F&B, M&E, Ancillary Revenue

With 2023 almost upon us, perhaps the tourism industry can finally expect to rebound in the coming months to its happy and healthy state. But the word "perhaps" cannot be overlooked, as nobody can predict the future and we will certainly live future crises. The travel sector cannot experience another collapse and should not rest on the status quo when recovering from downfalls. Therefore, rethinking tourism and building resilience in the coming years is exactly what is needed to prepare and minimize future challenges. In a joint effort to stay ahead with trends, the Swiss tourism and travel sector has chosen to bet on data and technology to undertake its national resilience journey, thanks to a national Innosuisse-funded project: The Flagship Resilient Tourism Project.

Big promises define the world of technology. After all, many digital tools that have transformed the way we work and live today are a direct product of big, innovative ideas that were, at one time, inconceivable. But even in this digital era, skepticism is often warranted as businesses look to vet new platforms and services that come to the table with bold promises. Can the platform really live up to the sales pitch? Are the innovations touted by tech vendors as transformative in practice as they sound in theory? When we look at sales and catering systems, these questions are often the hypothetical elephant in the room as hospitality brands grapple between continued reliance on legacy systems and the adoption of a new-age platform. Are a new platform’s additional bells and whistles truly capable of solving the day-to-day challenges hotel sales teams face? Are tech vendors familiar enough with those challenges to build a system created from the ground up with hospitality sales teams in mind?

Anyone who has worked with us knows that we’re crazy about wine. Even though it’s essentially fermented grape juice coming in an ABV range of roughly 9-15%, within those constraints are a world of flavors, stories and experiences. The more you learn about wine, the more you realize that there’s always something else to learn. And it’s this narrative and ability to generate unique experiences that will halo onto restaurant revenues as well as your leisure packages, room service, banquet event orders, arrival amenities or anywhere else beverages can be sold.

We all know the uneventful history of data collection. Annoying requests for permission to use your data in a way that is neither useful nor transparent for the customer. “Tick a box here to allow us to use your data however we want, without really telling you why”, or more importantly, how it will improve your guest experience.

At Booking.com, we have a set of values that aren’t simply posters on the walls, but anchors that guide our thinking every day and ground our decision-making processes. One of them is to learn forever.

People are taking to the skies with real gusto. After slumping to 60% below 2019 levels during the first year of the pandemic, global flight bookings through the end of August 2022 were 16% higher than in 2019. This is great news for airlines, whose bottom line suffered during the lockdowns and restrictions of the pandemic.

Mark Scott, General Manager Canada at Shiji Group, draws from his 20+ years of experience in Food and Beverage and in the Computer Software Industry catered to F&B to speak to Insights about how the pandemic has changed the F&B landscape, especially with regards to the adoption and use of technology, even offering some predictions on future solutions.

Everywhere You Look it’s Bleeding 🩸. The Patient is So Messed Up it’s Not Even Funny. It Will Never Fix Itself. You Need CORE On Your Side. Cost, Operations, Revenue, Execute.

Thus far, we’ve discussed primarily direct-to-consumer wine sales – a couple, a table or someone sitting at the bar, with the server as the main conduit. Group sales are a totally different animal as the buyer’s priorities are more cost-conscious while you have different inventory or logistical requirements. The best way to devise your wine plan for groups – as part of the overall beverage strategy – is to start with weddings because almost all of them have wine.

The World Café was held at EHL Hospitality Business School in July 2022. The event was an opportunity to exchange ideas on the impact of past crises and future preparedness, with 50 hospitality industry practitioners, researchers and economists from Western Switzerland. It was led by Professors Emmanuel Fragniere, Roland Schegg (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), Stefano Borzillo and Augusto Hasman (EHL Hospitality Business School). In this article we present the insider highlights and fresh ideas for surviving any future crises.