This article is a little old, but I found it relevant especially seeing how it's changed throughout the years. I currently don't use Facebook anymore, but during the time of this article I logged on every so often. Deanna Ting, the author questioned whether airlines and other travel companies should steer away from traditional searches and invest more in social media. In my opinion, I would continue to do both. In reality, social media is free marketing, so there is no need for a huge investment. The only thing I can think of, are those "sponsored" ads on Instagram, where it can directly send you to the specific post's link. This is used a lot for retail & I was always curious if it boosted sales. If I happened to see a travel destination that caught my eye, I would love to be able to easily navigate to a page where I can get information on without having to search for it. I think personally, I would be more likely to book a trip if it was thrown in my face like that.

Summer is wedding season. Celebrities aren't the only one spending a ton of money willing to spend on their honeymoons. Billionaires have honeymoons almost as extravagant as their wedding itself. With all that money, but tends to be complicated. Ovation Vacations have become experts at planning honeymoons for billionaires. This company is known for planning leisure travel consulting for 'ultra-high net worth' people. This team consists of 30 employees which plan nearly 200 honeymoons per year, averaging about $50,000 each trip. This results in $1 million in revenue per month. The CEO is considered to be the Olivia Pope of the travel industry. An interesting request of travelers who book with Ovation is that they like specific cuts of meat during traveling. It's very common to have meat sent from the U.S. to where ever they are vacationing. This is very interesting to me because you would expect one of the main attractions of traveling is to try new cuisines. Seems a little over the top. It gets a little more extreme -- one guest even requested an al dente pasta cooked for a certain amount of minutes. A celebrity requested dragon fruit for their "pink smoothie". This gets tricky when other countries have rules when it comes to importation. JLo wanted Ovation to pick our green M&Ms for her. In addition, another guest wanted a crate of Fiji water bottles delivered nightly. It gets even better, one guest paid $40,000 for her 5-night stay in order to have her sink filled 7 inches in order to not bend over to wash their face. Another husband spent $80,000 to have a yacht carpeted so his wife can wear her stilettos instead of being barefoot. Sometimes inevitable things happen such as natural disasters. Not a problem for Ovation. They spend $50,000 for one couple to still enjoy the beach, which had been destroyed due to weather. What they did was hire a truck to move sand from one part of the island to the other for them to enjoy a private beach. Something simple, yet

Alibaba is invested $486 million in hotel tech in Giant Shiji, a Beijing based company which provides restaurants and hotels operational software/hardware. They are known for 'information technology'. Shiji has always been good at funding globally.

In 2014, Alibaba had a 12% percent stake ($457 million investment) and will now have 38% stake, which is the largest of any external investor. Some investors feel as though Alibaba should leverage, which other think it's a financial play. As of 2017, Shiji went up nearly a third from the previous year and generated revenue of $560 million.

Their revenue mainly comes from about 50 subsidiaries throughout China. An example of a huge vendor of Shiji is Disney's Shanghai theme park location. A counterpart would be Oracle Hospitality, which was previously known as Micros. In China, Shiji has the largest share of market property amongst management software.

Outside of China, Shiji has wanted to expand to North America and Europe, focusing on hotel technology front. After acquiring a $28 million stake in Reviewpro jumped up in a one year revenue about 50%. Shortly after, Shiji invested in Snapshot, Hetras, StayInTouch, DHISCO, and ChinaOnline.

Shiji is worth more than $2 billion according to Forbes.

During the first quarter, TripAdvisor's hotel search business was under a bit of pressure. There was strong hotel growth throughout the non-hotel areas such as restaurants, tours, and activities thanks to effective marketing. A few investors took a look at some of the positive aspects of TripAdvisors Q1. TripAdvisor's stock rose 19% just a few hours in the same day investors traded on that Tuesday.

