Orion Span is a startup that has highly ambitious plans, of opening up a space station in the near future for tourists. The plan is to get this business innovation off the shelf by the year 2022. Tourists will then be able to undertake twelve- day stays at the Aurora Space Station, view sunsets and sunrises from multiple vantage points, and even bring back samples of experimental food to be grown while on orbit. They can even play ping- pong while in a state of weightlessness. To counter the massive budgets that portended rivals Virgin Galactic and Axiom Space are likely to have, Orion Span will provide complete luxurious facilities. It is raising funds through a crowd funded mechanism.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/space-hotel-to-open-in-3-years-news10912

Uploaded Date:16 February 2019

Since Tony Fernandes acquired Air Asia back in 2001, the airline has seen a tremendous upsurge. It is now worth more than a billion dollars in revenue terms. It is considered now, the world’s best low-cost airline. One of the key learnings from Fernandes’s leadership style, is to not panic during any crisis. Instead, one must advertise more heavily then, as Air Asia did during the SARS outbreak, or during the currency crisis. This is because, the costs also reduced at those times, due to bleak advertising revenues. During such crises, while others were lowering their budgets, Air Asia substantially increased it. Sponsoring of British football giant Manchester United boosted the perceptions, placing the brand at par with the likes of Vodafone and Budweiser, that have done likewise. The logo colour was also changed to red as it improved the image recall. Fernandes has also stressed on sound talent management practices, so he maintains a flat organization structure at Air Asia. The retention is thus high, and the top executives, encouraged to go beyond their comfy office rooms, to be more hands- on.

Source:http://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/why-airasia-boosts-marketing-during-a-crisis?utm_source=mitsloantwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=airasia

Uploaded Date:02 February 2019

A lot of commentators have tried to gauge the true meaning of the term sustainable tourism. Sustainability may be in the form of business or for the environment. Aviation is one sub- sector within the broad travel and tourism, which is not heading in the business- wise sustainable direction. This is because of mass increase at a time of heavy discounting. But one of the best aspects of the tourism industry is the sheer generation of tourism jobs. This is one sector where automation has not been too much of a disruptor, due to the need for human touch. Environmental sustainability is an aspect that all kinds of players are increasingly having to comply with, plus is helping them in cost reduction. Tourism is also one sector which breaks the monotony of singular brands and uniformity worldwide.

Source:https://www.ttgasia.com/2018/12/24/where-is-sustainability-in-travel-tourism-headed/

Uploaded Date:25 January 2019

A tourism security audit is taking place in the island nation of Jamaica. This is to identify if any gaps remain and to ensure that all tourism activities remain safe. This audit is being led by tourism consulting firm TPDCo (Tourism Product Development Company) in toto with a senior partner at the PwC and an international expert on security. The idea is to create the point of tourism surety, which is the point from where economic development and brand reputation are well aligned to the destination’s security and safety needs. A meeting was convened among the parties recently towards this. Here, Global Rescue shared its plan as part of the endeavor. Later in the month, plans are afoot to launch the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre at Montego Bay.

Source:https://www.eturbonews.com/242481/global-rescue-arrives-on-jamaica-island-for-tourism-security-audit-review

Uploaded Date:22 January 2019

For biometrics, the next frontier is the travel and tourism industry. The world is traveling much more frequently, now than ever before attested by business intelligence contributed by the World Economic Forum (WEF). It states clearly that the industry generated a total of US$ 2.3 trillion in 2016. More than a hundred million tourism jobs were also contributed by the industry. This is what makes the industry, fertile ground for biometrics implementation. That is because biometrics helps ease travel processes. Tis improves customer satisfaction, but also does good for the bottom line, as things move quicker. Mobile interfaces and devices help out in the process. Cryptography is used to ensure the maximum security. This aligns with the global facial recognition market, expected to rise to worth six and a half billion dollars by 2021, as per numbers shared by Technavio.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/01/09/how-the-travel-industry-is-driving-biometric-security-innovation/#44b512f36572

Uploaded Date:22 January 2019

Thecontinent of Africa has seer a surge in inbound tourist arrivals. There were a total of sixty- three million foreign visitors in the year 2017, as per business intelligence supplied by the Hospitality Report. This rise is marginally above the global average. In spite of this growth, Africa receives a far lesser proportion of the global travel pie than the leaders, Europe and the runners- up, the Asia- Pacific region. The contribution of the travel and tourism industry to the overall GDP of Africa reached a high of 12% for 2018. There are also a total reported of twenty- two million tourism jobs on the continent. The expenditures have also gone up continent- wide. An increasing number of international hotel brands are primed to entire Africa, in case they haven’t already. Even the air passenger traffic has seen a likewise rise.

Source:https://www.modernghana.com/news/908586/africas-travel-tourism-top-2018-highlights.html

Uploaded Date:22 January 2019

One of the key topics discussed at the Google Travel Executive Forum held in San Jose, was about the use of data warehousing by travel companies to gain a competitive advantage. This warehouse elicits key insights about the markets. One of the areas where the customer journey is more protracted is in finding travel accommodation. Surprisingly, the conversion rate was higher when people searched for them, rather than when they directly went to the supplier website. The mobile phone is of course is one of the most used devices now, so travel brands need to direct their digital marketing to be accessible across devices, and in particular the mobile web. To serve today’s digital traveler, the travel purchase journey needs to be embraced. The right investment needs to be made on existing capabilities to further hone them. Whatever be the company’s philosophy, it must openly converge.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-transport-and-logistics/our-insights/how-to-serve-todays-digital-traveler

Uploaded Date:10 January 2019