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Technology solutions have evolved rapidly with the mobile and digital revolutions, and now many vendors are offering their solutions as a service.

the most successful providers moving forward will be able to collect large amounts of data and present it to event organizers in a format that is easy to understand

Data will also be extremely useful in building and maintaining attendee databases, allowing event organizers to attain greater success year over year.

The advances in event technology have been so profound that now event organizers have trouble keeping track of the latest available services.

most cited issues currently seen with event technology include staying up to date with the latest tech, getting attendees to engage with the new technology, and the IT skills of event staff.

However, the industry is still highly fragmented, and it is rare to find a technology provider that can cover the entire spectrum of demands, including venue planning, ticketing, data collection, sponsor engagement, data improvement and payment services. Often event producers are forced to reach out to multiple technology providers to find all the solutions they need.

Mordor Intelligence, Capital IQ and Reuters indicate Cvent, Patron Technology, Aventri and Eventbrite are some of the more prolific buyers.

providing the operational data for planning, scheduling and control , and helps them further in decision-making at the operation level to correct an out of control situation.

Disciplined information reporting system creates structure database and a knowledge base for all the people in the organization. The information is available in such a form that it can be used straight away by blending and analysis, saving the manager’s valuable time.

plays a vital role in the management, administration and operation of an organization.

marketing, finance, production and personnel becomes more efficient.

helps the middle management in short term planning, target setting and controlling the business functions.

It helps indirectly to pull the entire organization in one direction towards the corporate goals and objectives by providing the relevant information to the organization.

It will be observed that lot of manpower is engaged in this activity in the organization. Seventy (70) percent of the time is spent in recording, searching, processing and communicating.

information is doubling up every two or three years

a manager has to process a large voluminous data; failing which he may end up taking a strong decision that may prove to be very costly to the company.

today MIS is considered to be of permanent importance, sometimes regarded as the name centre of an organization

It has been well understood that MIS enables even small organizations to more than offset the economies of scale enjoyed by their bigger competitors and thus helps in providing a competitive edge over other organizations.

The LAC method [12,13], the carrying capacity [2,4,8,10,14–18], tourism sustainability indicators [8,10,19], or visitor management models [2,4,11] are some of the theoretical concepts and methods which the protected area visitor management may use to assess the effects of tourism and tourism infrastructure construction and maintenance.

isitor counts can be used to form a model reflecting the dynamics of the destination system, allowing visitor flow simulations

However, the quality of such models is critically dependent on the extent, quality, and readiness of the entry data [21]. The use of real-time data in models of destination systems is not common

Individual tracking methods are based on satellite positioning (e.g., The Global Positioning System known as GPS, or Galileo), active mobile positioning, Bluetooth positioning, Wi-Fi positioning, or indirect monitoring based on geocoded social media, or photo databases

Thus, attention should be paid to the categorization of visitors, including their needs, motivations, limitations, and the resulting patterns of behavior. Such analysis may help to reveal which categories of visitors are desired, e.g., because of their positive impact on the local economy, and which should rather be discouraged from coming

The use of visitor monitoring methods is a common part of visitor management practice, however, monitoring is often not implemented

systematically enough and data is often available with a significant delay (for example, from oine people counters installed in the terrain or when using data from mobile operators), making the assessment of the destination system state in real-time impossible

Correct and ecient data integration requires a systematic and consistent approach. However, a relevant methodology for the utilization of heterogeneous data is not available, which may be one of the reasons why comprehensive visitor monitoring is so rare.

the universally applicable concept of an intelligent tour guide for visitor tracking and for visitor characteristics acquisition are introduced in the results section of the manuscript. The ongoing experimental implementation of the proposed concept is mentioned, and relevant challenges are discussed at the end.

Gradually, five representatives and experts from protected area management, six destination organization experts, and four geopark experts were involved. None of the protected area experts involved in the research had any previous experience with systematic visitor data integration or with using the concept of the intelligent software tour guide.

