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IT spending in the hospitality industry is set to rise in 2011 with 56% of hospitality organisations

91% of hospitality decision makers are aware of the importance of mobile and wireless technology and 78% recognise the role that mobility plays in ensuring a competitive advantage for their business.

Hospitality decision makers are now investing in mobile technologies to support customer-centric applications,

Technology is opening new doors to hotel safety

Yet more card-free security systems are on the way

eventually new security measures will become such a part of our everyday lives that they will become the norm.

The big storms that caused power outages in a line across the country played havoc with the modern day technology that people depend on daily. Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram were all down Friday due to the storms. These websites were not working, leaving millions at a loss with their favorite pass times unavailable. According to CNet News, an “outage in Amazon’s cloud means that some of the world’s greatest and most frivolous entertainments are suddenly not available.”

The problem comes from the outage in Amazon’s Compute Cloud in North Virginia, where a deadly batch of summer storms left millions without electricity, according to Mashable.

E-commerce has been defined as "the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the Internet."

Accelerating Internet usage worldwide The Internet is the lowest cost hotel-booking channel Most travelers research hotel reservations on the Internet Social media and online hotel reviews are an increasingly important decision factor The web is the preferred media source for travel information, favored 17:1 over television and 6:1 over newspapers and magazines.

Adding real time search functionality to your site, capability to generate user reviews, launching contests helps to build fresh content and quality links

A program called Mixologists lets patrons play bartender by creating and ordering concoctions of whatever cocktails and mixers they click on. The system is able to remember users' drink orders and, one day, may be able to offer customers the same drink at other Harrah's locations, such as when they play a slot machine. Another program lets users watch YouTube videos, either by searching or choosing from a list of popular videos. Harrah's officials said they reached a licensing deal with YouTube on Wednesday. The table also includes a program called Flirt, which lets customers sitting at any such table in the lounge see and chat with each other, take and e-mail pictures and even trade cellphone numbers. "In a different point in my life, I might use Flirt a lot," Stanley said. Other programs let users play video games or get information about restaurants, shows, nightclubs and other Harrah's attractions. Pete Thompson, Microsoft's general manager of surface computing, said the table's computer was designed so businesses can customize it to meet their needs. "This is very open. There's no scripting," Thompson said. "People feel a sense of freedom." Thompson said the computer uses a camera behind the screen to detect hand movements, which become visible to the camera like silhouettes once users press their fingers on the table. That lets the table display high resolution images but still function as a table, he said. Unlike a typical computer monitor, you can still set drinks on it.

Travelport: GDS Code of Conduct out of date, needs level playing field

CEO Gordon Wilson questioned the relevancy of the GDS Code of Conduct in Europe.

can even an organisation such as Google be included in the Code,

How does it draw the line between technology and personal service? There is no doubt that technology plays an important role in tourism and travel. Most of us are now used to booking our airline reservations on line, dealing with telephone trees and other cost saving devices. These technological advances have allowed corporations to save on manpower while at the same time empowering customers to make their own decisions

On the other hand, technology's growth has allowed worldwide terrorism to attack the tourism industry. Cell phones can save lives or detonate bombs; air conditioning units serve to make life bearable in hot climates, but also pollute the atmosphere and can be carriers of disease. The dawn of the computer age permits us to know weather forecasts around the world, allows business travelers to stay in touch with their offices and to supersede the problem of cross time zones negotiation, but can be used to destroy air travel.

Remember that tourism is about people "interfacing" with other people No matter how good your technology may be, technology does not provide human warmth of take-home experiences. Be mindful that tourism is about the selling of memories and then ask yourself at what point are you willing to sacrifice memories for efficiency.

E-Marketing, also called Online Marketing, Internet marketing, I-marketing, web marketing, etc., plays an important role in maintaining hotel revenue as well as occupancy. Several aspects like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Optimisation (SMO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Email Marketing , Portal Marketing, Mobile App, Mobile Website, Website Maintenance, Future E-Marketing v/s Offline Marketing have been touched upon in this article in order to give an insight into the strategic importance and role E-marketing can play.  

Future of Online Marketing v/s Offline MarketingGrowth of online marketing was low in the initial years due to inhibitions, but it is now growing with extraordinary pace as the confidence of Indian buyers is increasing gradually. Seeing the current behaviour of Indian buyers, online experts estimated that the trend of online marketing will become a basic phenomenon among buyers in coming years. The present and future e-marketers are keeping their eyes on the Indian market trends and studying the consumer behaviour for creating best and attractive deals potential clients.

Portal Marketing: Another form of online revenue sharing consists in people working together and registering online in a way similar to that of a corporation and sharing the proceeds. A third form of revenue sharing on the Internet consists of enticing Internet users to sign up and create content by offering a share of advertising revenue.

