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What will ChatGPT mean for the travel industry? | PhocusWire - 1 views

  • ChatGPT (which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a free artificial intelligence chatbot that has incredibly human-like communication skills (and a fee-based premium version in development)
  • Microsoft is reportedly considering a $10 billion investment in ChatGPT owner Open AI according to multiple media outlets.
  • Because of this, tech companies are seeing value in data-driven personalization solutions and ChatGPT fills that need. It can help save companies time and money to allocate resources to solve more complex and specific problems.  
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  • With a large dataset already in place, integrating this technology into our platform could hyper-personalize search results for travelers and supports our vision of offering open-ended, flexible search options. 
  • saved more than eight million hours in agent time, allowing travelers to resolve issues faster with self-service. 
  • but the technology is still in a relative state of infancy
  • ChatGPT really captured everyone's attention when it launched,
  • - it's already dividing opinion with responses that can range from entertaining and creative to glaringly inaccurate
  • It's too early to say whether the likes of ChatGPT can truly emulate those very human instincts.
  • First, people need to recognize that it's not generating anything new as much as scraping and regurgitating the internet
  • Every single tour operator, even single hotel, every transport company now has the same opportunity to be as productive as a company much bigger than themselves. I see that as a commodity – everyone has access to it therefore, in some ways, where’s the value. But it’s the most productivity-enhancing thing I’ve ever seen. 
  • However I don’t think that’s the real impact. I think that’s just the start of the game. Once AI starts to get into the actual experiences – not just tour experiences but hotels, airports… the ability to speed up and enhance the actual experience, especially in something that is not a good experience at the moment like an airport, is going to be quite dramatic.And the real game changer... is once the general public has it, it changes everything. You are a tour operator, and you create itineraries. The consumer can now do exactly the same thing as you and do it in real time. And 1,000 people can create 1,000 different experiences tailored to what they like. So the creation of a travel experience on the ground, which tour operators have dominated, is going to be disrupted by travelers being able to do it themselves. 
  • it’s not the live data, it’s not up to date, the facts may not be 100% and it doesn’t have geolocation.
  • The weakness at the moment is it’s only scraping data through 2021. So
  • This could make entirely new businesses or it can destroy businesses.
  • will save hundreds of thousands of dollars on freelance costs, so there's big disruption to come.
  • For basic service copy – simple product descriptions, basic articles, email campaigns, that sort of thing, it's going to be very useful for brands and very painful for content creators.
  • There’s some interesting use cases that we hope to explore such as improving automation and responses for common customer service requests through chat (and eventually even speech and video), as well as concierge-like services to recommend travel destinations, create personalized itineraries and the like.
  • . So there are issues with accuracy and truthfulness, and it needs human expertise to fact-check the output.
  • ChatGPT might herald a revolution in automated content creation, but I also think it could create a new premium for genuine human expertise too.
  • ChatGPT has been trained with information existing until end of 2021. Travel is a super dynamic category where this morning’s information is no longer relevant a few hours even minutes later. Inventory availability, prices, category of rooms/seats/cars change by the minute. You need good old-fashioned technology like CRS, WBE, RMS, etc. to handle these dynamics, not ChatGPT.
  • Google can provide a much better AI-powered chatbot than ChatGPT that spews much better answers in milliseconds, but how are they going to make money?
  • Specific to ChatGPT, I believe that this technology will eventually be used in conjunction with a brand’s own content, in addition to the internet as a whole, so that it can be trained and customized by the brand to answer questions.
  • What’s also really interesting is how this once again demonstrates that the most disruptive innovations often come from outside the travel industry.
  • ChatGPT is gaining that trust in its ubiquity and daily usage, so I think travelers could be much more likely to accept its itinerary recommendations without nearly as much research and shopping around. This has implications for human agents too.
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    ChatGPT is a new technology that is hoping to take over the travel industry. It is an AI product, similar to google, which will generate answers to questions that travelers may have via a chat service. It is meant to replace tour guides, travel agents, and concierge experts and can either save business time and money, or create chaos and the need to speak to an expert human instead. Like all technology products, there is always room to improve and grow in the initial stages, and not all roles are better off being completed by a computer, rather than a human. Although AI may have access to more information at a quicker pace, and may even be able to write better than most people, some companies believe that the possible errors and inaccuracy provided by ChatGPT will make content creators and human expertise way more valuable. ChatGPT accesses data from 2021 and prior, which means it is not current and up to date. This is a major flaw that will need to be improved.
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How to maintain security in the data-driven hotel industry | Hotel Management - 2 views