The brainstorming and focus group were used to raise new ideas, and the Delphi method was used to reach a consensus when needed.

The knowledge gathered from experts served as an input for systems analysis, leading to the design of a computer program—an intelligent tour guide for each involved protected area. Namely, use cases, functional requirements, and other characteristics of the software were identified and discussed.

Because meaningful visitor flow and visitor impact modelling require suciently comprehensive and accurate data [21], systematic exploitation of all available relevant heterogeneous data about visitors (collected by a variety of methods, each with its specific limitations, e.g., visitor profiles, numbers of sold tickets, counts from sensors, space-time curves of individual visitors) is a recommended [36] and cost-e ective approach.

Visitor management of a protected area requires tourism impact estimates depending on its intensity (step 1). Estimates of proportions of various visitor categories depending on days of the week, holidays, weather, or season, or other factors together with expert estimates of specific impacts of these categories of visitors are available

The concept is meant to be generic enough to fit a variety of geographic areas (size, protected features of the local nature, local community , tourism intensity , division of roles in participative management between organizations, etc.)

The intelligent tour guide has to be:

Reliable, accessible, compatible.

Personalized.

Location-sensitive.

Destination-system-aware.

Interactive and collaborative.

Dialogue-wise.

Decently gamified.

Regarding human factors, the potential of individual visitor tracking to provide rich and valuable data may be hindered by the low motivation to participate [21,50,51]. Low participation may limit the usability of the resulting data and negatively a ect the e ects of possible attempts to influence the flow of visitors.

From the technical side, active mobile positioning provides spatially accurate data collected with a sucient sampling rate, for example, compared to passive localization data automatically recorded by mobile operators. However, still, the low satellite signal in rocks or under the canopy of a dense forest in combination with less-sensitive mobile devices may a ect the quality of the data and even the function of the tour guide.

Regarding the interpretation of the resulting data, the bias caused by the selection of participants and the willingness and fitness of members of di erent visitor groups has to be considered. Also, individual tracking may have an unintended influence on visitors’ movement and behavior [49], though the impact and resulting bias is usually acceptably low

Ethically and legally acceptable data collection may require the acquisition of informed consent from each participant.

An inadequate budget can lead to compromises, e.g., in the project management, analysis, or implementation, a ecting the compatibility, reliability, or usability of the program, or the quality and extent of the underlying model and the set of descriptive data.

Experimental verification of the individual tracking method, supplemented by visitors’ feelings and experiences by means of an intelligent tour guide operated in the context of a complex destination application, currently takes place in all involved areas. The application is being carefully designed in harmony with all recommended principles. Namely, a clear distinction is being made between the universal part of the application and area-specific models, configurations, deployment choices, or custom pieces of code.

The research team is looking for other possibilities of verifying the concept presented elsewhere in the Czech Republic and the world. Further research will reveal if the concept is truly generally applicable, as hypothesized, or not.

automated, daily transfer of critical financial data and property statistics

Built by hoteliers, exclusively for hoteliers, M3 is a powerful cloud-based financial platform and services company serving the hospitality industry that drives cost savings, revenue enhancement and business insight

M3 touts a 95 percent customer retention rate without contracts.

the platform works seamlessly with other key systems and tools in the hospitality industry and offers robust accounting and financial analysis across entire portfolios with optional operations and time management features

M3's professional services team provides on-demand support for hotels of any size by offering a full range of customized accounting solutions to scale with a hotel's needs.

, RMS provides customizable, cloud-based technology for single and multi-property hotels and resorts. Fully equipped with a comprehensive suite of modules, RMS enables hospitality properties to increase revenue and streamline operations, allowing staff to spend more time attending to guests' needs.

an HRIS creates an easily searchable database of items that administrators can access in seconds.

It helps HR staff work efficiently.

A good HRIS will be immediately visible to any new hires, since the platform can help with the talent acquisition and onboarding process, while existing employees will be able to manage their timecards and request vacation time more easily through the system.

