of the worst attacks against a single business. The hackers who claimed responsibility, The Cutting Sword of Justice, were politically motived. The companies more important documents including plant operating networks were not affected by the virus because they were on a separate and higher security network. Recently, other Middle Eastern natural gas firms with relations to Saudi Arabia have been hit by cyber attacks. Because the Aramco hackers admitted their motives against the Saudi Arabian government income sources, I think that all the cyber attacks may be politically motivated. As a Middle Eastern oil company with relations to Saudi Arabia, this is a major indication to take precautionary measures and increase network security. This attack demonstrates that no matter how much security you have in place, if an insider is willing to assist hackers or provide hackers with necessary information, you are no longer protected. It would seem imperative that employees with this access are chosen carefully or network access is very limited.
6More

When ERP Goes To The Cloud, You Know Things Are Getting Serious - 1 views

www.forbes.com/...now-things-are-getting-serious
shared by nadiatc on 23 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • ERP — which encompasses financials, human resources, CRM, production and procurement — is the enterprise
  • 27% already were deploying their financials within a private cloud as of last year, and 12% were using public cloud services. Another 28% had their human resources and benefits functions in a private cloud, 22% were using public cloud. Eight percent and five percent were using private and public cloud, respectively, for supply chain and demand planning
  • we are seeing a lot more desire from the end user community to take on cloud ERP as an entirely complete solution, or as discreet bits of functionality
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “There is a requirement for integration of data in and data out. Integration and security and things such as a the data model and data cleanliness is also going to be part of the decision criteria.”
  • Systems of differentiation and systems of innovation are more amenable to change, are the more likely candidates for cloud ERP implementation.
  • nadiatc on 23 Jun 14
     
    Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were once referred to as manufacturing requirement planning (MRP) and were mostly comprised of supply ordering functions, but now consist of companyy-wide functions, such as finance/accounting, and even human resources compenents.  (Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/enterprise-resource-planning-ERP.html) This article discusses the leap ERP are taking to cloud-based software and the implications to consider.  This trend means that even small- to medium-sized business can have an ERP software to run their business, instead of (due to high cost associated with it) just large corporations.  Many are finding it beneficial, especially because it's customizable.  A business can choose which components they want or need the most instead of having to take on ones that wouldn't benefit them.  Although it's not as high a cost, it's still a cost, and the writer warns to consider business needs carefully before making the leap, giving extra considerations to the fact going fully Web-based is a security concern for any business. 
6More

POS Hackers Sentenced for Multi-Million Dollar Payment Card Data Theft | News | Hospita... - 0 views

hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/...r-Payment-Card-Data-Theft82392
shared by Manali Rabari on 02 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • “The Subway case is a clear indication that privileged and administrative accounts are increasingly targeted and used by criminals to steal sensitive information,”
  • “In this case, the attackers were able to simply do an Internet search for remote desktop applications that were used by the restaurants, and through simple password cracking techniques, they were able to gain administrative access to the systems.  This enabled them to easily steal sensitive financial information from unsuspecting customers.”
  • Two Romanian nationals have plead guilty for participating in an international, multimillion-dollar scheme to remotely hack into and steal payment card data from hundreds of U.S. merchants’ computers, including a great number of Subway restaurants. Federal prosecutors noted that the conspiracies involved more than 146,000 compromised cards and more than $10 million in losses.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Bosnian continues, “The reality is that anyone with an Internet connection can search for, identify and target  remote applications that businesses rely on – the problem facing the industry is that there is not sufficient security and protection around the entry points to these applications. Once inside, attackers have free reign on the network. If you examine the list of the recent, high-profile data breaches that have plagued organizations, including Global Payments, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Utah healthcare breach, etc…, the common denominator is that the attackers focused on gaining access to the privileged or administrative accounts.” 
  • Yookyung Kim on 02 Oct 12
     
    According to the article, two Romanian nationals have plead guilty for participating in an international, multimillion-dollar scheme to remotely hack into and steal payment card data from hundreds of U.S. merchants' computers, including a great number of Subway restaurants. The reality is that anyone with an Internet connection can search for, identify and target remote applications that businesses rely on. This case is a warning to operators utilizing POS systems to shore up their security by taking steps to make their accounts more difficult to breach and therefore less attractive hackers.
  • Manali Rabari on 06 Oct 12
     
