Latin America notches ahead of NA, China to build 216 new airports, how to compete with airbnb by thinking like a tech company and is Air France's LCC Joon finito?.

Latin America notches ahead of North America
Tuesday, 15th January 2019

With five per cent more international trips, outbound travel from the Americas has shown solid growth in 2018 with a plus of 5 per cent and in contrast to the previous year, where North American growth exceeded Latin America, the first eight months of 2018 reflected the contrary.

While North American outbound travel increased by four per cent, Latin America was twice as strong with eight per cent more international trips >>

China to build 216 new airports by 2035
15 Jan 2019 : China had a total of 234 civil airports at the end of October, and this number is likely to hit 450 by 2035, this is part of China’s ambition to become an aviation power >>

News from around the APAC region
15 Jan 2019 : Hotel industry and travel news from around the Asia Pacific region: Ascott Reit sells Ascott Raffles Place Singapore to private investor, Vietnam opens international airport in Halong Bay, BHMA Hotels and Resorts and more >>

Air France's LCC Joon could be a thing of the past
15 Jan 2019 : According to aviation media, Air France-KLM chief executive Benjamin Smith is looking to maybe discontinue the Joon brand, which was founded last year >>

HIGHLIGHT ARTICLE

Will Hotels Become Travel Agents?
Tuesday, 15th January 2019

We’ve been hearing, specifically, that hotels need to get serious about selling ancillaries. AirBnb sparked fresh discussion around this issue when it unveiled the 'experiences' arm.

It was a natural progression in which the company’s experience-centric hospitality model expanded to include curated activities. The company also introduced restaurant reservations and is mulling over the construction of a proprietary flight-booking engine >>

Compete with Airbnb by Thinking Like a Tech Company
Airbnb is the scorpion of accommodations. There’s one, actually more like five, in that downtown condominium complex right around the corner from your hotel. These accommodations have snuck into your hotel's turf are hiding in plain sight with low operating costs and a cozy kitchen where guests can make their own breakfast that’s better than the cereal at your free breakfast buffet >>

Insights from the IHLA Inspire Summit 2018
This year's International Luxury Hotel Association event focused on inspiring the luxury guest experience and many presenters brought new and interesting perspectives on exceeding expectations of elite guests, while industry insiders described the influence of technology on the guest experience >>

Is Your Toilet Listening To You? 🚽 😳
Let's talk CES (that's the Consumer Electronics Show, you newb, it's where all the cool tech companies unveil their hottest new products, and it happened last week). It felt like everything was built for Alexa and/or Google Assistant, including many gadgets that could be pretty sweet for ultra-connected hotels >>