Throughout the hotel segment, revenue dropped 5% to $299 million and profits were flat at $88 million in core segment in Q1. There were 800,000 rental listings at the end of March. During the first quarter, TripAdvisor invested $24 million in brand advertising, and used around $100-$130 million in the same area in order to validate their "best-price" message. Investors mentioned that they are happy with the marketing decisions being made throughout the first quarter. TripAdvisors net income fell 61% ($5 million). This was due to a tax adjustment charge, which resulted in total revenue of $378 million (2%).

Currently, TripAdvisor is focusing on non-hotel segments to raise revenue, specifically restaurants and experiences. This is a smart idea for them to do. Right now everyone is focusing on restaurants and experiences, not so much on hotels itself. Millennials will stay in a lower rated hotel versus a luxury one because the mentality is "it's just a place to sleep". The money used on the trip goes towards more modern and popular restaurants as well as experiences.

This article talks about how hoteliers should be balancing the human touch with technology. Some businesses in the hospitality industry are leaning towards technology, forgetting the human touch is what hospitality is all about. Cutting costs does not outweigh guest experience. Hotels still keep the front desk as a nice touch, yet when we go to the movies we tend to go to the shortest line possible, which is usually the self-service machine. I think this is a trend at the movies because we don't consider it to be hospitality, all we are asking for is a movie ticket and can barely hear the person behind the speaker anyways. Front desk at a hotel is completely different. This is a huge first impression of the hotel itself. Guests are deciding to use mobile apps to check in early or use keyless entry, which means one of the things for front desk: a promotion or getting fired. Hotels are deciding to become more tech friendly to please guests and of course, to cut labor costs. The article mentioned: "The travel industry also needs to rethink its chase of digital tools and services as a proxy to the human experience, and build real social experiences as part of the social spaces it incorporates." This statement was very important to me going back to what I said about human interaction being the face of hospitality. Hotels in China began using mobile check in devices, which seems to be a way to meet in the middle with human experience and technology. These clerks are no longer standing behind a desk. In a way, this seems a bit more personal. Hotel front desks have not changed much within two decades. Of course, certain hotels within Hyatt or Marriott are exceptions. The point here is simply to make checkin and checkout flexible. A hotel can earn customer loyalty this way. It's nice for a guest to feel remembered if they have stayed at the hotel before. Creating loyalty can be very difficult when guests are booking through third parties.When it comes to check

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

Advertising costs were mentioned a few times within this article. With that being said, a few ad channels are becoming limited. For the most part, advertising is currently being done through Google or forms of social media. Chatbot has really become a priority for investors. What this article is trying to find out if having chats means faster/more reservations or reduces time spent with customers over the phone. Getting rid of a phone conversation seems like a plus because most consumers prefer to text or email rather than talking on the phone. China has developed ways for consumers to pay using their smartphones (like Applepay). So far it's been a success in China, being that it's cheaper for merchants and a convenience for guests. Unlike China, Applepay still hasn't been a huge success. Air BnB has been successful in marketing tactics in this generation. This is due to the fact that they change methods/tactics and increased efficiency. Although it may cost more, it is more effective when it comes to more revenue.

This article discusses how a hotel has put hotel owner model second to marketing, branding and technology related functions. Although it may seem like an easy job, however it's actually a huge job due to the heavy competition. Travel is a hard e-commerce category because it's hard to get customers to be loyal to their hotel. It's not simply about loyalty points anymore. Another aspect in this article mentions is how hotels are investing in tech to improve profitability. Having better tech can ensure a guest has a better experience and providing benefits to hotel owners. Specifically, the Hyatt is using technology in order to engage with their guests. Wyndham has installed over 4000 cloud-based reservation systems. Hilton also developed a system for loyalty members to be able to control the lighting and entertainment in their hotel rooms right from their mobile phone. This is called Connected Room and will launch this year.

I found this article very interesting. It's not very easy for a lot of people to visit their dream destinations with heavy workloads or even find the time to take off for vacations. Combining business trips with leisure can be a huge incentive for employees needing to travel. Businesses can even create incentives like a rewards program for their employees. For example, for those in sales, if employees reach a certain number within a certain timeframe, include an activity in their business trip.