    This article discusses the security issues with restaurants using remote desktop applications that are easily accessed by hackers trying to steal stored credit card information. The relative simplicity in which these hackers were able to steal the numbers should pose a real concern for restaurant owners in making sure their systems are properly secure from theft. They were able to crack simple password protected applications to gain access to private information. These remote applications used by restaurants are a not provided with enough security and therefore are easy targets for hackers.
6More

May GDS Hotel Bookings Decline Globally As Rates Soar In North America - Business Trave... - 0 views

www.businesstravelnews.com/...As-Rates-Soar-In-North-America
shared by Amy Sena on 26 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Total hotel reservations booked in May through global distribution channels dropped 5.7 percent globally year over year, and rates booked through those channels were up 4 percent
  • In North America, May GDS bookings were down 8.8 percent year over year as rates increased by 7.6 percent. Outside of North America, bookings were down 2.1 percent, and rates were about flat compared with May 2011.
  • dropped 5.7 percent globally year over year, and rates booked through those channels were up 4 percent
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • can be attributed to unfavorable comparisons caused by Japan's March 2011 earthquake and tsunami
  • Monthly bookings likely will continue to trail 2011 levels for the next few months but might begin to pick up later in the year.
  • Amy Sena on 26 Jan 13
     
    This article describes the decline and increase in GDS bookings in May 2012 in comparison to 2011. The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan may have had an impact in the drop off of hotel reservations as many trips that would have occurred in March and April were postponed to May.
15More

Travel Agent Increase Use of GDS to Book Hotel Room - 0 views

www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx hotel technology GDS
shared by Jiaqi Xu on 02 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • travel
  • travel
  • Travel Agents Increase Use of GDS to Book Hotel Rooms
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • travel
  • travel
  • travel
  • travel
  • travel
  • travel
  • travel
  • "Travel agents are increasing GDS hotel use, and have once again confirmed their confidence in GDS Shopping and Booking Displays," remarked John Hach, Senior Vice President, Global Product Management at TravelClick. "As the GDS channel produces one of the highest average daily rates of any booking channel, there is a huge opportunity for hoteliers to influence travel agents through the GDS at the point-of-sale."
  • "This survey definitively shows that promotional messages are not only an excellent way to reach travel agents, but also a valuable sales catalyst,"
  • AQUEELAH THOMPSON on 02 Feb 12
     
    This article is a good one that demonstrates how GDS are now more often used than times before. The article states that the 2011 Global Travel Agent GDS study demonstrates how important GDS platform and shopping Displays are to the travel agents. They stated the 84 percent of those who took the survey stated that they are using the GDS just as much or even more than they did in the pass and 35 % of these stated that they were using it more than they did in the pass. The article explained how these numbers have greatly increased since 2009 where only 26% agents admitted that they used the GDS systems more than before. This study is 2011 reaffirmed Travel Click's projection, which was that GDS hotel bookings would surpass %50 million in the year 2011. This was far more than that of 2010. The article goes on to explain how the GDS will improve the booking and services of the industry all around. Furthermore, the article went on to explain a worldwide survey conducted for agents who were among the largest GDS in the world and some 495 responses were collected. The survey was conducted by Phoenix Marketing International, which is and independent marketing research firm Travel agents were indicated that promotional messages were effective and prompt during bookings and 66% of these agents request additional information about it. While, 68% of these agents looked into the GDS for more information. After this survey was complete the agents who were aware of promotional messages, 46% of them made North American bookings within 3 months as a result of the promotional messaging and 44% made non- North American bookings. The survey itself shows that promotional messages were and excellent way to get the agents interested. In the article it is quoted how the promotional messages acts in a chain reaction to reach the agent and then the customer, which allows sales all over the world.
  • Jiaqi Xu on 03 Feb 12
     
    GDS provides a perfect virtual marketplace for travel inventory sellers such as hotels, airlines, and car rental systems to showcase their wares to a global Internet travel audience. The GDS is a natural outlet for hotels, resorts, and even smaller inns that want to increase revenue and online marketing exposure. As the GDS channel produces one of the highest average daily rates of any booking channel, there is a huge opportunity for hoteliers to influence travel agents through the GDS at the point-of-sale.
  • Yu Zhai on 03 Feb 12
     
    Yes, GDS is of great importance for tourism development. It provides such a huge market of tourism information for customers, airlines, hotels, travel agents and any parts included in the tourism. Someone said that GDS will end travel agent, however, in my opinion; they have their own advantages and will supplement each other in the future.
6More