  • It is no secret that customer data is king in the hospitality industry, providing powerful insights to operators that enable them to create personal relationships with their guests
  • Data security is not just a box to be checked, it’s a core component of any business strategy.
  • here are three main types of data collected by hospitality operators: personal data, preference data and transaction data. Personal data includes guests’ basic information including name, date of birth and contact information.
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  • The best protection for hospitality operators is to always, first and foremost, make sure all employees know best practices and then move onto external factors.
  • rom there, they can segment who can access what information and put strict permissioning in place to lock down the sharing of more sensitive data.   
  • However, with the rise of cloud access security brokers, companies can now expand the reach of their security policies, using these CASBs to ensure network traffic between managed and unmanaged devices and cloud-based software vendors follows pre-existing protocols, and comprehensive audit logging captures user activity and behavior.
  • First and foremost, before operators can protect guest data, it is crucial that they understand what type of data is collected, where it is stored and how it is used.
  • Cybercriminals are most interested in personal information, like social security numbers, license numbers, and contact information, as well as transaction data and credit card numbers. Being aware of the most valuable information and knowing where it is stored is a crucial first step in keeping it safe.
  • When data is exported and, even worse, shared through insecure channels such as  email or unsanctioned cloud software, whether internal or not, the information is instantly at risk. 
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    In this article, you will find several practical applications to hotel data security. The most interesting point was the role staff plays in data security. Hotel staff needs to be trained on the proper way to handle sensitive data .
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How robots, AI, and augmented reality are taking over restaurants - 0 views

  • droids, drones and augmented reality are ready to exit the test phase stage and become must-have tech solutions for restaurant operators.
  • robotic cooking systems and are making the move from not only cashless but cashier-less operations.
  • it all exists; this is not yet-to-come technology
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  • AI, virtual reality, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and face recognition technologies all exist today. What’s different today is we’re in the age of convergence: Suddenly you can get all of these technologies to talk to one another in real time.
  • We’re testing back of the house robotics and artificial intelligence
  • reducing a few labor hours, but actually taking entire bodies out of the operation,
  • 24-hour food service operations delivered by autonomous vehicles
  • drone delivery.
  • delivery cost is about 30% less expensive than what the traditional third-party delivery aggregators charge.
  • drone delivery could be a new way to reward loyalty:
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    This article focused in how robots, specially drones, will affect the food industry. Drone delivery services are already being tested in Los Angeles which costs 30% less than traditional deliveries. In addition to drone delivery, by using cashless transactions and lowering labor hours, food delivery services could be used twenty four hours a day.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in travel, hospitality and leisure - PMC - 1 views

  • With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even clearer that tourism is highly dependent on technological solutions.
  • Smart technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, are creating an important driving force for travel
  • hospitality, and leisure (THL)
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  • paving the way for new business models
  • AI and robotics can provide structured automated services and enhanced experiences.
  • emphasis on sustainability, resilience, and enhanced wellbeing.
  • AI and robotics will have a tremendous impact on customers, businesses, and communities alike
  • the THL domain are increasingly reliant upon technologies that can understand, anticipate, and act upon human needs to improve the personal experience
  • AI enable predictions and accuracy of key tasks and allow individuals, organizations, and governance agencies to respond more flexibly
  • platform-based tools such as recommender systems and chatbots have been developed to provide personalized
  • These tools are becoming increasingly pervasive in commercial applications due to the diffusion of the smartphone and of social media
  • As a result, AI and robotics are rapidly transforming the way businesses operate and engage with their customers,
  • there is an urgency for research on AI and robotics in THL contexts that tackles the issue from multiple perspectives using a wide array of approaches.
  • service robots (cost reduction vs. service enhancement)
  • restaurants are inclined to leverage technologies for service excellence.
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    AI has become a very useful tool in the hospitality industry and continues to grow in this community. It has become useful in many different industries such as hotels, restaurants, and even at home on our computers. This study showed AI in many different areas of the world and how people respond to robots and AI helping them with simple tasks such as running food, checking them into their hotel room, and answering questions. The hospitality industry has been developing this type of technology for some time now and it has been getting positive feedback for the most part. Technology can be a very useful tool to this industry when utilized right.
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    Thank you very much for sharing this article on Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in travel, hospitality and leisure, it was indeed quite informative. What I thought was very interesting is how the various perspectives of robotics were focused on; from the customers' perspective, the firm's perspective, and the governance's perspective. Consequently, providing a much wider understanding of the benefits of the adaptation of robotics and AI, in general. Further, I learned about the term "Smart Tourism." Nice post!
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Automation and artificial intelligence in hospitality and tourism | Emerald Insight - 0 views

