HOSPITALITY TRENDS
businesswire | May 19, 2023
Global payments provider Elavon has partnered with The Digital Line (TDL) on a voice-activated solution for the hospitality industry.
The solution – Audico – utilises the Amazon Alexa device to deliver a variety of voice-driven services. Elavon is the exclusive payments provider for the Audico solution in hospitality, globally.
Hemlata Narasimhan, Elavon Merchant Services President in Europe, says, “Virtual assistant technology is the future of hospitality, and we’re thrilled to be powering the payments behind Audico. This is all about improving the customer experience, and a large part of this is seamless payments. We’re pleased to be partnering with Amazon’s approved partner The Digital Line to make this happen.”
Audico is unique in the UK market, and has already been implemented at the world-famous Ascot Racecourse in Southeast England, where premium customers can call for betting services, order food and drinks, and purchase merchandise from their private boxes all with a few simple words to Alexa. The audible command is then relayed to staff as a Card Not Present transaction, and payment is made using a pre-determined account preference such as a credit card.
Audico is also being explored as a room service solution in hotels, and in premium hospitality areas at other venues and stadiums, as well as providing a landmark series of services in the health care industry.
George Vaughan, The Digital Line’s CEO, says, “This partnership represents a unique opportunity for two recognised brands to collaborate on initiatives that will revolutionise multiple business verticals, including hospitality, venues and health care, delivering a level of digital transformation not seen before.”
About The Digital Line
A commercial research, information, and technical innovation consulting firm, The Digital Line (TDL) has a specific interest in venues, hospitality, retail, education, and healthcare. TDL offers a full range of professional services to help companies in various industries create their plans for upcoming technological endeavours and support the deployment of critical projects in a more creative and cost-effective manner.
TDL also collaborates with cutting-edge businesses, products, and institutions, placing it at the forefront of the latest wave of technical advancements and because of its intelligent integration of private, public, and academic entities, is able to push the limits of disruptive digital technologies.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
businesswire | April 17, 2023
Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. is pleased to announce the completion of the initial offering of Class A Units of the Harvest Travel & Leisure Income ETF pursuant to a prospectus dated April 4, 2023, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in all of the Canadian provinces and territories. The Class A Units of the Harvest Travel & Leisure Income ETF will commence trading on the TSX today under the following ticker symbol: TRVI:TSX.
TRVI captures the travel & leisure industry through a diversified index portfolio of Airlines, Cruise Lines, Hotels, Resorts, Casinos, and Online Booking Services. It earns a high monthly income distribution through the application of an active & flexible covered call option writing strategy.
The ETF is launching with an initial target yield of 10.4%. The first monthly distribution will have a record date of May 31, 2023 with a payable date of June 9, 2023.
TRVI tracks the Solactive Travel & Leisure Index GTR which encompasses the 30 largest travel & leisure related companies listed in North America by market cap. It is the same index tracked by the Harvest Travel & Leisure Index ETF, which was launched in 2021 as the first Canadian ETF to exclusively capture the travel & leisure industry.
“TRVI like TRVL is a first in Canada, offering exposure to the lucrative Travel and Leisure market with the addition of an attractive monthly income generating portfolio” said Michael Kovacs, President and CEO of Harvest ETFs. “The Travel & Leisure industry has long-term structural demand drivers, such as retiring baby boomers, and millennials that are entering their peak earnings years. We saw those when we launched TRVL in 2021. Now TRVI offers investors access to those same tailwinds, with the addition of high monthly income earned through Harvest ETFs’ active & flexible covered call option strategy.”
About Harvest Portfolios Group Inc
Founded in 2009, Harvest is an independent Canadian Investment Fund Manager managing $3.3 billion in assets for Canadian Investors. At Harvest ETFs, our guiding principles are premised on building wealth for our clients through ownership of strong businesses that have the potential to grow & generate steady income over time. Harvest ETFs offers an innovative suite of exchange traded funds, mutual funds and publicly-listed structured fund products designed to satisfy the long-term growth and income needs of investors. We pride ourselves in creating trusted investment solutions that meet the expectations of our investors.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
prnewswire | April 27, 2023
Trip.com, an international one-stop travel service provider, today announced it will build a joint innovation lab with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. The joint lab aims to use experts from AWS and Trip.com to develop new technologies that will improve the online travel provider's travel and services. Trip.com and AWS will combine technology resources and knowledge in cloud computing and artificial intelligence to identify and develop new ways to support Trip.com customers.
Trip.com, with its unique value proposition, offers an all-in-one suite of diversified travel products and industry-leading customer service, via its mobile-first app to users around the world.
Chen Zhang, Executive Vice President of Trip.com Group, said: "We are excited to sign an MoU with Amazon Web Services to build the innovation lab. Trip.com has worked hard to consistently develop technology to improve services and offerings for customers. The innovation lab aims to make travel more accessible and provide the ultimate experience for travellers, using the latest technology, renowned experts, and leading researchers from Trip.com and AWS."
"Trip.com is the world's leading one-stop travel service provider and a role model of global development," said Gu Fan, General Manager of Growth Acceleration of AWS Greater China. "We are honored to empower Trip.com through the joint innovation lab with our cloud services and successful practices in the fields of big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to continuously help Trip.com expand its existing business, uncover new growth opportunities and fulfill its mission to 'achieve the perfect journey' for global travelers."
The joint lab will focus on five programmes, including Artificial Intelligence, Flight Business, Hotel Business, International Business, and Cloud Technology.
In recent years, Trip.com has strengthened collaborations with AWS to improve marketing capabilities and service qualities through its advanced technology.
Trip.com has migrated more than 400 of its international business micro services to AWS, proving the model for more departments and mature business component tools to follow suit.
After migrating to AWS, Trip.com saw a significant improvement in its air ticket booking system, and reduced overall total memory consumption by more than 96%, achieving major cost savings.
During the pandemic, Trip.com successfully launched its innovative live stream campaign 'DreamNowTripLater'. By leveraging AWS services, Trip.com has a robust, high quality, and engaging live stream to showcase true travel destination experiences to customers.
AWS has also allowed Trip.com to improve connections with flight and hotel partners, by providing increasingly reliable service for users with a faster and more stable system that reaches millions of global users.
In addition, as part of the collaboration, Trip.com leverages AWS to provide training and AWS Certifications to its employees in various fields, such as cloud computing architecture, development, operations, containers, data analysis, database, security, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, which will help them upskill and innovate using cloud computing. AWS and Trip.com also collaborated to develop a four-year training plan and are expected to train approximately 2,000 employees through comprehensive training courses supported by AWS's customer service team.
About Trip.com
Headquartered in Singapore, Trip.com, a global online travel agency, offers services for flights tickets, hotels booking, train tickets, and the internet. It enhances the travel experience from a short trip to a nearby city to a long adventure across the continent, helping travelers at every step of the journey. It has connected about 1.2 million hotels and over 500 airlines in approximately 200 countries to travelers. With a committed customer service team, it offers services non-stop 24/7 and assists travelers worldwide. It also provides an all-in-one travel application with features like trip coins, app-inclusive deals, easy trip planning, the latest travel updates, and worldwide coverage.
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