Though it may seem like technology has already transformed everything, supply chain and vendor management processes of restaurants have remained relatively untouched and not seen any innovations for a long time
Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the membership association that unites the world's hospitality companies and technology innovators to solve industry challenges, announced the agenda for next month's conference in Bangkok. HTNG has lined up an impressive list of experts to speak on current important topics in technology for the hospitality industry. Space in the exhibit hall is already sold out and the number of regional attendees is on the rise, forecasting the largest Asia-Pacific Conference HTNG has ever seen.
Asia's leading provider of entertainment solutions to the hospitality industry, is pleased to announce that NxGen Communications Pte Ltd ("NxGen"), has become a 25.19% shareholder in the company following the subscription to new shares. NxGen, a leading managed services provider and systems integrator for infocomm solutions in Asia, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-listed group TeleChoice International Limited.
As Chinese travellers leave the comfort zone of the group tour for do-it-yourself exploration, a new partnership between a fledgling hotel group and a marketing services company is pointing the way. Louis T Collection (Louis T) and WIHP's (World Independent Hotels Promotion) has launched ChinaConnect, a tailored Chinese language service for hotels, with their first property, Hotel Ares Eiffel in Paris.
SiteMinder and leading Australian property management software provider HiRUM have today announced a partnership to offer a new, wholly-integrated online distribution solution for hotels in the country. The partnership involves the integration of HiRUM's Front DeskTM PMS with SiteMinder's Channel Manager, which will automate online bookings for the companies' mutual hotel customers to reduce the time and costs involved in overbookings and manual management of reservations.
Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced that its President and CEO, Jim Dennedy, and its Senior Vice President of Global Revenue, Jim Walker, will both be featured on industry panels at the upcoming Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E Asia), which will be held May 15-17 at The Venetian Macao. Every year, more than 95% of Asian casino operators attend G2E Asia to look for cutting-edge products and solutions and gather upcoming industry trends.
Travel Tripper, the industry's most innovative provider of hotel reservation and e-commerce solutions, today announced the opening of a new global delivery center in Hyderabad, India. This new office will capitalize on Hyderabad's rich pool of technology talent and serve as a development and client service center for Travel Tripper's expanding worldwide operations.
Leading global hospitality association, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), will host its first annual India CIO Forum from September 28-30, 2016 at The Oberoi Udaivilas property in Udaipur, Rajasthan India.
In response to very strong demand for protel Air, the leading cloud based property management system, Xn protel Systems has opened a Sydney-based data centre. The city joins Berlin as the second major data centre for protel Air and will deliver optimal performance to users in Australia, New Zealand and the wider region. This investment marks a major milestone in Xn protel Systems' focus on delivering best-in-class cloud computing to hotels, motels, serviced apartments and other accommodation providers in the region.
The inaugural Hospitality Technology Exhibition® (HTx®) has wrapped up its 3-day run, held from 13 to 15 April 2016. A joint collaboration between China Hospitality Technology Alliance (CHTA) and InfoCommAsia, the exhibition is a concerted effort to take the hospitality industry to the next generation through cutting-edge technology. Held concurrently with InfoComm China at the China National Convention Center, HTx attracted 9,968 local and overseas visitors from the hospitality industry.
A sea front luxury hotel in Viet Nam, the Alana Nha Trang Beach Hotel strengthens HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts portfolio of independent hotels in the APAC region.
This report from RezNext and FICCI on the technology landscape for travel and hospitality provides a quick look at the current pace of technology automation, consumer trends, impact of mobile technology and trends with online hotel distribution.
Hotel representation company HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts announces the launch of a new product, REZChina, aimed at helping the independent hotels access the very lucrative market of Chinese outbound travel. China's current status as the world's largest outbound tourism generator and outbound tourism spender, makes it a key market and one that most hotel businesses simply cannot afford to overlook. According to China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, in the first half of 2015 alone, China was accountable for as many as 61.90 million outbound visitors, representing an increase of 12% compared with the same period of 2014. And as far as forecasts go, Asian brokerage group CLSA estimates that by 2020 the number of outbound travellers originating from China is likely to hit the 200 million mark.
Dorsett Singapore sets to introduce a new value-added service for its guests: a smartphone called 'handy'. This complimentary value-add provides unlimited connectivity, Wi-Fi tethering, 3G Internet, local and international calls to five countries, a complete city guide of Singapore and exclusive discounts and offers.
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) and Rakuten Travel (http://travel.rakuten.co.jp/) today announced that they have signed a Direct Connect Agreement that will enable Japanese travelers to check room inventory in real-time and rates in Marriott International's 4,300+ hotel portfolio, as well as to book hotel rooms online on their smart phones or digital devices. The strategic partnership will commence in the first quarter of 2016.