  • Human knowledge, services and robotics applications were the most significant factors influencing automation and AI implementation. Practitioners and researchers in the hospitality and tourism industry could apply the proposed framework to develop sustainable strategies for implementing and managing automation and AI. The proposed framework may also be useful in future studies examining AI implementation in the hospitality and tourism industry.
  • Smart technologies like automation and artificial intelligence (AI) have become important elements of hospitality and tourism
  • Hospitality and tourism firms use smart technology to dynamically enhance consumer experience (Buhalis and Sinarta, 2019). Smart hospitality and tourism have provided opportunities for firms to enhance their operations and productivity, resulting in higher quality products and better processes for delivering services to customer
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  • 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
  • The use of smart technologies such as chatbots usually receives positive feedback and the benefits of this technology outweigh the challenges (Buhalis and Yen, 2020). The advancement of novel technologies involves a process of knowledge management, including maintenance, disruption and change. This needs the integration of technologies and institutions and results in the growth of new values and services (Vargo et al., 2015).
  • Service providers need to think critically about how AI applications in hospitality and tourism might affect people’s use of the service. They should also consider what needs to be changed to ensure that robots and employees work together seamlessly to augment the service experience (Buhalis et al., 2019). Smart technologies and AI could disrupt services in the hospitality industry, altering customer engagement plans and expectations (Helkkula et al., 2018).
  • Hospitality software has moved from local to server-based to Web-based to cloud-based platforms (Leung, 2020). The future smart infrastructure with high-speed networks enables efficient data exchange amongst databases in real time and therefore immediate service (Buhalis and Sinarta, 2019)
  • Technologies tested in previous studies have been improved by highly interactive systems, increased capability and a more user-friendly interface, so examining perceived interactivity of technology has become more important for advanced robot acceptance models (Go et al., 2020). Ivanov et al. (2019) stated that robotics was not introduced early to the travel, tourism and hospitality industries, because of the complexity of human reactions to customer needs.
  • Customers must experience feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction interacting with the robot. Customer attitudes are shaped by experience, and employee skills depend on education and training, as well as the company’s needs (Ivanov et al., 2019). Robots are expected to eventually overtake humans for cognitive tasks, with human input only required for duties requiring empathy and emotion
  • Intelligent agent technology is one of the most useful methods for supply chain management because it combines social ability, intelligence and collaboration (Alsetoohy and Ayoun, 2018). Alsetoohy et al. (2019) claimed that current procurement practices lack coordination and proactivity between suppliers and buyers, intelligent tools for finding suitable suppliers, performance evaluation and automation
  • By pairing robots and humans, service delivery can be optimized, leading to increased productivity and reduced costs
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    This study was about adoption and automation of AI in hospitality. It gives great insight on the process as well as what people think of AI and their opinions. In addition to that, this study goes into different techniques that were used to understand how and why AI should be implemented. Human interaction cannot be beat, along with personal touch and humans can't remember everything a computer can, but if you have robots and humans working together you can get the best of both worlds. Smart technologies are now and the future.
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Benefits of Hotel PMS and POS Integration | Hotelogix - 0 views

  • The modern hotel runs on software. You use software to schedule your employees, track housekeeping supply usage and inventory, and check guests into and out of the property.
  • Your hotel PMS and POS integration can offer major benefits.
  • Basically, your PMS handles every single task related to your property outside of selling rooms.
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  • POS stands for point of sale and this system is responsible for managing all the sales on your property, such as restaurant sales, spa sales, and all the rest.
  • By integrating your hotel POS with the PMS, you make it easier to upsell all these things to your guests as add-ons.
  • By integrating your hotel POS with the PMS, you can take advantage of important features like transfer-to-room and city ledger to make it easier to bill guests during checkout.
  • By integrating a POS module into your hotel PMS, you have access to in-depth financial reports that provide you with the information necessary to make selling packages easier.
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    Technology and software goes hand in hand, every device in every aspect for business operations depend on them. Integrating the PMS and the POS systems would allow the property's systems to interface and communicate easier. It would help users to up sell the amenities offered at the hotel, increasing the revenue for the property and making it as convenient as possible for the guest to do everything in one place/transaction.
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Global Distribution System [GDS] Market to Rise at CAGR of 4.3% during Forecast Period ... - 0 views