The moment you notice a bottleneck in HR should be the moment you consider adopting an HRIS.

A good HRIS gives you, your HR department and your other employees access to contact information for anyone on the team.

Once hired, that new employee can use the HRIS to go through company-sanctioned training modules and continue the onboarding process.

With an HRIS in place, both parties have a centralized location to track their 401(k) plans, manage their healthcare plans and make adjustments when able.

Through an HRIS, managers can track staff's time and attendance, while employees can use the system to clock in and out, request paid time off, and track their paychecks.

Through an HRIS, you can create meaningful reports that highlight where your company is succeeding and where it can improve.

Operational HRIS: These systems try to reduce – if not eliminate – the repetition in filing and organizing employee data.

Tactical HRIS: These are employee-facing systems by nature.

Comprehensive HRIS: As the name suggests, a comprehensive HRIS closely organizes and examines human resource files.

Strategic HRIS: A strategic HRIS deals with the entire workforce rather than just employee-facing functions.

Paid accounts range from $1 to $20 per user per month, depending on other factors like features and add-ons.

So the fight is to build your organic database, construct effective email campaign messages, win the right to be recognized and accepted into the email box, and convert the reader into a customer now and into the future.

The analytics to measure the success of an email campaign should include: open or view rates, click through rates, the number of pages viewed, the duration of the site visit, the number of contact forms submitted, the number of phone calls received, revenues and roomnights from special rate code bookings or packages purchased, and the long term sustainability of the campaign. Do people print out the email and present it by mail or at the front desk when making a reservation? Have you received inquires referencing the special rate announcement?

Email Marketing is here to stay. It is an important aspect of the hotelier’s Direct Online Distribution and eMarketing Strategy. Email and eMarketing in general can be used both as a direct response vehicle (short-term, results-oriented) and as a branding tool (long-term and strategic goals). Email marketing allows hoteliers to engage the customer in a strong, personalized and mutually beneficial interactive relationship at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. And most importantly, email marketing allows the hotelier to “own the customer” in this new online distribution and marketing environment.

The PCI Security Standards Council claims that since March, malicious virus-related reports are up 475%. The reason for the uptick is that cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of rapid changes to the payment-card data environment. In addition, 41% of small businesses have said they’ve suffered breaches costing more than $50,000 to fix.

Contactless payment is one of the big changes within the payment data environment. Several restaurant companies – from chains to independents – are offering it because it reduces customers' physical interaction with the restaurant's POS system. As part of this move, some businesses have eliminated credit-card PIN numbers.

Eliot says malicious email is usually the easiest way for cybercriminals to access your networks. The emails typically show up as urgent requests for sensitive information, often pretending to be from the Small Business Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the intended victim types in his or her credentials and clicks on a specific link or downloads an attachment, criminals are in.

Anyone looking for easy-to-implement security tips can try these six to start. Reduce areas where payment-card data is stored. The best way to protect against a data breach is to avoid storing any card information at all. With many small operators offering curbside pickup and accepting payment over the phone instead of through face-to-face transactions, it’s important they train employees not to write down payment card details. Instead, have them enter numbers directly into a secure terminal. Use strong passwords. Using weak and default passwords is one of the leading causes of payment data breaches among businesses. Effective passwords must be strong and updated regularly. The most recent guidance is: the longer, the better. Think of it almost as a “passphrase” rather than a password. Use it in the form of a sentence, but mix in different characters within the phrase. It’s much harder to break a long passphrase than it is a short, complex password. Weak and vendor default passwords often result in small business data breaches. Also, don’t repeat your passwords. Update your software often. Criminals look for outdated software to exploit flaws in unpatched systems. Timely installations of security patches are crucial to minimizing the risk of a breach. Whenever updates are available, use them. They will improve performance and close out some of the vulnerabilities cybercriminals are searching for. Enable two-factor authentication. It's so important for restaurateurs, especially where their POS systems or any of their sensitive databases are concerned, to have two-factor or multi-factor authentication enabled. If an instance where credentials are stolen occurs, there will be a second layer of verification the operator can rely on to potentially reduce the chances that information will be breached. Segment your networks. If you are going to store payment data, make sure your POS system has its own separate, secure network. Do not store sensitive documents on public cloud services such as Google Docs or DropBox. If you’re going to store sensitive documents, house them in an encrypted, locked down location.   Be hyper-vigilant. Criminals are going to try to take advantage of this pandemic situation as much as possible. You can protect yourself by not giving out sensitive information, especially within unsolicited emails. Don’t click on links you’re not expecting and do everything in your power to protect all sensitive information.