CapitaLand's wholly owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), will make available its global network of serviced residences on Alitrip, an online travel service platform under Chinese e-commerce giant the Alibaba Group, a first for any serviced residence company. The partnership will allow Ascott to deepen access to over 100 million Chinese travellers currently served by Alitrip. Ascott already has 24 of its China properties with 4,300 apartment units available for booking by Alitrip users through a directly operated online flagship store. It will list its global network of more than 26,000 apartment units operating in over 60 cities on the one-stop online travel platform by June this year. Mr Lee Chee Koon, Ascott's Chief Executive Officer, said: "Ascott is delighted to be the world's first serviced residence company to form this global partnership with Alitrip. Chinese travellers can look forward to even more travel options on our Alitrip store, when Ascott doubles our portfolio to 80,000 units globally by 2020. China is the world's second largest economy, and rising incomes are driving domestic travel and making it the world's biggest outbound travel market. These are potential customers for Ascott and our penetration of the Chinese market is already contributing to Ascott's business worldwide." "Chinese are amongst Ascott's top customers at our properties globally with revenue surging by 36% year-on-year. Our serviced residences are ideal for Chinese families who enjoy the privacy of individual bedrooms and the convenience of a kitchen within a spacious apartment. Ascott's partnership with Alitrip follows our recent investment in Tujia.com International, China's largest online apartment sharing platform where our properties outside of China will also be available for booking by first quarter of this year." Mr Lee elaborated: "With 668 million citizens online, China is home to the world's largest community of Internet users and consumers are increasingly using social channels as well as websites to review, book and pay for their holidays at home or abroad. As Chinese travellers become increasingly tech-savvy and independent, they prefer to customise their travel itineraries, with more than 70% of outbound travellers in 2014 booking trips on their own rather than joining tour groups, we foresee further growth in independent travellers. Our The Ascott Limited (Regn No.: 197900881N) No. 168 Robinson Road #30-01 Capital Tower Singapore 068912 t (65) 6713 2888 f (65) 6713 2121 www.the-ascott.com QATAR SAUDI ARABIA SINGAPORE SOUTH KOREA SPAIN THAILAND TURKEY UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VIETNAM "we define global living" AUSTRALIA BAHRAIN BELGIUM CAMBODIA CHINA FRANCE GEORGIA GERMANY INDIA INDONESIA JAPAN LAOS MALAYSIA MYANMAR OMAN PHILIPPINES strategic partnerships with Alitrip and Tujia.com International reinforce Ascott's commitment to create a seamless O2O (Offline-to-Online and Online-to-Offline) experience for our guests as we reach out to these hundreds of millions of Internet and smartphone users in China." Mr Kevin Goh, Ascott's Managing Director for North Asia, added: "Since opening Ascott's online store on Alitrip with our properties in China in August 2015, we have seen high traffic and strong sales. By directly managing Ascott's online store on Alitrip we are able to be nimble in running promotions such as special offers to drive Ascott Online Advantage member signups and the sale of cash vouchers for subsequent reservations. We are positive that the partnership will allow Ascott to tap on the growing segment of tech-savvy, independent travellers." Mr Goh added: "Customers who have booked their stays with Ascott through Alitrip can now use the "Post Post Pay" service at our properties in China. Qualified guests will be able to reserve apartments without paying a deposit and can enjoy express check-out by having payments automatically deducted from their Alipay accounts. The "Post Post Pay" service will also be available for our global properties by this year." China is now Ascott's largest market with the most number of properties and it is also the largest international serviced residence owner-operator in China with over 14,000 apartment units across 24 Chinese cities. The latest partnership with Alitrip comes on the back of Ascott's recent collaborations with various online and technology leaders. In August 2015, Ascott invested in Tujia.com International to harness growth opportunities in the O2O space. In April 2015, Ascott was the first global serviced residence company to embrace Internet of Things- ready smart serviced residences in collaboration with Samsung Asia Pte Ltd.
Xn protel Systems are proud to have partnered with the 174 room and luxury villa Dream Hotel and Dream Beach Club in Phuket, Thailand for the supply of protel PMS, Xn POS, Xn CRS and Xn Materials Management
Cendyn®, parent company of hospitality and event industry technology leaders Cendyn/ONE™ and Cendyn Arcaneo®, is expanding its global operations and appointing London, England-based John Seaton as International Managing Director to support the continuously increasing international demand. With Cendyn's innovative, cloud- based SaaS platforms currently used by 30,000 clients in 143 countries, the company is pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Singapore, with plans to debut eight additional office locations across the globe in 2016.
Following its recent partnership with Singapore based Peak Hospitality Solutions, HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts continues to add new hotels to its Asia portfolio; the latest of which is the luxury 5 star The Light Hotel in Penang.
This week Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) CEO Frank Wolfe addressed more than 125 CEO/CIO/COO from global hotel groups at the 2015 CHTA Global Conference, November 11 – 13 in Macau. Wolfe shared his expertise on global hospitality technology trends. As a member of the advisory council for HFTP's Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC), the world's largest hospitality technology event, Wolfe is in tune with the most current hot topics in the industry. Joining Wolfe, was Sunny Wang, executive director of the HFTP Asia Research Center.