Event Planning - Technology Solutions - Active Network Mobilizes - Successful Meetings - 1 views

www.successfulmeetings.com/...Active-Network-Mobilizes
shared by Scott Kane on 03 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • At one customer's event in January, attendees earned points by using their mobile devices to check in at exhibitors' booths, take surveys, and participate in various networking events - all of which helped the attendees chart their progress during the event, Miller say
  • the company thinks it will offer a service that the company has wanted to include in the mobile event app since it first launched: an efficient e-business card/contact exchange technology. While Active Network has explored the possibility for years, it felt that earlier technologies were not good enoug
  • "There was a leaderboard that allowed them to see how they were doing compared to their friends, colleagues, and peers at the event, and see where they're positioned during the event and beyond it, throughout the year," he says. This also helped the show organizers and exhibitors track attendees' behavior.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • n one case, [at a conference education session], a number of people were saying that they weren't clear on a specific topic. We were able to send that speaker back out onto the stage to clarify that point
  • Saida Albanes on 03 Oct 12
     
    Event management software firm Active Network has launched a new suite of mobile applications for meetings and events that is designed to encourage attendees to engage with meetings' goals and conferences' brands, while helping the executives running them to better and more efficiently respond to attendees' needs. While Active Network has explored the possibility for years, it felt that earlier technologies were not good enough - for example, Bluetooth requires a multi-step device pairing before the exchange, and would drain mobile batteries too fast, says Miller.
  • Scott Kane on 12 Nov 12
     
    An Event Management Software firm has launched mobile applications for specific meetings and events to encourage attendees to participate and review certain aspects of the specific event. The company has been in the mobile industry for a few years now and are working their way up the ladder with some pretty large events. The mobile apps the company offers are quite interesting and are a great way to keep the people attending the event involved. In a specific case during a presentation a guest speaker was not fully understood by some people and the attendees were able to review the speaker afterwards saying they didnt totally understand the technology of the app allowed the speaker to come back out and clarify themself. The company is certainly going in the right direction and offers great technological advances to a variety of different fields who host conferences and business events.
34More

New Study Reveals Technology Investment Priorities for Hotels - 0 views

www.hospitalitynet.org/...4095301.html hospitality technology hotel
shared by nbakir on 05 Feb 20 - No Cached
  • Chain hotels 77% more likely to increase technology investments, while independent counterparts prioritize room renovation
  • Reliance on technology is becoming increasingly important in the lodging industry as hotels begin to recognize how they can gain key competitive advantage with strategic technology investments.
  • cost continues to be the key barrier with technology adoption for many hoteliers
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • technology investment decisions are based on affordability and value.
  • more than half of the chain hotels prioritize technology that seamlessly integrates with their existing systems.
  • small independent hotels surveyed, 1 in 4 cited complexity as their biggest challenge when adopting technology, with 1 in 3 saying ease of use is a priority when evaluating solutions.
    • Angelica Saez
      Angelica Saez on 07 Jul 20
       
      Technology in the hospitality industry is very important. Technology is always used in the hospitality industry and it is evolving more everyday.
  • The study polled 1,215 global hotelier participants in July 2019 for a choice based study to determine how hotel properties are prioritizing their technology investment spend.
  • Partner Central Mobile App improvements
  • New "Rooms and Rates" overview page
  • New "Marketing" overview page
  • New adaptive home page
  • Multi property portfolio dashboard
  • According to a new survey of more than 1,200 hoteliers by Expedia Group, the world's travel platform, chain hotels1 are nearly twice as likely as small independent properties2 to prioritize technology investment. Alternatively, small independent properties are 1.5 times as likely as chain hotels to prioritize room renovations - indicating a gap in technology investment strategies among different hotelier segments.
  • 54% of hotels plan to increase their technology budgets for 2019, while only 8% plan to decrease.
  • Expedia Group is making enhancements to its platform so partners not only have the right resources whenever and wherever they need it, these solutions are delivered through intuitive and easy to use tools.
  • Chain hotels are classified as properties self-selected as part of a chain affiliation or group of properties with more than 100 rooms, while small independent properties are classified as properties with no chain affiliation and 100 rooms or less.
  • with nearly half of the small independent hotels surveyed i
  • chain hotels place significant investments in technology
  • nvest in how best to serve all our partners
  • prioritize with easy to use filters.
  • the simplified view streamlines information
  • new page reduces the number of links
  • managing rooms and rates easier with modified calendar navigation
  • view inventory and availability and make real time updates to reduce errors
  • he page brings the top five countries with the greatest booking opportunity
  • This personalised experience that enable suppliers to identify certain time-sensitive tasks they should take to accelerate booking potential on Expedia Group's marketplace.
  • msbode on 05 Feb 20
     