leisure travel is an expendable industry, and there is nothing that can destroy the industry’s reputation more effectively than a lack of security or safety.

the latest threat to the industry was underlined by the hacking of Marriott International’s Starwood database, potentially exposing the personal information of approximately half a billion people.

This cyberbreach serves as an example that the world of tourism security is fast-changing.

 It is essential that every tourism entity assume that, at some point, it will suffer some form of attack, whether physical or cyber. Do not wait for an attack to occur to begin to figure out how to mitigate the damage. Remember that an attack not only damages the client, but it also harms the entire industry.

Why Is Hospitality So Hard to Secure?

1. They often have large, complex networks.

2. Customers are onsite — and attackers could be too.

3. Staff churn.

4. Franchising.

5. Third-party risk.

Protecting the hospitality industry from cyber threats isn’t an easy job. Security professionals in the industry are tasked with defending highly complex networks with many endpoints against a constant barrage of attacks and a constantly churning workforce. On top of all of that, they have limited security resources to work with.

Comprehensive security intelligence helps security teams identify unknown threats to the organization, and make informed decisions about how and where to allocate time and resources for maximum effect.

Threat intelligence provides the context analysts need to quickly distinguish between valuable alerts and false positives, drastically improving their ability to respond to genuine cyber threats.

Threat intelligence can help security teams drastically reduce the time needed to identify and contain a breach by alerting them the moment stolen assets (e.g., guest or passenger data) are made available for sale via the dark web.

these systems are also called Human Capital Management systems, or HCM. In this article, we will use the terms HRIS and HRIS systems interchangeably.

keeps track of changes to anything related to employees

ability to offer self-service HR to employees and managers.

This includes material for the identification for employees in case of theft, fraud, or other misbehaviors, first contact information in case of accidents, citizens identification information for the tax

one plac

the tracking of data required to advance the HR and business strategy. Depending on the priorities of the organization, different data will be essential to track. This is where the HRIS comes in.

Record-keeping

time and attendance data from employees

Payroll automates the pay process of employee

is benefits management

This software handles all the company’s recruiting needs. It tracks candidate information and resumes,

allows HR to track qualification, certification, and skills of the employees, as well as an outline of available courses for company employees. This module is often referred to as an LMS, or Learning Management System, when it’s a stand-alone

talent pipeline and having replacements available

having employees and their direct supervisors manage their own data

involves the analysis of this data for better-informed decision making. We’ll explain more about this in the section below.

databases that record a company’s transactions. An example of a transaction is when an employee joins the company.

It includes modules on talent management, workforce rewards, workforce management, and work-life solutions.

They simply haven’t been designed for this. In addition, not all HRIS systems have all the above functionalities build-in.

as it means that data is dispersed into multiple systems. In order to report data, a new layer needs to be added on top of all HR systems to report and analyze the HR data.

These include Workday, Oracle, SAP, ADP, Ceridian, Kronos, and more. Listing all the HRIS suppliers would be impossible, so we decided to explicitly mention the four HCMs that are considered to be leaders.

they offer different suites including recruiting, learning, performance management, and an e-learning LMS.

