TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
businesswire | May 03, 2023
SPB Hospitality, an industry-leading operator and franchisor of casual, upscale, and brewery restaurants, today announced the completion of its merger with Krystal Restaurants, adding one of the nation’s most iconic restaurants to its growing portfolio of independently operated hospitality brands.
Founded in 1932 in a single Chattanooga, Tennessee location, Krystal today operates nearly 300 restaurants across 10 states, powered by a team of over 3,500 employees. For 90 years, Krystal has maintained its unwavering focus on delivering a one-of-a-kind taste experience through unique menu items offered at a great price. To support its team in maintaining a consistent brand experience across its growing portfolio of locations, Krystal created its Atlanta-based Restaurant Support Center, which provides real-time support and service for Krystal team members nationwide.
“We are thrilled to welcome Krystal to the SPB Hospitality family,” said Josh Kern, SPB Hospitality Interim Chief Executive Officer. “Krystal’s innovative approach to their menu, marketing, and overall strategy is inspiring, and over its 90-year history, Krystal has demonstrated its commitment to SPB’s overriding vision of providing a truly exceptional guest experience.”
Each brand in the SPB portfolio will continue to operate independently, allowing brands to enhance their unique identity to build affinity with consumers. The team will collaborate to share strategic thinking and best practices across brands, taking advantage of shared services and systems to enable restaurants to run more smoothly. With the addition of Krystal, SPB Hospitality supports a work force of 18,500 individuals.
“We continue to have enormous confidence in SPB Hospitality and the work the team is doing to build the most successful restaurant group in the industry,” said Morgan McClure, President of SPB Hospitality and Managing Director at Fortress Investment Group LLC. Funds managed by affiliates of Fortress own SPB, which was created in 2020 to manage its growing portfolio of hospitality brands. “Krystal’s time-honored brand, and dynamic team, are significant additions to the SPB portfolio and a major step forward in achieving SPB’s vision.”
About SPB Hospitality
SPB Hospitality is a leading operator and franchisor of full-service dining restaurants, spanning a national footprint of hundreds of restaurants and breweries in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The Company’s diverse portfolio of restaurant brands includes Logan’s Roadhouse, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, and a collection of high-end restaurant brands including J. Alexander’s, Merus Grill, Redlands Grill and Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill. SPB Hospitality is also one of the largest operators of craft brewery restaurants in the country, including Rock Bott
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
prnewswire | June 01, 2023
AnyClip, The Visual Intelligence Company™ has announced that Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.) has launched Travelflix, a branded, online, smart video portal for travelers leveraging AnyClip's AI powered video solution, Genius+. O.A.T. who holds the largest video archive in the travel industry has chosen AnyClip's proprietary AI technology to host and organize over 4,000 videos from their archives into curated, searchable, video-on-demand channels directly embedded on their own domain bringing streamlined navigation for an online viewing experience.
Revolutionizing the online travel experience, Travelflix is the most advanced intelligent video portal ever built for travelers. All Traveflix videos uploaded onto the Genius+ platform are automatically analyzed with millions of keywords and categories generated by frame-to-frame, audio, and textual analysis allowing viewers to search within every scene. This means that whether content was created by independent filmmakers from around the world, or O.A.T. travelers, viewers are able to instantly search and be directed to the exact moment in a video with no scrolling required. Genius+ also powers AnyClip's proprietary recommendation engine to match videos that capture user engagement, saving them valuable time in accessing relevant information. Furthermore Engage+, AnyClip's interactive overlay technology, triggers call-to-actions at key moments within a video to drive audiences to learn more and make travel decisions.
This curated, searchable and interactive video-on-demand service will be directly embedded on O.A.T. 's domain, demonstrating the transformative power of AnyClip's technology in the world of travel. With this, O.A.T. aims to drive new customers directly onto their site to easily and instantly in-video search through their library of travel-related videos and discover their destination of choice.
"When O.A.T. presented their convincing data highlighting that users interacting with videos on their site have notably increased conversion rates, we knew we had to join forces and craft a significant solution," said Gil Becker, President & CEO of AnyClip. "We take immense pride in assisting our partners at O.A.T. in realizing their vision to introduce Travelflix, a distinctive video experience for the travel industry that makes valuable videos well-organized, easily discoverable, and personalized. This provides captivating and relevant content that boosts conversions while granting users unparalleled accessibility."