    This article summarizes the findings taken from research done within the Expedia Group's global hotelier panel consisting of 1,215 hotelier participants that used a choice-based study to compare technology investments between defined hotel chains and small independent hotels. In summary, chain hotels were likely to invest twice as much in technology when compared to small independent hotels. Conversely, small independent hotels were likely to invest more in rooms reservations than chain hotels. The I.T investment strategy varied among the two hotel segments. Small independent hotels choose technology based on affordability, value, and complexity of technology, whereas chain hotels bought technology based on its ability to integrate into their existing systems, the price was not mentioned.
  • ...4 more comments...
  • hectorpachon on 10 Mar 20
     
    I think the biggest reason for the percentage of small hotels to not be thinking (as much as big hotel chains) for technological improvement is ROI. The small hotel chains mindset is to improve their rooms because they are going to give them faster results on the ROI than being edgy on technological advancements. While on the long run, big chains know that they are competing against other big brands to stay ahead on their technological improvements for their guests Even though the difference from big chains to small chains percentage in regards to "planning on increasing budgets on technological improvements for the hotels" is twice as much as small chains plans to increase budgets on "room improvement" which is 1.5. Hector Pachon
  • edagt001 on 17 Mar 20
     
    This article is about chain hotels 77% more likely to increase technology investments, while independent counterparts prioritize room renovation.
  • patrick021 on 08 Jul 20
     
    Technology investment is likely to increase at about 77% in large chains properties. Many properties are investing based on affordability and pertaining to their budgets. Some of them are relying more on their existing systems to integrate with the newer to remain cost efficient. Large hotel groups such as Expedia is taking large risks and movement into investing with properties of small and large chains to help grow the industry along with the development of I.T investments.
  • zihanwang on 30 Jul 20
     
    Reliance on technology is becoming increasingly important in the lodging industry as hotels begin to recognize how they can gain key competitive advantage with strategic technology investments. The study polled 1,215 global hotelier participants in July 2019 for a choice based study to determine how hotel properties are prioritizing their technology investment spend.
  • jasdhami95 on 28 Sep 20
     
    My opinion on this article surrounds my personal experience in the way I have been able to experience third party extranet portals and because of these enhancements that Expedia has developed for hotel partners, I have seen a tremendous amount of return on investment that goes into technology development. Many consumers have been influenced by these third party sites because they offer a type of experience that is different from traditional booking methods and often times consumers are able to snag cheaper rates than they would with booking hotel direct. I would like to see how this trend goes on in future years because I have seen more third party bookings in recent months and it should follow that trend for years to come.
  • nbakir on 21 Oct 20
     
    The article focuses on applying technology in the hospitality industry, based on the study conducted by Expedia Group (Big Think). The article summarized the research study conducted on 1215 hoteliers worldwide, assessing the focus and prioritization of technology investments by these businesses. The study provides that Chain of hotels are twice as likely to invest in technology than SME in the hospitality industries, with these SMEs being 1.5 times more likely to invest in renovations. In the year 2019, approximately 54% of hotels focused on increasing their technology investments, with only 8% focusing on reducing the same. This provided that more hoteliers were willing to "stay ahead of the curve" than those that focused on adopting the "wait and see" approach. In this respect, hoteliers identified that their main technology investments were influenced by the value and affordability of the same and the capacity to integrate them with existing technologies. On the other hand, the main challenges associated with the technologies were complexity, affecting 25% of the respondents, and ease of use, affecting 33.33% of the respondents (Big Think). In focusing on technological advancement, the Expedia Group focused on technological elements such as Partner Central Mobile Application improvements, new "rooms and rate," page improvements, new "marketing" improved pages, new homepages adaptive, as well as multiple-property portfolio dashboards. With regard to the market perspective, digital marketing/website optimization, smart room, reputation management, revenue management, guest check-ins, and payment solutions were the main technological focuses for the hoteliers. Focusing on the reasons hoteliers were motivated to invest in technology, the study established that improving productivity, improving loyalty and repeat visits, improving guest experiences and reviews, reducing costs, and improving revenue generation topped the list.  
3More

eCommerce in Independent Hotels - New Report From MICROS - The Snow Patrol - the ecomme... - 0 views

blog.micros-ecommerce.com/...2%80%93-new-report-from-micros e-commerce in independent hotels
shared by Dandan Mao on 30 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • The findings of this research make very interesting reading. We were impressed to see so many independent hotels using social media – 85% had a Facebook page and 74% were on Twitter, although only 35% actually responded to our tweet. The fact that 37% of the hotels take the time to respond to every review on TripAdvisor was also very positive.
  • However, there is still a lot that can be achieved, especially where revenue generation is concerned. 62% of the hotels weren’t offering any additional extras during the online booking process and that’s a missed opportunity
  • Dandan Mao on 30 Jan 13
     