  • The value of global distribution system [GDS] market was clocked at US$ 4.7 Bn in 2021. The global distribution system [GDS] market is estimated to develop at a CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period, from 2022 to 2031.
  • tremendous saturation of data has been a result of digital revolution in many industries.
  • identifying patterns or trends to optimize business operations, this is anticipated to lead to a rise in the usage of global distribution system (GDS) software across a variety of sectors.
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  • better GDS connectivity with hotels enables real-time access to the hotel's reservation system. In order to expand their clientele, businesses in the hotel industry are heavily spending in marketing initiatives. The use of GDS can assist cut down on marketing expenses. As a result, the incorporation GDS with hotels aids in offering a more affordable option to marketing.
  • Increasing GDS-Hotel connection enables real-time access to the hotel's reservation system.
  • Many industries, including the civil, airline, hotel, and auto rental industries, have benefited from GDS's high operational efficiencies, higher profit margins, and improved customer experience.
  • hold a major global distribution system market share 2022 in the forthcoming years. Europe and North America are anticipated to hold onto their positions during the forecast timeline. Leading providers of GDS are present in the U.S., while SMEs and the travel businesses are present in Europe, which is expected to boost the market in both of these regions.
  • key market players are SiteMinder Distribution Limited TravelSky Technology Limited Kiu System Solutions Amadeus IT Group SA, infini Travel Information, Inc. Sabre Corporation Pegasus GDS
  • Global Distribution System [GDS] Market: Segmentation Component Software/Platform Service Application Aviation Cruise Hotels and Resort Car Rental Others
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    To summarize, during the projected period, the hotel and tourist industry is estimated to account for a worldwide distribution system market share. In 2021, the global distribution system [GDS] market is expected to be worth US$ 4.7 billion. During the forecast period, from 2022 to 2031, the global distribution system [GDS] market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3%.The digital revolution has resulted in tremendous data saturation in many industries, and identifying patterns or trends to optimize business operations is expected to lead to an increase in the use of global distribution system (GDS) software across a variety of sectors, opening up new opportunities.

How Can AR and VR Technologies Benefit the Tourism Industry? - 0 views

started by kspac001 on 14 Sep 22 no follow-up yet
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2022 social media trends hoteliers need to know about - Insights - 0 views

  • Social media features all the possibilities to put communities in a single circle.
  • #tiktoktravel hashtag
  • Note that these 26.1 billion users are not only millennials.
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  • . At times, the process needs you to blend in before positioning where you can outshine the competitors.
  • Influencer marketing wins if you’re after a reliable social media strategy
  • identify the influencers who can assist you in boosting your social media hotel awareness.
  • have a trademarked hashtag and inspire potential audiences to use a particular hashtag whenever they stop by your hotel.
  • requesting personalities like famous figures or celebrities in your hotel can assist in building trustworthiness
  • authenticity
  • You can target several sponsored posts in specific areas using the users’ GPS.
  • Most users prefer short-form videos, running at approximately 90 seconds or fewe
  • social media marketing has grown to become a strategy that converts – even in hotels.
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    This article talks about how hotels should make use of TikTok and using certain hashtags, influencers or inviting celebrities to stay at their hotel. It is talking about the importance of being consistent and short like 90 seconds or less. Using trademark hashtags and GPS sponsored content.
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UNEP Assesses Links between Chemicals and Waste Management and Other Issues | News | SD... - 0 views

  • 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.
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    This is a brief report on workplace health, biodiversity, climate change, agriculture and food, sustainable consumption and production, and human rights. In addition, the World Health Organization's (WHO) action plan to combat these issues. The goal is to have everything in place by 2030.
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How is artificial intelligence changing the hotel indus... | Mews Blog - 0 views

    • jtarr003
       
      this articles talks about what is artificial intelligence and how it can helps the hospitality industry. This article talks about some advantages of using artificial intelligence in the hotel industry for example it can lower the human involvement in everyday tasks that can go into running a hotels, which has many benefits like it will lead to less human error, save money, and can allow the hotel to focus more on the guest experience.
  • Chatbots can be used to answer frequently asked questions, and handle concierge services and housekeeping requests such as to get extra pillows or blankets delivered to the room. Not only can these requests be dealt with more easily, but they can also be handled more quickly; with our instant gratification culture, being able to take care of guest’s needs in a timely fashion is key to offering great service.
  • It can decrease human involvement in the everyday tasks that go into running a hotel, which leads to less human error, saves you money, and allows you to deliver a top-notch service
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  • Implementing a hotel property management system, which uses machine learning to interpret big data, allows you to better take care of revenue management and make data-driven decisions to improve your sales and operations
  • There are many advantages to using artificial intelligence in the hotel industry. It can be used to enhance the customer experience by fully understanding the customer journey, better profiling guests and discovering what they’re looking for in order to improve service.
  • Data can then be quickly sorted, interpreted and applied so that your hotel can draw conclusions about performance data and put into practice the learnings. This will help you better understand your target guests based on your current guests, and allow you to adapt your strategies in order to attract a different target audience.
  • Having the technology in place to serve a multilingual population will allow your hotel to appeal to a wider range of guests and make you less dependent on hiring multilingual staff. 
  • Hyperdynamic pricing based on AI can be used together with booking engines to automatically update prices based on user data, information compiled from social media about potential guests, as well as market data to display rates that will maximize profits. This can be updated in real time based on current demand trends. The software is getting better all the time, but the idea is to use data available on social media about the user to offer hotel rooms or offers that most appeal to a potential target grou
  • With the ability to carry out human functions more efficiently, hotels can use this technology to optimize operations and to streamline the guest experience in order to boost guest retention rates and drive sales.
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    This article dives into the increased popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) in the hospitality industry. AI allows businesses to serve guests as accurately and efficiently as possible, ultimately increasing their satisfaction. AI also contributes to having effective revenue management and sales and operations systems.
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Cybersecurity In the Hospitality Industry - 0 views

