White Lotus is white hot for Thailand
Guardian travel writers in the UK have been looking at the growing trend of “set jetting” following Expedia’s 2023 travel trends report which revealed television is influencing people’s choice of holiday more than ever.
Expedia research found that streamed movies and TV shows are now the top sources of travel inspiration, overtaking social media for the first time.
Globally, 66% of travellers have considered visiting a destination after seeing it featured in a show or movie they’ve streamed at home, and 39% have booked a trip for the same reason, Expedia said.
Expectations for a surge in visitors are currently high in Thailand where the third season of the HBO comedy-drama White Lotus is set to be shot.
In the US, Google searches for Sicily roughly doubled late last year thanks to season two of the White Lotus.
Hoshino brings a public bath to the airport
Japan’s Hoshino Resorts’ first airport hotel, OMO Kansai, has opened its doors with an invitation for fliers in transit to experience something beyond the ordinary for an airport hotel.
OMO Base at OMO Kansai Airport is located on the first and second floors and features airport and aeroplane themed interior designs to add a touch of fun for travellers. The second floor is connected directly to the train station, one stop away from the airport.
A Go-KINJO Map (Local guide map) collects and presents information on the neighbourhood not included in guidebooks, while a connecting walkway between the train station and the hotel is decorated in the style of airplane engines and seats, “a design that evokes excitement at the beginning of a journey”. And what Japanese hotel would be complete without a public bath. OMO Kansai has included a sento-style bath area for hotel guests. The area features heated baths and a dry sauna – “perfect for refreshing between trips,” the hotel says.
Skip the queue at Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands Singapore has launched new Smart Hotel features in its mobile app which will allow guests to skip conventional means of checking in and out at the frontdesk.
The hotel is aiming to transform the conventional check-in experience by offering mobile check-in and digital keycards to access rooms and lifts. Guests can also use their mobile phones to order in-room dining and request in-room amenities.
The Marina Bay Sands’ mobile application aims to serve as a one-stop information portal for guests, providing access to the latest happenings at the integrated resort, ticketing engines, rewards programmes, parking redemptions, and more. In the future, the hotel plans to add more in-app capabilities such as contactless payment for valet parking and viewing e-tickets to attractions.
The hotel’s mobile application is available for both Android and Apple users.
Guests can complete the check-in process by logging in with a membership ID and carrying out four simple steps to verify their identity through facial recognition technology and activate digital keys for room and lift access upon arrival. At the end of their stay, guests can verify their room bill and check out, without the need to queue at the lobby or drop off physical keycards.
Marina Bay Sands’ digital transformation journey includes RFID-enabled express check-out boxes that incorporate Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to optimise room inventory and minimise waiting time for guests checking in. This innovation was later adopted across Las Vegas Sands’ other properties.
Tripadvisor catching more fakes
Tripadvisor has revealed that approximately 4% of its 30 million reviews were deemed to be fake or fraudulent in 2022.
In its latest Review Transparency Report, the company said its detection process picked up 72% of submissions before they were published on the platform, up five percentage points on its 2020 figure.
The report, published every two years, also reveals that 2.3 million reviews were manually investigated by Tripadvisor moderators.
The above 2.3 million figure includes some of the 1.3 million or 4% of reviews that were removed but not all as a portion were removed automatically.
Tripadvisor also revealed that it removed more than 24,000 reviews associated with paid review companies from the platform with almost half originating from India, Russia, the United States, Turkey, Italy and Vietnam.
The company also dished out ranking penalties to more than 33,000 businesses for fraud.
Becky Foley, vice president of trust and safety at Tripadvisor, said, “Platforms like ours are built on trust, so we never stop learning and improving our systems to ensure our community has access to honest, accurate content. The findings from this report show that our approach is working; we’re catching a higher proportion of fraudulent content before it is published, with nearly three-quarters of fake reviews never even making it to the platform.”
According to its 2021 report, the company rejected or removed more than two million reviews in 2020, representing about 9% of all submissions.
Approximately one million of those were deemed fraudulent.
Source: Phocuswire
Datalex sees strong retail recovery in China
A recent research report by airline retail technology leader Datalex uncovered several insights into the ‘digital disparity’ that exists between traveller expectations and airlines that still exist.
The survey of 10,000 global travellers, specifically in the APAC market, found that a third (33%) of end travellers in Singapore believe that airlines are behind other e-commerce providers like Amazon, while this is slightly higher in Australia with 39% of end travellers believing they are behind.
However, Datalex noted, from an airline perspective almost a quarter (24%) of airline executives globally believe they are ahead of other e-commerce websites.
“This perception gap highlights the post-pandemic sentiment of higher digital expectations that passengers are seeking, and a need for retail modernisation from airlines across the board,” Datalex added.
Figures recorded by Datalex through customers using its software in the Chinese market show a marked increase in demand in the first three months of this year with March transaction volumes reaching 43% of 2019 figures.
Datalex chief executive Sean Corkery said, “Our data indicates that the recovery of air travel in China is well and truly underway. These positive indications of continued recovery coincide with an extension of our long partnership with our valued customer Air China for another three years.
“We have invested significantly in the development of the Datalex China Shopping and Pricing Engine product to cater for the unique market needs in China, bringing greater value and commitment to the region.”