The International Air

To move forward, IATA said it is working on a new distribution capability (NDC) that will bring the industry up-to-date with online retailers and revolutionize distribution.

the GDS model is too clunky to adapt easily to the emergence of trends such as fare unbundling and merchandizing,” said Tyler.

Hospitality Employees Play Big Role In Sustainability Efforts

When it comes to the environment, employees leave a big footprint, Gaines says. "Employees are aware of their footprint and it yields a lot of returns," he says. "As a result, they're watching their fellow employees and holding each other accountable because they understand that every little bit counts."

With employees outside of the facilities department, it's often the little things that make a big difference, such as getting employees in the habit of turning off lights and checking thermostats in unoccupied meeting rooms, as well as having them remind each other to keep an eye out for potentially wasteful use.

The Do's: 1. Follow the rules of spam filters and the Can Spam Act, which applies to all marketing and promotional e-mail distribution, except transactional e-mails such as confirmations or thank-you correspondence.

2. Play the keyword game.

3. Make your customers feel special.

Here is a summary of the trends in three online distribution channels used in the hospitality industry: websites, Global Distribution Systems (GDS), and online travel agents (OTAs).

The Internet has made marketing more measurable and accountable with different metrics and analytics that show the contribution of marketing to the bottom line. The most critical measures of marketing are the customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the customer lifetime value (CLV), which at times can be difficult to understand and quantify.

The CAC is the price a hotel pays to acquire a new customer, which can have a significant impact on RevPAR performance and asset value growth. The CLV is a prediction of the value a business will derive from its entire relationship with a customer.

In fact, in a survey of our audience, 96 percent of respondents said their agencies shifted products and services due to the impact of COVID-19.

67 percent said they are focused on new virtual event services, 24 percent said they’re developing new medical-grade products, four percent said they’re specifically exploring on-site tracing technology (more on that in a bit), while the remaining 50 percent said they were exploring “other” new areas such as touchless modifications to on-site technologies and appointment-based experiences. Overall, 35 percent of respondents reported that COVID-focused products and services currently account for 50 to 75 percent of the overall business.

That live-guide component came into play recently for a program in the Faroe Islands tourism arm’s “Remote Tourism” campaign, which in June allowed travelers with itchy feet to control live people on the ground in various parts of the region by using their phone or computer keypad.

While the travel industry faces ongoing challenges from COVID-19, travel agents will play a key role in connecting hotels and travelers, especially given the flexibility and changes that may be required of travelers in the coming months.

To best capture the travel agent audience, use global distribution systems.

Even through this period of uncertainty, global distribution systems have consistently remained one of the highest ADR channels. And travel agents have some excellent reasons to keep booking hotels through these systems:

The high risk of “wait and see”

On the surface, it makes so much sense, doesn’t it? After all, we’re dealing with a national and global economy filled with uncertainties … right?

Wait and see certainly seems less risky than sticking our necks out. Right? Wrong.

Hotel software allows hotel owners or managers to streamline their administrative tasks while cutting costs and increasing bookings at the same time.

If the current software you are using for your hotel is out of date, it may be holding your business back and stop you from gaining productivity.

This software allows the hotel owners to process e-payment collection and manage room inventory for accurate allocation. This last feature prevents over-bookings or even duplicate reservations. It is also possible to use a PMS system to send confirmation emails to customers after they make a booking

5 Ways Ecommerce has Benefited the Travel Industry

In the past few years, a tremendous change has come about within the travel and tourism industry and e-commerce has completely changed the concept of how people choose the way they travel around too.

E-commerce has played the vital role in enhancing the travel industry. Service providers and consumers, both are now enjoying the feasibility of it.

Old models are falling away and technology is giving both planners and event participants an opportunity to grow and revisit the underlying ideas about how event spaces work.

Old models are falling away and technology is giving both planners and event participants an opportunity to grow and revisit the underlying ideas about how event spaces work.

planners can use the tech-augmented action to direct traffic to spots and programming that they want to emphasize.

AI in Hospitality: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Hotel Industry By Hotel Tech Report Last updated January 25, 2023 9 min read Revenue Management Systems Livechat & Chatbots TABLE OF CONTENTS Hotel Operations Hotel Revenue Management Hotel Marketing Hotel Sales & MICE Guest Experience Human Resources and Labor Large Chains

estimated that 14% of jobs across 21 countries are at high risk of automation.

rtificial intelligence (AI) can greatly improve hotel operations by automating repetitive tasks such as booking and contactless check-in processes, freeing up staff to focus on providing personalized service to guests.