  • Like other industries that traditionally underinvest in cybersecurity, the hospitality industry has recently come under increased attacks from cybercriminals.
  • attracts new customers, and streamlines operations, bringing huge opportunities
  • While restaurants and hotels serve guests, they are also serving up valuable credit card and personal data to cybercriminals without even knowing it.
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  • Despite most attackers focusing on card data, increasingly they are looking at your loyalty programs
  • Unless hospitality businesses protect themselves properly with a proactive cybersecurity strategy, all of this data is vulnerable to exploitation by organized cybercrime.
  • A key activity is to ensure a business has been properly audited from a cybersecurity perspective. You need to properly audit your IT infrastructure, your POS systems, and ensure all endpoint software is up to date and properly patched. 
  • In addition to ensuring that POS terminal software is up to date and properly patched, make sure that you are following government-mandated and PCI compliance standards for these terminals. 
  • Train Employees
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    Article talks about how cyber hacking is at an all-time high in the hospitality industry. Two main areas that hackers look into the most would be loyalty programs and POS systems as they have more important data. It also talks about how companies can do in order to better protect themselves such as firewalls.
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As Canadians start travelling more, security risks increase | IT World Canada News - 1 views

  • As people engage in more travel, both for personal reasons and work trips, in the coming months, travellers may face more cybersecurity risks. Check Point Research, a cybersecurity solutions company, has seen a 40 per cent increase in attacks within the hospitality industry over the past year. 
  • Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point Canada, said there are security risks in every step of travel, from the point of booking to departure.
  • He noted that one big issue is password re-use between sites.
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  • Falzon also talked about a recent tactic which involves attackers accessing people’s information through public WiFi.
  • He noted that generally, there is no security put on these WiFi systems.
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    With an increase in travel, there is also an increase in security threats. Most of this comes from people reusing passwords and logging into unprotected, public Wi-Fi. Doing thee things make it easier for hackers to get ahold of a person's sensitive information. It is important that passengers think twice about what websites and servers they are using as well as their credentials.
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All Bets Are Off on Casinos and Cybersecurity | UpGuard - 0 views

  • better malware tools and access to deep funding make today's cyber criminals more than a bad movie, especially when lucrative payloads are for the taking.
  • In May 2015, attackers were able to steal cardholder names, credit card numbers, and CVV codes belonging to hotel guests and customers. In 2016 they suffered similar incidents due to malware being installed on POS systems, allowing attackers to steal customers' credit card information.
  • It may come as no surprise that casinos and gaming firms are ideal cyber attack targets, but how competent are these enterprises when it comes to rudimentary security?
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  • Online gambling upstart Ignition Casino offers Blackjack, Slots, Poker on its website; fortunately, the company has also taken the requisite security measures for bolstering its website security and email security.
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    This article focused on cybersecurity in hotel casinos. They mention how casinos seem to be a target for a lot of cyber attackers because they tend to not invest as they should on protecting themselves. Casinos hold a TON of financial data; customer info., bank info., and credit card info. I enjoyed the article because they even went as far as giving a few casinos a "security score" in how well/bad they are in staying secure.
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New technology coming to cruise ships in the next few years | Miami Herald - 2 views

