Many hospitality companies are struggling with the question of how much to spend on cybersecurity especially in the context of revenue losses related to the pandemic.  The challenge is that the risk of cyberattacks is rapidly escalating.  There are several drivers of this alarming trend.  First, ransomware is growing in severity both in the scope and the scale of attacks as well as the amount of the ransom demand. Next is the increase in remote work during the global pandemic and the rush to facilitate at home working. And finally, small companies are increasingly targeted because they are “easy” victims and typically more vulnerable. As you might expect, the cost of cybercrime increased more than 50% from 2019 through 2020. According to a report by McAfee¹, the global cost is estimated to be more than $1 trillion and monetary losses are estimated at $945 billion.  Examples of hidden or intangible costs that are difficult to measure include system downtime, reduced efficiency, brand damage and loss of trust.  Expenses that are direct and easier to measure are consultant services, legal fees and cyber risk insurance premiums. Below is a chart published in the McAfee report that illustrates this trend.

Ransomware - a Denial of Service/Operations and often includes a data breach Business Email Compromise (BEC) - often involves Funds Transfer Fraud Computer Data Breach - theft of personal data such as cardholder data, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers and details, etc.   What is the best way to go about budgeting for cyber security risk?  As a starting point, be sure that you have a qualified information security professional managing your program of work. Regardless of the amount you spend, a knowledgeable and experienced cybersecurity professional can make well informed judgments about priorities in expenditures.   There are three well established strategies that can work together in combination.   Each strategy has advantages and drawbacks and it is not recommended to rely on a single approach. Below is a description of each way to go forward.

STRATEGY A:  Key Ratios of Spend

On climate change, it highlights joint efforts on long-term monitoring data to evaluate climate impacts on chemical releases, and suggests collaborating on climate change impacts on contaminants in the ocean, and waste and resource management to advance mitigation, and climate triggered channeling of fossil fuel use for plastic production.   On the agriculture and food cluster, the report suggests collaborating on, for example: exposure of farmers from unsound pesticides use; groundwater contamination; use of food conservation, coloring agents, and food safety; and addressing food waste. On sustainable consumption and production, the assessment suggests increasing resource management and efficiency, and informing consumers about chemicals of concern in products. In some cases, the authors argue for collaboration across several clusters. For example, addressing challenges associated with pesticide use requires strengthening efforts across chemicals and waste management, world of work, biodiversity, agriculture and health.

Pros of digital marketing: Digital Is the Only Sure way to Reach Generation Z- Born with a smartphone already clenched in their tiny hands, Gen Z is the only generation that’s never known life without the Internet. For them, the radio is an antiquity, the TV set is something that their grandparents watch ‘programs’ on. They pay little attention to printed papers and think about billboards as scenery. If you wish to develop this age demographic as customers, then you need to be online so they can find you. By 2022, they will become the largest generation of consumers. Even as youths, they are making an impact – 93% of parents say that most of their purchasing decisions are influenced by what their kids have to say. Budgets Are Easier to Redistribute with digital marketing- budgets are mostly placeholders. You can plan to spend Rs10000 on Facebook ads every month, running branding campaigns, only to figure out one week later that those campaigns are underperforming. So, seeing this, you immediately pause the campaign. Spending stops. At the same time, your content marketing team had been allocated a budget per month. There’s nothing stopping you from diverting money from those Facebook branding campaigns to where it can make a difference today. An Abundance of Data to Pinpoint Your Ideal Customer- Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other platforms and service providers earn money by knowing everything there is about their users. When running digital campaigns, you get access to this analytics data and learn a lot about your ideal customers. By looking into Facebook or Google analytic tools, you will be able to generate several buyer personas to describe each segment of your customer base. We use the concept of persona to clearly define to whom we are speaking, in order to be hyper-focused in our content creation. The goal is to understand the problem that your product or service solves by walking a mile in their shoes. The persona that you’ve written up will serve as a powerful tool for writing laser-focused copy and content that will speak directly to each customer segment that you’re targeting.Cons of digital marketing: Digital ads can be deemed as annoying- Think about the moment you’re scrolling through your Facebook homepage and all you want to do is see what your old school friends are up to these days. Then you get the dreaded sponsored ad for something related to an embarrassing ailment you googled the night before. It’s sure to make you actively dislike the very brand doing the clever targeting. Less permanent- Digital marketing efforts like Google ads, banners, promo emails or social media ads can have a fleeting, temporary character. They’re intangible and can easily be ignored. If your target audience keeps scrolling or clicks to the next page your ad will be gone from their screen.

Having digital menus in your restaurant can improve your sales. Electronic menus make it easier to promote certain items, test specials, and share limited-time offers.

Easy Customization When you have several menus for different parts of the day you risk customers demanding dishes from time-sensitive parts of the menu

Environmentally Friendly Using a digital menu can help your restaurant become more environmentally friendly and cost effective.

In a Stayntouch/NYU Tisch Center of Hospitality Report, 81.7 percent of hoteliers surveyed had implemented at least one new technology during the pandemic, and/or were planning to in 2022. Incorporating technology into day-to-day operations is essential to minimize human error, maximize service efficiency and improve the guest experience.

Gamification of travel planningWith cabin fever at an all-time high, the world couldn’t be hungrier for spontaneity. As people contemplate their next getaway, hospitality companies can leverage gamification — using game design elements in non-game contexts — to turn travel planning from a chore into a guilty pleasure.By interplaying gamification mechanics like challenges, chance and rewards, with elements like points, quests and sharing, companies can capitalize on human motivation. Imagine a travel planning website that challenges users to solve a travel puzzle where they will achieve a score, be ranked on a leaderboard and receive points for their next trip.Popular European airline Lufthansa introduced Lufthansa Surprise, which allows travelers to choose from nine categories, with themes like nature, cities or partying. Upon picking top choices from seven to twelve European cities, the destination is only revealed after booking. Beyond novelty, using gamification for online advertising is proven to boost data driving, customer loyalty, brand awareness, user-generated content, online engagement and revenue.