Topics

1

Tourism Trends / IoT watch helps hotel enhance services and iron out housekeeping logistics

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:28:31 PM »

IoT watch helps hotel enhance services and iron out housekeeping logistics
In the hospitality industry, guest service has always been the cornerstone of a successful property. Now, Germany’s Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts is using Microsoft IoT technologies to enhance hotel management and help staff deliver timely service and improve operational efficiencies.

At the start of each shift, housekeeping employees strap on a smart watch powered by Windows IoT Core and Azure IoT. The IoT-enabled watch, manufactured by Microsoft partner Trekstor, uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to enable staff and managers to communicate by voice or text. It also runs a version of the hotel’s property-management solution that enables managers to trace and dispatch staff to fulfill guest needs in real time, as well as iron out the logistical challenges of daily housekeeping.

2

Tourism Trends / Energy Savings

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:24:10 PM »

Energy Savings
Appliances used by restaurants account for a large portion of the electricity bill and it gets quite difficult for restaurant owners to keep track of their energy usage or to reduce the associated costs. Many a times, the root cause of this problem is the power consumed by older kitchen appliances. Additionally, the risk of unexpected breakdown is higher with such appliances, resulting in a jumbled maintenance schedule.

Recently, restaurant owners have started using Energy Management Solution (EMS) that rely on intelligent assets to collect, analyze, and share data on power consumption of restaurants. According to American West Restaurant Group,, “Pizza hut expects an 18% reduction in average monthly energy usage and save $2million in energy costs between 2018 to 2022, all because of IoT”.

Let’s take as an example the smart appliances that restaurants can use to manage energy consumption better. Fryers with smart sensors can maintain a predefined oil temperature and notify the cook when the fries are perfectly done. Through alert notifications, the managers or operators also get an idea when oil should be filtered or changed, which helps to optimize food hygiene management.

Let’s look at another example. The data collected by a smart fridge can be combined with the Point of Sale (POS) data on incoming orders to operate on-demand analytics and contribute in real-time data, which further allows kitchen staff to get the right number of specific supplies, thus helping in minimizing energy loss from the thermal transfer.

3

Tourism Trends / Smarter and More Efficient Operations

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:23:46 PM »

Smarter and More Efficient Operations
Operational efficiency is a buzz word for manufacturers, and every company in the F&B industry is aiming to achieve it. Operational efficiency can be increased by integrating workflows and reducing manual processes, connecting business groups and systems, streamlining processes to make better decisions, and implementing process improvements to turn growth into profits.


Let’s take smart vending machines as an example to understand this. According to Business Wire, “ The global vending machine market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 3% during the period 2018-2022.” Players in the market are introducing innovative vending machine technology that allows these machines to accept payments that are

4

Tourism Trends / Transparent Supply Chains

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:23:19 PM »

Transparent Supply Chains
Global supply chain has started implementing traceability and transparency, which helps in increasing customer loyalty and establishing trust between the business and the consumers. Because of this, both consumers and companies can track the products. IoT can make this entire process more convenient and effective.

Many food companies are adopting Safety for food (S4F) initiative. sflk

Let’s understand this with an example: A buyer enters a store and picks a box of chocolates. Using IoT technology, consumers can easily track entire food supply chain. The QR code on the box allows consumers to scan and learn everything about how the chocolates were made, the ingredients that were used, when it was made, how it was packaged, and how it reached to the store shelves. This will help the customer make more informed buying decisions and it will also help establish trust between the buyers and the sellers.

5

Tourism Trends / Streamlined logistics

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:22:49 PM »

Streamlined logistics
Just like the logistics department of any other industry, food and beverage logistics can also use IoT technology in their operations. Such solutions can not only help F&B teams to track inventory in real time, but also help to automate shipments based on requests or predictions for replenishment.

For example, by implementing RFID (Radio frequency identification) transmitters and GPS systems, monitoring becomes more effective in the distribution chain. This allows companies to be informed with the preferences of customers, address market requirements in a better way and decrease waste. With the help of RFID tracking technology, food supply chain receives excellent visibility and benefits from automating the delivery and shipping processes that monitor and control the storage temperature.

In addition, it permits shippers to track the location of the product with GPS; by collecting the purposeful data, shippers get an idea of estimated performance in a different regions. This will eventually help shippers in understanding customer’s behavior to reduce dead miles in trucks.