  • Wristbands, which open doors, come for an additional price but are free for children.
  • The app will also have facial recognition to allow crew to identify passengers. Other features include way-finding navigation — like Google Maps for ships, — the ability to make purchases, request services, book excursions and plan daily activities in-app. The MSC for Me app will also offer suggestions based on guest preferences.
  • The Miami-based cruise line announced earlier this month a new Cruise Norwegian app that will allow passengers to check in ahead of their vacation, book excursions, make dinner and show reservations, and purchase drink packages or other amenities. Unlike the Carnival or Royal Caribbean versions, the app doesn’t change the physical embarkation process, but it does offer the option to go paperless with the documentation needed to go aboard.
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  • Like Norwegian, it will rely heavily on an app component, that, like Carnival, will also be available on interactive screens around the ship, in addition to mobile devices and stateroom TVs. And, like Royal, MSC will have a smart watch with geo-location that is also connected to the app.
  • In January, Carnival revealed the result of an 18-month project aimed at making the cruise experience more intuitive. Instead of largely relying on a smart phone, the company chose to build a “medallion.” The quarter-sized, two-ounce disc contains passenger information, incorporates geo-location services and is personalized with each cruiser’s name and sail date. It can be carried in pockets or worn on wristbands or pendants for an additional cost.The medallion interacts with the whole of the ship, which will be retrofitted with thousands of sensors and interactive screens, and miles of cable.
  • In the short-term, those innovations will looks like this: Guests will check-in through facial recognition technology — not check-in counters, thus eliminating lines. On board, passengers will be able to sign up for excursions, order drinks and make dinner reservations from a new Royal Caribbean app that also will enable crew to find passengers based on facial recognition. The app will partner with Royal’s WOW Bands, similar to Disney’s MagicBands, to open stateroom doors. And, thanks to RFID tags on luggage, guests will also be able to track the progress of their bags to their rooms. As with Carnival, the more passengers interact with the technology, the better equipped the app will be to offer meaningful recommendations.
  • For example, as guests approach their stateroom doors, the door senses the medallion and unlocks it for them. A digital photo wall senses a passenger’s approach — thanks to the medallion — and adjusts to show the cruiser his or her vacation pictures. After a guest requests a drink, either on an interactive screen, a smart phone or other device, crew can find that passenger wherever he or she is on the vessel because of the geo-location in the medallion.The operating system behind the medallion is Ocean Compass, an online vacation profile that passengers create before sailing, where they input their preferences; during the trip, they can add information via onboard screens and personal devices. Crew can also access passenger profiles in Ocean Compass, allowing them to offer relevant suggestions and address passengers by name.
  • Beyond that, Royal Caribbean plans to add virtual reality and augmented reality into the passenger experience. These concepts might transform cabin interiors with images of a starry night or a peaceful sunset displayed on screens on the walls, ceiling and floors. It could also transform dining by introducing virtual reality glasses that can transform the venue into a new landscape based on the cuisine passengers are eating.
  • But with the new technology will likely come privacy concerns. Much of the software cruise lines are introducing also involves capturing passenger information and using it to curate suggestions about what to do.
  • It’s already happening. In 2014, Starwood Hotels announced plans to start using smart phones as hotel keys, with the help of an app and Bluetooth connection. Hilton this year discussed plans to build a “Connected Room” in 2018, which will allow guests to control features of the room through an app, including lighting, entertainment and temperature.
  • It elevates the experience for everyone, not just the highest paying passengers, and not just on its best and newest units. I think it will become the norm...eventually the cruise industry and, not just the cruise industry, but other places, other tourism [entities].
  • The technology aims to ease irritations: the long lines to embark or disembark, crowded bars, the impersonal feeling of a mass congregation of people.
  • Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and MSC Cruises — have all come out with tech that promises to make cruising a less cumbersome experience. Most of it incorporates facial recognition and geo-location.
  • In the next five years, the new normal in cruising is going to be a better-connected voyage that will largely do away with lines and waiting — some of the factors that deter travelers from cruising to begin with.
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    The article revolves around new technological concepts that the main cruise lines are adding to the cruising experience. While they have heavily focused on the ships hardware, they want to implement new software that will make the experience more enjoyable and simpler for guests to enjoy. Carnival, would like to implement a "medallion" called the Ocean Compass, that is crossover between the Disney Magic Band, and the band seen at the Universal Volcano Bay water park. It fits the Disney aspect, because it holds information,can open doors, and links guest pictures to the technology. It is similar to Universal, because it informs guests of when to attend something, so that they do not have to wait in a line. Royal Caribbean, likes the band idea that Disney presented, and wants to make bands of their own, that have similar functions that the Ocean Compass from Carnival has. In addition, Royal Caribbean wants to expose their guests to Virtual Reality. They hope to create an immersive experience for their guests, from the comfort of their rooms. Norwegian and MSC are mostly developing smart phone applications, that allow guests to check-in, book excursions, and open rooms. It is obvious that Disney developed a great idea with combining a "magical" band and phone application. The concept is so successful, that other players want to utilize the same formula. Let us see how well it works in the cruising industry.
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The Top Five Cyberthreats Hotel Brands and Franchisees Need to Know About | Netsurion - 0 views