Workday is arguably one of the best-known HRIS out there

These are systems that keep track of a company’s resources, which include among other things financial assets, orders, and people. In 2011, SAP acquired SuccessFactors,

. They are

HR, payroll, and talent management. Systems include time and attendance, onboarding, performance management, compensation, succession

on-the-job training to HR professionals in the use of the system. This function is usually in the IT arm of the HR department.

provides support for the HRIS. This includes researching and resolving HRIS problems and being a liaison with other parts of the business, like finance/payroll.

This means improving the employee experience in using the systems, coming up with user-friendly innovations, and implementing new policies to be reflected in the system.

IT is useful to understand the intricacies of the system while HRM helps to understand the processes that the HRIS is supporting.

the specific demands of the different stakeholders inside the company are inquired about.

you choose an implementation partner,

Here the functional and technical requirements for infrastructure,

a core test team is created.

communication plans need to be created, and Frequently Asked Question and other support documents created to benefit the software implementation and uptake.

the system can Go-Live. Feedback needs to be constantly collected and training material updated with the evolving systems. Cons

Many crimes committed in a certain area of Chongqing were committed by non-residents, so facial recognition cameras were seen as a way to combat this.

But critics warn such widespread surveillance violates internationally guaranteed rights to privacy. To meet international privacy standards enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both collection and use of biometric data should be limited to people found to be involved in wrongdoing, and not broad populations who have no specific link to crime. Individuals should have the right to know what biometric data the government holds on them. China’s automated facial recognition systems violate those standards.

“These systems are being developed and implemented without meaningful privacy protections against state surveillance. The depth, breadth and intrusiveness of the Chinese government’s mass surveillance on its citizens may be unprecedented in modern history.”

Cities elsewhere may not be too far behind China’s mass surveillance.

media access control address of users’ smartphone devices, a request sent when a device is searching for a wifi connection, to track their travel journeys precisely. It was only after the media raised awareness of the project that TfL widely informed its passengers.

“With the rise of things like facial recognition, that is why we need new legislation that decides what is in the public’s interest and the legal structure within which they can be used. We shouldn’t drift there by accident.”

And part of that is building trust with the community based on good community information, not on Big Brother technology.”

Since then, two more Californian cities, Oakland and Berkeley, have also passed bans on all government use of facial recognition technology. Somerville, Massachusetts, passed a similar law this summer.

Some people support facial recognition on the basis that technology has always driven change and is a force for good if used responsibly and proportionately.

Omanovic argues that live facial recognition fundamentally threatens free societies. “It might start with the monitoring of just a few thousand people but it definitely won’t end there,” says Omanovic. “Authorities need to permanently ban its roll out now before it’s too late.”

“Singapore has plans to install 100,000 facial-recognition cameras on lampposts, Chicago police have asked for 30,000 more, and Moscow intends to have 174,000 by the end of this year.”

A software provider will either host the application and related data using its own servers, databases, networking and computing resources, or it may be an ISV that contracts a cloud provider to host the application in the provider's data center.

As a result, companies using SaaS applications are not tasked with the setup and maintenance of the software. Users simply pay a subscription fee to gain access to the software, which is a ready-made solution.

SaaS removes the need for organizations to install and run applications on their own computers or in their own data centers. This eliminates the expense of hardware acquisition, provisioning and maintenance, as well as software licensing, installation and support. Other benefits of the SaaS model include:

Depending on the service-level agreement (SLA), the customer's data for each model may be stored locally, in the cloud or both locally and in the cloud.

SaaS applications and services typically use a multi-tenant approach, which means a single instance of the SaaS application will be running on the host servers, and that single instance will serve each subscribing customer or cloud tenant.

The typical multi-tenant architecture of SaaS applications means the cloud service provider can manage maintenance, updates and bug fixes faster, easier and more efficiently. Rather than having to implement changes in multiple instances, engineers can make necessary changes for all customers by maintaining the one, shared instance.

According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, technology industry analysts predict further growth in the software as a service market, and expect to see the market for SaaS products near $200 billion by 2024. 

SaaS also poses some potential risks and challenges, as businesses must rely on outside vendors to provide the software, keep that software up and running, track and report accurate billing and facilitate a secure environment for the business's data.

