This is a roundup for product news and announcements for travel systems in tourism and hospitality for January 2017. Friday 6 January 2016: VIA introduces cash-on-delivery system The online travel agency will now allow travellers to make a booking for a flight and then pay in cash at any…
There is a scene in the movie Brazil, a Terry Gilliam film, in which one of the characters gets killed by an overabundance of paperwork. Papers begin sticking to him, ultimately covering him from head to toe, and eventually taking his life. While this is a very extreme example…
Founded last year, Survaider wants to help hotels and other hospitality view and act upon customer comments across social media, email, phone calls and feedback forms. The idea is to aggregate all of the interactions in one place and in real time enabling hospitality businesses to communicate with customers, highlight common…
Much-hyped concepts “wearable tech” and “internet of things” may soon become practical realities for tens of thousands of travelers, as the cruise industry makes a massive investment in sensor-based technology and data analytics. In November 2017, the Princess Cruises’ ship Regal Princess will debut wearable technology for guests. Some analysts believe this…
Did you know that “complexify” is a word? It means, not surprisingly, to make something more complicated. As a big believer in the value of big data, it’s hard to say this, but thus far it seems that data has mostly served to complexify hospitality. NB: This is an…
This is a roundup for people moves in tourism and hospitality for January 2017. Wednesday 5 January 2017: EveryMundo targets APAC EveryMundo, a performance marketing specialist for airline dotcoms, is expanding into APAC, naming Jonathan Liu as its managing director for the region. He will be based in Hong…
China’s biggest taxi app Didi is linking up with Brazil’s 99, taking a stake in the business as part of a strategic co-operation deal. The scale of its investment in 99, formerly 99 Taxis, is not disclosed, although it is large enough to warrant Didi getting a place on…
Destimetrics, a market intelligence system for hotels and destinations, has been bought by Inntopia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founder Ralf Garrison and the Destimetrics team will be retained as part of the acquisition. The deal comes just two months after Inntopia acquired marketing and digital customer…
This is a roundup for product news and announcements for travel distribution in tourism and hospitality for January 2017. Wednesday 4 January 2017: Ryanair renews Navitaire until 2025 The new long-term package will see Amadeus-owned Navitaire continue to handle Ryanair’s reservations and ancillary sales, as well as departure control…
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints about “misleading prices” in adverts from Ryanair and lastminute.com, with the ruling on the latter potentially having implications for any OTA including dynamic real-time pricing in their digital marketing campaigns. The independent body received a complaint – just the one…