  • ay for guests, it also opens hotels to digital threats perpetrated by malicious actors. Consequently, hotel operators should be aware of the types of cyber attacks, which can significantly hurt their brand reputation and bottom line, not to mention the safety and welfare of employees and guests.
  • In January, for example, cyber criminals took over a luxurious Austrian hotel’s computer-controlled key-card system, locking 180 guests out of their rooms until hotel managers paid a nominal ransom
  • A ransomware attack may disable or alter performance of hotels’ computer-driven systems such as air conditioning and lighting, putting guests’ comfort and, worse yet, safety at risk. In addition, booking systems are extremely vulnerable to ransomware attacks because they process information belonging to the hotels, third-party applications and their customers.
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  • 1. Ransomware:
  • hey present further ransomware opportunities to hackers by using computers to automate functions.
  • distributed denial of service, or DDoS
  • One of the largest data breaches in history was conducted through a third-party vendor when hackers stole data from 70 million credit cards by gaining access to a mega-retailer’s network through credentials belonging to an HVAC contractor.
  • 2. Remote hacking through third-party vendors:
  • 4. DDoS attacks on the hotel network:
  • 3. Phishing scam targeting customers and hotels:
  • Train employees. Hotels should train employees to not open suspicious emails or links inside them as they may contain malware.
  • Statistics indicate that such incidents will become more frequent, so it is not a matter of if but when the next cyber attack will occur.
  • Integrate a managed SIEM. Hotels should bring on a managed security information and event management (SIEM) platform for their remote locations to be warned right away of cyber attacks. They may also want it for inside the perimeter if they lack the expertise and resources to properly use SIEM internally.
  • Maintain PCI compliance. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has put forth a set of stipulations, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), in response to rapid PCI expansion. Hotels should make sure they are compliant with these regulations, which require businesses to send credit-card information in a secure environment, to prevent paying heavy fines and losing data, revenue, and customer trust.
  • Install antivirus on all devices. Hotels should ensure they have reliable anti-virus and anti-malware software installe
  • 5. Theft of personal information over public Wi-Fi.
  • According to the FBI, the number of cyber threat occurrences quadrupled to 4,000 per day last year from 1,000 per day in 2015
  • The number of cybersecurity incidents worldwide increased 38 percent in 2015 from 2014, according to the Global State of Information Security Survey 2016 by PwC, CIO, and CSO.
  • In addition, there are large volumes of payment card transactions between restaurants, on-site shops, spas, parking, and the front-desk, ensuring there is plenty of customer data for a hacker to compromise.
  • Hotels are especially vulnerable to this type of attack where a type of malware disrupts access to a system until a ransom is paid. This is because they often use integrated POS systems
  • Hackers can break into hotels’ payment systems through a remote access point belonging to one of its vendors, so they should closely monitor third-party access to their networks
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    This article outlines some of the main cyber attacks on the Hospitality industry. It exposes the threats due to the wealth of data stored in PMS, POS and CRM and suggests steps to take to protect against malware and randsomeware. The article further highlights the necessity for antivirus software on all devices.
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    The article describes the five most common cybersecurity risks for hotel brands such as ransomware, remote hacking and DDoS attacks. The operational elements of each risk have also been discussed. It also covers best practices that hotels and other hospitality organizations can adopt to curb breaches.
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IRIS Launches New F&B Solutions to Personalise the Digital Ordering Experience and Leve... - 0 views

  • According to the findings of the 2022 report by Oracle and Skift, “Hospitality in 2025: Automated, Intelligent…and More Personal” the majority of hoteliers (81%) expect to see a strong shift in the service model. In reality this means an increase in guest demand for operators to adopt mobile-first technology that offers choice and convenience.
  • Now operators have the option to build and manage their own digital wine lists which can also be used with the IRIS Flat Menu layout, removing the need for a physical menu.
  • Guests will also be able to see how much has been paid by each person in the Order History, making it easy to split amongst large groups.
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  • These features focus specifically on improving staff efficiencies and personalising the guest experience. Whether that's reducing the need for physical staff presence, providing guests with clear answers to common questions, or making it easier to manage bills and payments, our goal is to provide F&B ordering solutions that satisfy the guest’s needs and add value to their stay.
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    The enhancements of ordering food & beverage by this improved app will help to reduce the need for staff and provide a more personalized experience for guests. It offers the ability to manage new revenue streams for example wine sells can be sold as a glass that were not a previous option unless ordered with a staff member. There are endless possibilities of using this app with other hotel departments as well.
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What is cloud computing services, features and benefits, types? - 0 views

  • From the perspective of service users, cloud computing services have these main features: Hosted and maintained by the provider. The cloud hosting provider purchases, hosts, and maintains the necessary hardware and software in their own facility. Service users avoid the capital expenditures and maintenance headaches that they would have if they developed the service themselves on-premise. Self-service through a web interface. Service users can initiate specific service functions, and increase or decrease their service usage level, though a web interface with little or no interaction with the service provider. Pay for use. Service users pay only for the amount of service that they use. This can result in substantial cost savings compared to the traditional approach of developing on-site IT capacities geared toward maximum usage scenarios, and then having that capacity be under-utilized much of the time. Near-limitless scalability. Cloud computing services providers typically have the infrastructure to deliver their service at massive scale. For cloud service users, that means that the cloud can easily accommodate business growth or periodic spikes in service usage.
  • The wide range of services offered by cloud computing companies can be categorized into three basic types: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS provides users access to raw computing resources such processing power, data storage capacity, and networking, in the context of a secure data center. Platform as a Service (PaaS). Geared toward software development teams, PaaS offerings provide computing and storage infrastructure and also a development platform layer, with components such as web servers, database management systems, and software development kits (SDKs) for various programming languages. Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS providers offer application-level services tailored to a wide variety of business needs, such as customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, or business analytics.
  • In support of mobile cloud computing, we also offer services for automated content transformation and optimization, so your end users can tap into the cloud from any device, from anywhere, at any time.
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    The positive of cloud computing have it's benefits as it helps to establish business for what they are today by maintaining by the provider, self-service through web, pay for service use only and near limitless scalability. The could computing services can be divided into 3 types: Infrastructure, Platform and Software.
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10 Disadvantages & Risks of Cloud Computing | by Sarah Lavinski | FAUN Publication - 0 views