As a result, security is more the responsibility of the independent software vendor and third-party cloud provider.

SaaS is one of the three major cloud service models, along with IaaS and PaaS. All three models involve cloud providers that deliver their own hosted data center resources to customers over the internet.

Salesforce Google Workspace apps Microsoft 36

HubSpot Trello Netflix Zoom Zendesk DocuSign Slack Adobe Creative Cloud Shopify Mailchimp

cale the services depending on the business requirements.

90% by 2024.

number is expected to

reach

low-cost infrastructure for enterprise solutions combined with high-value services

1] Higher Security

One of the key aspects in the future of cloud computing is higher security.

risks involved and have started taking measures to be GDPR compliant

EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR

In 2018

recognizing the security

multi cloud or hybrid cloud IT environments.

subjects have been artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things.

most discussed

This concept is evolving but has raised concerns about data privacy.

This has led to the emergence of the new term “IoT security

the cost of data centers will reduce in the future.

PaaS, SaaS, and websites to make them more responsive and user-friendly.

inception in 1999

s employees

ccessi

By integrating cloud solutions with business practices a business can ensure usability

bility for i

s

Cloud computing is the process of delivering IT resources on-demand over the Internet

and a

Between 15 and 30 percent of Wyndham’s portfolio of more than 8,900 hotels will move to Oracle Opera Cloud through 2024

Every place outside of North America, regardless of where a property is on the chain scale, Oracle Opera Cloud is now Wyndham’s preferred solution

Cost efficiencies drove the decision in the case of Oracle Opera Cloud.

“Your cost of entry on Opera in a traditional on-premise model could approach six figures for a full-service hotel, with an upfront commitment that used to be in the five-figures for capital expenditure,” said Scott Strickland, Wyndham’s chief information officer. “We can’t quote specific costs, but this deal offers the cloud-based version at a really accessible price-point for our partners.”

“With all of our cloud-based offerings, it’s a subscription model tied to a number of rooms in the hotel on what’s kind of a per-room per-month basis

“No upfront costs or licenses or maintenance and upgrade fees. We have packages, commensurate with a property’s needs. Costs can flex up and down in cost with demand shifts, like we saw in the pandemic.”

A second motivation for adopting the cloud is the product’s simplicity

Staff no longer need to use desktop computers and can instead log in remotely with mobile devices,

Another factor driving the hotel’s chain’s decision is the system’s scope. For example, Oracle Opera Cloud includes a housekeeping module

Their tablets and phones can connect to the cloud and see their arrival list of guests and judge how they want to adjust their staffing or last-minute rate promotions.

Wyndham, one of the first hotel chains to return to profitability in the pandemic, sees this move as the latest step in a four-year digital acceleration.

It’s a lot harder to innovate when you have four central reservation systems and three digital systems. We now have one of each globally.”

It’s faster when it has only one mobile app platform and only two property management systems, compared with a brand running, say, a dozen different property management systems and four versions of a mobile app.

Most security incidents result from one of two things. The first is not keeping up with patching of software or system vulnerabilities

The second major driver of security incidents comes from the interaction between systems, such as application, infrastructure, and database

“With Oracle Cloud technology, we frequently deploy patches in all of our environments across various applications and systems in our cloud

API stands for “application programming interface,” which has been described as “the set of functions and subroutines that an outside party can run to build its third-party services on top of a company’s service.”

“We have completely removed all the integration friction of the past, with no compromise on the security or performance of the core system,

AI is a natural ally in this environment, as all forms of machine learning require robust data inputs to be truly effective.

Consumer environments play the largest role in lowering food waste, and AI can also help here in some surprising ways.

At the top of the list, inventory control systems could make huge improvements if they were enhanced by data tools that were as wide as possible in scope.

AI will also be utilized on the manufacturing side to develop products more targeted to consumer demand.

AI can provide better monitoring and analysis of how food gets from farms to people, offering predictive metrics for retailers and money-saving incentives for consumers.

