Innovation

🍴 Michel Guérard, pâtissier and creator of 'Cuisine Minceur' in 1974, revolutionized health-oriented cooking. His restaurant, Les Prés d'Eugénie, located in Eugénie-les-Bains, has held 3 Michelin stars since 1977. Guérard's engagement with Nestlé for nearly 20 years led to the development of the Findus-Guérard range. Today, his establishment offers two menu types: traditional and health-conscious cuisine, the latter comprising 20% of served menus, nutritionally balanced with 58% carbs, 12% proteins, and 30% fats. He emphasizes the need for chefs to have nutritional knowledge, citing the metabolic syndrome's annual cost of over 25 billion euros. His restaurant seats 70, serves 58 covers per day, with menu prices ranging from 200 to 260 euros and an average ticket cost of 270 euros.

🏖️ Megève Tourisme, with local hotels and restaurants, launched the pilot project "Megève jobs: le forum virtuel" to address seasonal recruitment challenges. The virtual platform, powered by vFairs, is now open for candidates to create profiles and apply for 500 job offers from 12 Megève hoteliers. Interviews will be conducted on September 5 and 10, from 8 am to 8 pm. This innovative online recruitment event seeks to ease the hiring process and secure qualified seasonal staff.

🎲 Starting August 15, All Nippon Airways (ANA) introduced a new Pokémon-themed in-flight safety video. The initiative follows the trend of airlines incorporating pop culture, like Air New Zealand's Lord of the Rings and Turkish Airlines' Lego safety videos. ANA's Pikachu Jet NH and Eevee Jet NH, featuring custom stewardess uniforms, cups, and boarding passes, now entertain passengers of all ages with Pokémon safety instructions.

🏨 Un appel d'offres aide les hôtels à sélectionner des produits et services comme les systèmes de gestion immobilière (PMS). Il s'agit à la fois d'un document et d'un processus structuré pour comparer les offres de différents fournisseurs, en tenant compte de la mise en œuvre, de la formation, et du support. Les réponses détaillées des fournisseurs guident les hôtels dans leurs décisions. Des formats variés d'appels d'offres existent, avec le texte fournissant les analyses les plus approfondies. Shiji propose un guide et des modèles téléchargeables pour aider à la rédaction des appels d'offres.

🛫 45% of travelers encounter significant bugs when trying to book via mobile on tourism professionals' websites. 55% abandon the reservation if the mobile process is longer and more complicated than on a desktop. Despite being the most visited sector via mobile, booking experiences are lacking except for major airlines, railways, and hotels. Quantum Metric's study reveals a clear gap between smartphone use and mobile commerce conversions. Notably, 43% report booking site bugs and 25% cite security concerns. One-third of all travel bookings are now mobile, doubling since 2019. An optimal reservation experience across devices, including diverse payment options and an anti-abandonment system, is crucial for high conversion rates. Solutions are readily available for businesses of all sizes with minimal setup time and cost.

💰 L'AAHOA, représentant près de 20000 propriétaires d’hôtels et 60% des hôtels aux États-Unis, fait son premier investissement stratégique avec Blackstone dans M3. Fondée en 1998 par John McKibbon, M3 sert plus de 1000 exploitants et offre des solutions à plus de 8000 établissements en Amérique du Nord. M3, leader national en logiciels de comptabilité et rapports financiers hôteliers, classé premier par HotelTech Report pendant quatre ans.

📈 The recent months have witnessed numerous experiments with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in tourism. Key players are exploring its applications, with the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc tourism office employing GenAI in their "Reconnect to Nature" marketing campaign. American researchers have identified image generation as the most energy-intensive GenAI task. Expedia Group introduced new AI-powered tools for travelers and partners at its annual event, and Skift Research values the GenAI market opportunity in travel at $28 billion. The technology's influence on SEO is debated by experts with 20 years in the field, considering ethical and legal implications in the tourism industry. Air France is leveraging GenAI to support its employees, utilizing data accumulated over many years. 📊

💸 Multi-currency management allows hoteliers to display prices and accept payments in various currencies besides the local one, enhancing transparency, simplifying the purchase process, fostering customer loyalty, reducing disputes, and differentiating from competitors. Online platforms update exchange rates automatically, reducing manual errors and accounting efforts. Zak, WuBook's hotel management software, supports all legally recognized currencies, offering solutions for direct bookings and OTA reservations. Conversion rates are calculated from dynamic online databases and fixed at the time of booking, potentially incurring additional costs for the hotelier, which should be communicated to guests.