    The findings of this research make very interesting reading. We were impressed to see so many independent hotels using social media - 85% had a Facebook page and 74% were on Twitter, although only 35% actually responded to our tweet. The fact that 37% of the hotels take the time to respond to every review on TripAdvisor was also very positive
1More

Biometrics Provide Undeniable Time & Attendance for Beachside Resorts | Case Studies | ... - 0 views

hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/...nce-for-Beachside-Resorts54650 biometrics hospitality resorts technology travel software
shared by Jenna Rashbaum on 24 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Jenna Rashbaum on 24 Aug 12
     
    The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California has had many problems with time cards for their employees over the past several years. They used to use swipe cards with bar-codes to tell when people were coming in and out of work but there are a lot of problems with that technology. If people misplaced their cards or knew they were going to be late so gave it to a co-worker to punch them in is not a very smart thing to have in the hotel. After a lot of problems with this system management finally went in a new direction. They decided to move to newer technology and go with Biometrics. The hotel now has a hand reader system that makes every employee get there hand measured to clock in. This technology measured length, width, thickness, and surface area of the hand to store in the system so it knows each persons hand every time they go to clock in any time there after. When going to clock in the system asks for the employee number and then is ready for your hand on the little screen for your scan. The entire process of this takes under 1 minute. This technology of the HandPunch 3000 not only allows the employees to clock in but also allows management to collect data for pay codes, tips collected, and to allow the employees to go back and view their past times in and out. This system is a very green way to go in the hotel industry because there is no paper for records of clock in times, and there are no swipe cards that need to be made for clock in times. Ever since this hotel got the HandPunch 3000 they have not had issues of other employees clocking in other people. The system of course had some glitches to it in the beginning but they were fixed immediately while the staff was there installing it. My only question to this article that is not answered is : since it is a machine that has to be plugged in, what happens if the power goes out? Can employees still clock in to work because the hotel still is functioning?
8More

E-Commerce News: Ghost of Christmas Past Haunts Amazon - 0 views

www.ecommercetimes.com/...74325.html amazon net income holiday earnings
shared by Emily Bova on 03 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Amazon's net income was US$177 million, or 38 cents per share, a 57 percent percent drop from a year ago.
  • Sales for the three months before Dec. 31 came out to $17.4 billion, lower than Wall Street expected over the traditionally busy holiday season.
  • Flooding in Thailand slowed down production for many tech companies this year
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The company used more third-party vendors than usual, which helps margins but cuts down drastically in revenue.
  • The world's largest online retailer has also been using promotions such as the Amazon Prime program, where customers can pay $79 a year to receive unlimited two-day shipping. The offer draws customers to the site, but over a busy holiday season, the shipping costs hit the retailer hard.
  • lower demand than it expected for video game sales and European currency fluctuations
  • A lot of people underestimate the profit of the e-book. You don't have to pay money for delivering or printing, so you can get tremendous revenue,"
  • Emily Bova on 03 Feb 12
     
    In Amazon's last quarter, net income dropped by 57 percent from a year ago. Sales for the three months before December 31 came out to $17.4 billion, lower than Wall Street expected over the traditionally busy holidy season. It is predicted that for the next quarter outlook, there could be anywhere from a gain of $100 million to a loss of $200 million. While Amazon continues to profit in sales of its best selling Kindle devices, there were a variety of factors that contirbuted to its losses. The flooding in Thailand slowed down production for many tech companies. Third-party sellers (which give a 13% commission to Amazon as oppsoed to 100% commission when Amazon sells themselves) were used more than usual. Promotions such as the Amazon Prime program which allows the customer to pay a fixed rate and get umlimited two-day shipping hurt the retailer hard over the busy holiday season with shipping costs. Other reasons were lower demand for skimwords
1 - 20 of 790 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page