AI will have a big role to play as people incorporate more of their personal health data into shopping lists that will factor in purchasing history with the global movements described above.

Recent developments in machine learning and data management are offering some very promising solutions toward optimizing our food system.

chatbots

increase their p

nd boost customer experience

transformed the mode of processing booking searches,

providing relevant information

two-thirds of respondents find AI chatbots useful when making travel arrangements

applying voice assistants that give tremendous advantages to both visitors and hotels

voice-based digital devices are usually connected with various hotel facilities

quick reception desk requests, automated room control, Internet connection, regional weather forecast, and hands-free calling

regulate the physical environment in the room,

voice-activated devices extremely beneficial as they enable them to bring down labor costs and ensure perfect services nonstop

staff always remains aware of guests’ requests and can reply quickly or text the necessary department

provide quick access to travel facilities, and, more importantly, grant a high degree of security for the staff and travelers.

ecognizes people in a few seconds by comparing their lips, eyes, ears, and chin with the similar ones available in the database.

Baggage key parameters and individual features allow for validating it to a certain passenger, not for a single trip but on other journeys when a person uses their bag

64% of Americans support the idea of utilizing AI-based recognition methods at airports

reduced check-in time so that customers do not waste their time in long lines.

utilizing machine learning in the travel industry

identify individuals by their facial features.

75% of people favor personalization in various forms of modern travel businesses

enables them to tailor specific services adjusted to customer preferences

Tourism product feedback given by people on different travel review platforms, professional travel blogs, or social media are valuable data sources for travel agencies, hoteliers, restaurant owners, and tourists.

it is believed to be true and unbiased as it is usually backed by relevant photos made by travelers during their trips.

Text-based comments undergo sentiment analysis that uses Machine Learning algorithms and Natural Language Processing technologies to study person’s opinions and ideas about certain tourism services and products.

can transform the obtained information into a competitive advantage.

Automated baggage systems at airports testify to the successful AI applications in the travel industry.

modernized tracking and handling methods

seamless experiences for airlines and their customers through reliable baggage services

photo identification to trace baggage for tourists,

forecast the amount of bags a particular person may have based on previously obtained travel data.

enhance decision-taking and planning, ensure results-driven optimization, and improve scheduling procedures

benefit from special airlines apps designed to find the lost baggage or track it when it is still in transit.

appreciate the degree of self-service provided by virtual assistants and robots.

implemented robotic technologies to speed-up check-in procedures, keep loads of information about their clients, and multitask beyond human capabilities.

Robots enhance the guest experience

AI-based virtual assistants and robots have become very helpful for international travelers as they have embedded translation software enabling the guests to conduct communication in their native language.

tendency played an important role in delivering hygienic and safe services without affecting availability.

Daily services performed by hospitality robots may vary from cleaning and baggage carrying to room food delivery.

develop cutting-edge travel apps enabling us to forecast flights and travel-related things like hotels

serve travelers in terms of finding the cheapest price and providing details on flight costs in the future.

Today, the vast majority of hoteliers are primarily focused on and investing in Guest Services Technology, while underinvesting in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology.

Guest Services Technology

Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology

Today’s hoteliers must create and manage a robust digital presence and engage, acquire, service and retain travel consumers in this increasingly mobile-first world.

In other words, hoteliers’ technology focus and investments end where the OTA focus and investment begin.

With nearly 59% of online travelers now visiting the hotel website from mobile devices,

a mobile-first website design is a must.

Mobile-first responsive website with

cloud hosting and CDN (Content Delivery Network) provides far better server response times and faster download speeds.

Quite often different teams at the property use different sets of data in their day-to-day operations, creating a total “data integrity mess,” which directly affects the property’s guest acquisition and retention efforts.

They must understand and invest in digital technology and marketing that enables the best possible user experience, provides the best customer service, increases efficiencies and boosts revenues.

