As the 2021 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) nears, the event is ramping up its program and getting ready to welcome back the industry after a year off from taking place in-person.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the financial wellbeing of hotels around the world, especially in regions that have experienced prolonged lockdowns and reduced travel. Real estate investment funds and managers, such as Apollo, KSL Capital, and Tristan Capital Partners, have taken advantage of the growing amount of opportunities to purchase distressed hotel assets.

HITEC®, the world’s largest hospitality technology conference and exhibition returns live this year in just three months. Join thousands of fellow hospitality professionals September 27-30, 2021 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas USA for four days of exciting in-person networking, education and exhibits.

After a year like 2020, it was impossible to predict what a return to in-person events would look like in 2021. The Club Summit was HFTP’s opening number, a sold-out event in stunning southern Florida that promised two days of advanced-level, club-focused education and networking to its 146 registered attendees.

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) successfully featured eight start-up companies with innovative technology solutions at its Entrepreneur 20X (E20X) competition at HITEC® Dubai on June 1, 2021.

In his award-winning movie “Ready Player One,” Steven Spielberg portrays the future as an anti-utopia where much of humanity lives in a virtual world called OASIS. Although this is science fiction, many of the topics covered in the film are relevant today.

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) has expanded the reach of its global network with the newly-chartered HFTP India Chapter. The chapter, incorporated as HFTP India Association, was granted an Indian business license on May 20, 2021.

Tanya Venegas, MBA, MHM, CHIA and Sanjay Nadkarni, Ph.D. have been selected as the 2021 Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) Paragon Award recipients for their excellent direction of the HFTP Research Centers and their impactful tutelage over hospitality students and HFTP student members.

Have you ever heard the old saying “If you haven’t been to a HFTP chapter meeting lately, you haven’t been to a HFTP chapter meeting”? In case you didn’t know, I just made that up – but it is very true, nonetheless.

Over the past year and a half, hospitality marketing and management has witnessed tremendous growth in terms of research and development (Byrd, et.al, 2021).