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    Highlights: 1.Risk of data confidentiality 2. Depends on internet connection 3. The level of security 4. Compliance 5. Vulnerable in the event of an attack 6. Data Mobility 7. Technical problem 8. Low Connection 9. The future of cloud computing will be more sophisticated and better management. 10. First essential thing you need to do is finding the best cloud service is before moving to the cloud. 11.Overcome the shortcomings in cloud computing is to find service providers who want to provide your business needs and ensure the security of your server. 12. Inadequate infrastructure is one of the problems that is often experienced.
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    Summary: As we learned that there are many advantages of cloud computing, there are several disadvantages as well. The disadvantages to include risk of data confidentiality, strong dependance on internet connection, insufficient level of security, vulnerable in the event of an attack. That being said, these disadvantages can be overcome by finding reputable service providers that caters to the need of the business as well as ensuring the security of the server. For example, a big business cooperation should invest is a more expensive and capable cloud computing software due to the amount of data involved. Whereas, a small business might just need a less sophisticated cloud computing software or store the data locally. In my opinion, due to the risks involved in cloud computing, all businesses should also have a back up of data locally.
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Hospitality security adjusts to COVID-19 constraints | 2021-02-08 | Security Magazine - 0 views

  • While COVID-19 has slowed the hospitality industry, security plays a more pivotal role than ever and the ongoing pandemic is challenging security professionals to adjust and adapt to new rules and procedures.
  • “The things people do in hotel rooms are things they would never do at home: prostitution, drug abuse. Suicide is huge, people kill themselves in hotel rooms because they don’t want to do it at home,”
  • The hotel industry came to a halt in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and things are only slowly starting to pick back up. Yet the burden on security is no less than it was before, and in many ways, the job has gotten harder.
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  • Occupancy levels dropped 90% for several months and have only recently returned to a consistent 40%, with many hotels still closed,
  • “Despite the low occupancy levels, we continue to have a significant number of incidents resulting in a much higher incident-to-occupied-room ratio than we have historically seen. We have seen a dramatic increase in heart attacks and suicides over the past few months, and continue to have increased numbers of fraud and guest-on-guest type incidents.”
  • Even as the need for security persists, many hospitality chains have pared back their security budgets.
  • Eventually COVID-19 will recede, but new risk categories will likely continue to unfold in hospitality. Security professionals can help to steer a course by reminding upper management that risk is more than just a monetary calculation.
  • Under these emerging policies, security is striving to put more active eyes on guest rooms — right at a time when COVID-related staff reductions are making it harder for security even to sustain normal operations.
  • Even if there’s only one person working the front desk, “they still need to be making the rounds,” Perman says. “They need to be knocking on doors and making contact, making conversation. You need them to keep up that level of human intervention.”
  • “A passive infrared detector can also be used to detect temperature in human beings, so a video camera that is infrared capable can detect fever in a human, and that is being done in a lot of places,”
  • Through COVID-19, though, technology can be a double-edged sword. For example, some hotels have turned to mobile-phone-based check-in to provide a touchless experience. “From a security perspective there are unintended consequences there,” Danson says. “Now you never have to go to the front desk, you never have to encounter a person.”
  • In some cases, entire corporate departments are being eliminated, so there is no centralized security department. There is no one providing corporate guidance, no one providing policies and procedures.”
  • With the onset of COVID-19, things have gotten even more challenging, as hotel security is increasingly tasked to do more with less. 
  • Even in this strained environment, other common risks persist in the hospitality world. Prostitution is a perennially complex issue for hotel security, for example, while human trafficking is an increasing area of concern.
  • When allocating resources in support of operational safety and security, “the chief of security needs to be informing corporate leadership of the potential risks, so that it becomes a risk-based decision and not just a budget decision,” Slotnick says. “Security has to make the case for risk, whether it’s a risk to brand reputation or other forms of risk.”
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    This article goes into great detail about how Covid-19 is affecting hotel security. With budget cuts, security personnel are being limited, but the need for security is more important than ever. The article talks about how suicides in hotels are higher than ever as well, making it all the more important to have a solid security presence.
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    In this article, it discusses the decline of the hotel industry following the COVID-19 pandemic, and how things have only slowly begun picking up again. However, the security burden is as great as it has ever been, and in many ways, it is even harder. Despite hotels closing their doors amid the pandemic, occupancy levels have only recently recovered to a consistently high 40%, with many still closed for months.
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