From a technology perspective, the challenge to hoteliers is to create a hotel and room environment that at least matches but preferably exceeds their guests’ home environment. In other words, hotel and room technology, amenities, and features should be the same or better than what guests already enjoy at home. These include:

The future of this technology is the Smart Guestroom which will be completely personalized to guest preferences and loyalty member profile.

“Imagine a world where the room knows you, and you know your room.”

Hoteliers are overwhelmed by the amount of technology, data, and digital marketing silos and the need to work with multitude of vendors in their guest acquisition and services efforts.

Each team has its own technology tools, databases, and vendors which are not in communication with the other teams.

Unlike hoteliers, the OTAs are focused exclusively and investing only in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology since they do not have to worry about on-property technology and guest experiences.

Reluctance to invest in digital technology:

Antiquated accounting in hospitality:

The technology and data fragmentation in hospitality

These are the major impediments to the industry becoming a digital technology-driven and technology-savvy industry:

Recently, an independent hotel introduced room service delivery robots, which would have been great if the rest of the hotel tech stack were in order, and if it weren’t for the 6-year old property website, and absence of any CRM technology.

Hotels should first focus on the fundamentals of the technology stack before implementing more advanced things.

The U.S. hospitality industry is a $155 billion industry. This provides endless opportunities for smart technology vendors to thrive and service the industry with state-of-the-art solutions.

The industry needs fewer, as opposed to more, technology vendors servicing the industry.

The industry has a “vendor deficit disorder” in the sense of being overwhelmed by the number of tech vendors and solutions out there.

Hoteliers need to monitor, proactively inquire about and familiarize themselves with the Next Generation Technologies that are already making their way into hospitality, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Voice Assistants, Chat Bots, Robotics, and Blockchain.

Over the next 3-5 years we will witness wider adoption and implementation of the following next gen technologies:

Unlike hoteliers, the OTAs are focused exclusively and investing only in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology.

Hoteliers must wake up to the fact that by being primarily focused on and investing in Guest Services Technology, while underinvesting in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology, they are allowing the OTAs more visibility to engage, acquire and retain the online travel consumer.

Digital technology is making its way into every aspect of the industry: hotel operations, guest services and communications, revenue management, distribution, CRM and marketing.

Today’s hotelier must understand, know and use digital tech solutions in their everyday environment, and be able to assess, evaluate, recommend and acquire technology solutions to improve guest satisfaction, operational efficiencies and productivity, customer service and revenue.

Website Technology: The property or hotel brand website has become the gravitational center of all hotelier’s efforts to engage, acquire and retain the customer. Any marketing efforts of the hotel today lead the potential customers to the hotel website. Today’s website technology includes cloud-based Content Management System (CMS), comprehensive merchandising suites, reservation abandonment tools, personalization pricing and content, technical SEO, cloud hosting, and robust analytics suite

The goal here is very clear: bridge the guest data and technology silos in hospitality and create an end-to-end solution, empowering hotels to acquire new guests, engage current guests, and retain past guests by combining digital marketing, website, and CRM data into one cohesive marketing and personalization platform.

The “digital way of life” adopted by today’s tech-savvy travel consumer is forcing the hospitality industry to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and become a 100% digital technology-enabled industry.

Although hospitality and tourism organizations have already implemented smart technologies such as AI and robotics into their business activities (Epiknetworks, 2018), the companies adopting them are still limited owing to the individual, organizational and external environment barriers.

Researchers still need to engage better, investigate and understand these nascent developments (Murphy et al., 2017), and limited studies have examined the implementation challenges.

Technological development plays a vital role in tourists’ decision-making processes. Digital technologies and cyber-physical systems may even act as extensions of a tourist’s self (Stylos, 2019). Several researchers have focused on the importance of including AI in tourism education (Murphy et al., 2017) and to be prepared for technology shifts in their industry

They also suggested that employees in the hospitality and tourism sector should study robot design and machine learning to link changes in technology to the international tourism industry.

In future, tourism will take place in a robonomic economy and tourists will demand a high-touch service experience