By Russell Flannery: The Boston Consulting Group and TripAdvisor China came out with a good report on Friday that details how Asia is poised to greatly increase its share of the global travel business. Some 49% of passenger traffic globally will be within the Asia-Pacific region or between the region and the rest of the world, up from 37% today, said the report titled “Winning the Next Billion Asian Travelers – Starting with China.”
Las Vegas Sands Cancels $30B Spanish Casino-Resort Project
Sheldon G. Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate, on Friday abandoned his plans to build a $30 billion gambling and leisure resort on the outskirts of Madrid after failing to win financial concessions and other favors from the Spanish government.
Hilton Exploring New Hotel Brand for 2014
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., which began trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, expects to introduce a new hotel brand in 2014 aimed at affluent, young travellers by emphasizing style and design.
Stop Hiding Behind the Numbers
By Feature Writer Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng: Repeatedly, I ask hoteliers a simple question, “How’s business?” Typically, I get a response like, “We’re down $x.xx in ADR versus budget, but occupancy is holding steady at xx.x%,” or, “REVPAR is solid and we’re $x.xx ahead of comp set.” In all, these types of responses are an excellent one-stop measure of how the senior manager believes his or her business is operating. Unfortunately, they reflect only a narrow focus on short-term financial data.
How To Implement A Front Desk Upselling Program
By Feature Writer Doug Kennedy: As the industry looks ahead to what is hoped to be a continued rebound in demand in 2014, most hotel revenue and marketing executives are ready to move beyond a “let’s get the heads in the beds” era and to focus on continuing to regain ground on ADR. One significant opportunity is to implement a comprehensive program for upselling guests at registration.
Warning for Hotel Investors Considering Golf Courses: Different Risks Apply
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®: Hotel investors suddenly seem to be buying or building more golf courses. With the right expectations and circumstances, golf courses can make sense — particularly as an amenity for hotels, residential development and other real estate. But as more hospitality clients look at golf courses, it seems appropriate to consider the drivers of this renewed interest, and some of the similarities golf courses share with other hospitality investments such as hotels. And finally, we want to look at some of the big factors that make golf courses very different from other hospitality investments, so you can avoid some unnecessary pitfalls.
U.S. Meetings Industry Moves Away from Traditional Convention Cities in 2013
By Samantha Shankman: Major hotel brands are still capturing the majority of the U.S. meeting and convention sector but traditional convention cities are starting to lose ground, reveals data from event management platform Cvent.
Winners of the 20th World Travel Awards 2013
It is with a great pleasure that we announce the winners of the 20th World Travel Awards, voted by travel agents worldwide.
Is TRevPAR the Most Effective Metric for Revenue Managers?
By Feature Writer Jean Francois Mourier, CEO of REVPAR GURU: There has been a great deal of discussion as of late as to the value of the revenue management metric TRevPar (Total Revenue per Available Room). TRevPAR is calculated by dividing the total net revenues of a property (room revenues plus ancillary revenue streams such as food and beverage, rentals, etc.) by the total available rooms. Many industry experts are saying that TRevPAR is a more valuable metric than RevPAR in determining pricing strategies, but I’m here today to offer a different opinion.
What Do the Evolving Requirements in PCI DSS 3.0 Mean for Your Hotel Business?
By Feature Writer Peter Roy: The PCI Security Standards Council published the PCI DSS v3.0 on November 7th 2013 and it contained a whopping 19 “evolving requirements” (changes to the standard in response to emerging threats). In this article, I will provide a brief analysis of three of those evolving requirements that I believe are likely to present specific implementation and operational challenges for hoteliers with geographically dispersed hotels.