6

Tourism Trends / Improved Food Safety

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:22:26 PM »

1) Improved Food Safety
The 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), put into place by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, has acted as a catalyst for global change in the food industry. A major overhaul of the US food safety regulations, this law makes the FDA’s role more proactive: focusing on food safety through prevention instead of just reacting to an food contamination issue after it arises.

As a result, the F&B industry is paying more attention to food safety. In this context, food and beverage solutions enabled by IoT help companies in remaining flexible while proving the best top of the line products and complying with FSMA regulations:

Different kind of monitoring sensors, including temperature and humidity sensors are being used to monitor necessary production state, shipping time, and to monitor temperature in containers to ensure that food products are stored in a suitable environment.The utilization of real-time temperature tracking sensors allows organizations to closely monitor food safety data points, assuring active cold chain management.This triggers staff to perform and verify mandatory food safety inspections when data gathered from sensors advice potential issues or violations.Currently, in the packaging industry, food packaging has been tagged with sensors and linked to a supply-chain-wide network. It helps investigators with the trace-and-track process and significantly reduces the time and effort involved in it.

7

Tourism Trends / 5 Ways IoT is Transforming the Food and Beverage Industry

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:22:07 PM »

5 Ways IoT is Transforming the Food and Beverage Industry

The food service industry is an highly dynamic and evolving industry, where the Internet of Things can create real value for businesses that distribute, deliver, and sell food and beverage products.

According to a report by ReportLinker, “The Internet of Things (IoT) and traceability for food and beverage (F&B) manufacturing market was valued at $4.08 billion in market revenue in 2017 and is expected to reach $8.43 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5%”.

There is no doubt that by adopting IoT, the food and beverage industry can run to its highest potential. IoT is helping companies to achieve high levels of food safety, improve traceability, cut down wastage, and reduce costs and risks across the different stages of food processing and packaging.

One of the primary goals of the F&B industry is to deliver high quality food to the end consumer, which directly depends on how the food is stored before it reaches the consumer’s basket. Maintaining adequate temperature and humidity levels is one of the primary concerns in storing perishable food products such as meat or dairy. This can be done by properly monitoring the food service equipment round the clock, regardless of whether the staff is present, or the stores/warehouses are open or closed.

Any compromise in the food storage environment would affect the food quality and result in heavy losses due to spoilt or expired inventory.

The benefits offered by IoT technology in the food and beverage industry are plenty, and the impact of the technology is also extremely impressive over the last few years. Let’s check out some of the key effects of IoT in food Industr

8

Tourism Trends / Improve food and beverage safety

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:20:46 PM »

Improve food and beverage safety
Taking adequate food safety measures is not only an important part of providing quality food and beverage products for the end consumer, but it also plays a vital role in maintaining compliance. Different food regulation organizations and governmental agencies across the world are starting to require more detailed monitoring and record-keeping to ensure consistent food safety. IoT-enabled food and beverage solutions help companies remain compliant while providing the best quality products:

Track food in transit to ensure transportation conditions do not impact food safety or quality of final product.
Provide more detailed and accurate record-keeping on how food is produced, manufactured, transported, and stored.
Use sensors to monitor temperatures in containers to ensure that food products are being safety stored.
Trigger staff to perform and verify required food safety inspections when data gathered from sensors suggests potential issues or violations

9

Tourism Trends / Simplify operations and boost efficiency

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:20:23 PM »

Simplify operations and boost efficiency
IoT-enabled solutions provide a variety of logistical benefits for food and beverage companies. Connected devices can help organizations in the food and beverage manufacturing industry improve efficiency and enhance business processes while also working to prevent machine downtime and other costly issues:

Use sensors to retrieve real-time data that allows you to track inventory, indicate when replenishment is needed, and trigger automatic shipments.
Monitor and track shipments, planning alternative routes to ensure that products are delivered on time.
Remotely monitor the conditions of containers and other vessels to ensure quality and safety of the final product.
Get alerts on machine maintenance and repair issues to maintain operational efficiency and prevent costly malfunctions.

10

Tourism Trends / Improve food quality, operational efficiency, and compliance

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:19:49 PM »

Improve food quality, operational efficiency, and compliance
Companies in the food and beverage industries face unique challenges as they often experience harsh production environments and strict regulatory requirements. The Internet of Things (IoT) helps food and beverage companies gain greater visibility over their manufacturing, production, and transportation processes to provide higher quality products for end consumers while maintaining operational efficiency and remaining compliant with governmental regulations.

