By IANS
New Delhi : Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, has unveiled a new report that identifies globalisation, a new breed of customer and new technologies as the three key drivers for the hotel industry worldwide.
Amadeus commissioned the report titled “A blueprint for the future of the hospitality industry” to identify the trends that will affect the industry in the future and the technology implications for hotels and hotel chains.
“Globally, but more so in India, the hospitality industry faces many challenges. But along with those challenges comes tremendous opportunity,” said Ankur Bhatia, managing director of Amadeus India.
“Through effective business strategy, with the right technology, the hospitality industry can meet these identified changing needs of customers and increase the level of personalization to increase loyalty and success,” he added.
On opportunities for growth into new markets, the report says that emerging markets – particularly Russia, India, China and the Gulf – offer significant opportunities, but cannot be treated as a homogenous whole.
For example, customers from China will search for, plan and book a hotel in a different way from customers from Russia.
“The notion of brand integrity is crucial: hotels will need to supply consistent service in a global environment, while adapting to support customers with new cultural background and sensitivities in local markets,” the report maintains.
Noting that information is the key to servicing the demanding customer, the report says: “The modern traveller wants to have experiences built around their personal needs.
“The hotel industry recognises that it must go further in its adoption of social networking. User reviews expose the truth of a hotel’s brand since customers often use their peer group as the main source of information.
“Hotels are now challenged with maintaining high standards and meeting the expectations of customers who have done a significant amount of research before they travel,” the report says.
It contends that the more demanding customer of the future “will want to engage with a hotel across at all touch points where appropriate.
“Hotels will need to capture and store more data, yet access to it must be faster and more targeted in order to personalise the guest experience,” the report says.
On the need for technological integration to improve operational efficiency, the report maintains that as distribution, channel and content management become more complex, “ensuring tight integration between these core systems will become an even higher priority for hotels.
“Applications, databases and networks must integrate more easily with each other and third-party systems to facilitate collaborations with partners,” the report says.
“The growing importance of the mobile channel is clear. Although the use of smaller devices for booking is not yet commonplace, it is anticipated the technology platforms used by hospitality companies must support and enable all user interactions to integrate in the future, from phone to fax to PC to PDA to mobile,” the report says.
Madrid-based Amadeus commissioned market research firm Inspire Resources to prepare the report after interviewing senior hotel executives, consultants, academics and researchers.
Over 1,000 hotels in 35 countries utilise the Amadeus Revenue Management System, while 6,700 properties in 75 countries use the Amadeus Property Management System. More than 75,000 hotels distribute their rooms to a global travel-buying market though Amadeus’ distribution solutions.
Amadeus employs over 7,600 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. Amadeus’ revenue for the first six months of 2007 was 1,534.1 million euros.