"We have long been striving to become our travelers' top resource for inspiring content, as well as to provide a platform where they can share stories from their adventures. Our new Travelflix video library is a major milestone in pursuit of that goal. Thanks to AnyClip, our entire video collection is now available in one place, with an interface that is easy for our travelers to navigate and intuitive for our team to maintain. With AnyClip's tools and support, we look forward to continuing to grow our inspirational video library for years to come," said Brian FitzGerald, CEO, O.A.T.
O.A.T. not only boasts the largest video archive in the industry, but also takes pride in their large video viewership equaling approximately 1.3 million hours per year. This surfaces the importance of managing and hosting an extensive video library embedded directly on O.A.T's domain to maximize site visits without sending them to external pages, such as YouTube.
The launch of Travelflix is a significant milestone in the travel industry, showcasing the potential of AI-powered video platforms to provide travelers with engaging and immersive content. O.A.T. welcomes all travelers those traveling solo or with a partner to continue to post their personal travel videos onto their site to inspire fellow travelers to explore their next dream destination. Travelflix, is now available directly on O.A.T. 's
ABOUT OVERSEAS ADVENTURE TRAVEL
Established in 1978, Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.) is part of Boston-based Grand Circle Corporation's family of travel companies, which also include Grand Circle Cruise Line and Grand Circle Travel. In 1992, owners Alan and Harriet Lewis established the nonprofit Grand Circle Foundation to support communities in which Grand Circle works and travels, including some 300 humanitarian, cultural, and educational endeavors worldwide—among them, 100 schools, in 50 countries. The Foundation is an entity of the Alnoba Lewis Family Foundation, which has pledged or donated more than $250 million since 1981.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
prnewswire | May 08, 2023
Trip.com Group's corporate travel arm, Trip.Biz, recently released its Corporate Travel Management Market White Paper, taking a closer look at the Chinese mainland's business travel market and trends.
Companies in China are optimistic about the resumption of corporate travel as border policies relax, and flight capacity gradually resumes. According to Trip.Biz survey data, 84.5% of companies expect an increase in domestic business travel budget for 2023, while 74.5% expect an increase in international business travel budget.
This sentiment is carried across the global business travel market. In August 2022, the GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) estimated that worldwide business travel would recover to 81% of its pre-pandemic level in 2023, while the Chinese market would reach about 75% of its pre-pandemic level in 2022 and 89% in 2023, with an 18.9% increase in business travel spending.
Business travellers are increasingly eager for a comfortable, safe, and efficient travel experience. Trip.Biz survey data suggests greater demand for fast-track security lanes, flexible change & cancellation policies, and quality hotel service.
Many employees are embracing bleisure travel, with over 90% of business travellers in Trip.Biz survey stating they may visit local tourist attractions or historical sites at their own expense during a business trip. 38.4% of business travellers expect to have more leisure time in the local area. Business travellers believe that developed cities or scenic destinations offer the most when undertaking business travel.
The white paper shows that in 2022, over 30% of companies allocated more than 10% of their budgets to business travel, an increase from 2021. The proportion of spending on business travel is also increasing, making it one of the main expenses for these organisations as business travel budgets increase. Therefore, businesses seek evidence-based cost control and higher profits through lower-cost e-management.
Companies are vigorously pursuing digital transformation. Trip.Biz survey data shows that nearly 60% of companies have begun digitalising their business travel processes. State-owned enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures, and wholly foreign-owned enterprises have a higher tendency to manage business travel digitally. Additionally, digital business travel management is more prevalent in large and medium-sized enterprises.
"This year's strong demand for business travel and the pursuit of efficient management will be a major focus for companies, making the digital transformation of business travel management more urgent than before," said Steven Zhang, Chief Executive Officer at Trip.Biz.
Additionally, the white paper discusses trends such as combining business travel with low-carbon initiatives. Companies have gradually begun exploring low-carbon business travel options. According to Trip.Biz survey, approximately 85% of business travellers prefer flights and hotels with low-carbon certifications. Additionally, those responsible for business travel believe that implementing an online management system benefits sustainable and low-carbon development.
About Trip.Biz
Trip.Biz is a rapidly growing business travel management company with a vast network of corporate clients extending out of mainland China. It is the corporate travel arm of the leading global travel service provider Trip.com Group. For over 17 years, Trip.Biz has provided services to over 14,000 large-scale corporations, including over 300 Fortune Global 500 companies. Trip.Biz counts over 820,000 small to medium sized enterprises among its clients that have a combined total of over 38 million employees. Trip.Biz strives to help corporations lower their travel costs and increase efficiency.
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