11

Tourism Trends / OCCUPANCY SENSING IMPROVES HOSPITALITY

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:16:12 PM »

The hospitality industry is embracing energy management as a way to compete and ultimately deliver the best value to their customers. Meanwhile, the balance between guest comfort and operational efficiency is becoming more challenging than ever before. Hotels are understanding that it’s impossible to obtain significant energy savings and an enhanced guest experience without accurately detecting occupancy in the guest room. A comprehensive occupancy sensing strategy is necessary to realize the full benefits of an energy management system.

12

Tourism Trends / What about the downsides of hospitality IoT?

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:15:08 PM »

What about the downsides of hospitality IoT?
It’s true that connecting devices online introduces enormous efficiencies for the hospitality industry. But it also introduces threats like cyber attacks and security breaches.

Each device incorporated into a hotel’s digital infrastructure can be exploited by hackers. These hackers can use their access to hold a hotel’s systems hostage (and demand a ransom) or jeopardize the security and comfort of guests by playing with building controls.

These possibilities shouldn’t lead hotels to fear IoT in hospitality. It’s the way of the future and unavoidable. Rather, it should push hotel executives to think about how they can take advantage of the immense benefits of IoT in hospitality and get ahead of vulnerabilities.

Today, the IoT opportunities for hotels can elevate the guest experience. Hotels that incorporate IoT into their establishments will have a leg up on the competition.

13

Tourism Trends / for hotel guests, IoT creates a seamless visit

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:13:13 PM »

For hotel guests, IoT creates a seamless visit
For guests, IoT in their accommodations makes for a more comfortable and customized stay. Guests might stay in automated rooms where they can adjust the lights or call the front desk from their beds via their TV or mobile device.

And speaking of mobile devices, hospitality can be more integrated with guests’ personal gadgets thanks to IoT. Guests can check into a hotel and unlock their room via their mobile device, providing a seamless hospitality experience.

Moreover, mobile integration gives you data (with the guests’ permission) that lets you remember guest preferences. Hoteliers can take it a step further and customize their reservation based on previous stays

14

Tourism Trends / What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:12:04 PM »

What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the phrase used to refer to the inclusion of internet connectivity within everyday devices and appliances that have not typically had such capabilities. Examples of these devices might range from thermostats and energy meters, through to vehicles and large machines.

Essentially, it can turn those devices or appliances into ‘smart’ objects, which are capable of both sending and receiving data and communicating with each other. This can improve data collection, increase levels of automation and allow for multiple devices to be controlled or monitored from one centralised place, such as a phone or tablet.

15

Tourism & Hospitality Management (THM) / IS TRAVEL A RIGHT? – THE CONCEPT OF RIGHT, & WHEN IT’S JUST WRONG

« on: May 30, 2019, 04:10:56 PM »

IS TRAVEL A RIGHT? – THE CONCEPT OF RIGHT, & WHEN IT’S JUST WRONG

‘I know my rights’ is a well used phrase in the legal and commercial world, and it is now making regular appearances in discussions about tourism and, in particular, overtourism. When tourists are informed that damage to streets, parks, mountains, ancient sites or beaches are leading to a forced restriction on visitor numbers, or indeed a tourist tax, ‘we all have a right to travel’ is the most commonly used protest line. You can print it on as many holiday t-shirts as you like, but at Responsible Travel, we don’t completely agree.

Of course we value travel. We sell holidays, after all, but we are working hard to get our heads around this ‘rights’ issue. It is a complex concept; however, it is one that is worth exploring to understand this belief by many that we all have a right to travel. Certainly, the residents of Venice, Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and cruise ship destinations from Santorini to Skye, don’t agree. They are understandably shouting “what about my rights?” as their streets get ruined, water resources usurped and air polluted by giant cruise liners with thousands of tourists arriving en masse.

Philosophers, theologians and politicians dating back to the Greeks and Romans have made an important differentiation between natural rights and legal rights. Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws of a culture, community or government. They are sometimes, therefore, described as universal or inalienable. Legal rights are those put in place by a legal system. In tourism, these two concepts can often be confused and also lead to conflict. The US government’s Executive Order in January 2017 ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’ was probably the most shocking example of this.