Asian hospitality technology is being spurred by the continent’s love of mobile.
Asia has more mobile technology users than any other continent and is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets. On its own, China accounts for 28.3 percent of all smartphone users on the planet, and other Asian countries like Thailand and India are leading growth markets for mobile device adoption.
With figures like these, it is only logical to expect the Asian hospitality industry to be a leader in the adoption of innovative hotel technology.
Global travelers, and in turn hoteliers, are now interested in a lodging experience “grounded in sophisticated social, data, and mobile applications.” And the emphasis on hospitality technology will intensify as it proves to be a way to enhance hotel management efficiencies, increase hotel revenue, and improve guest engagement and communication across borders with all travelers.
Asia provides a perfect environment for hoteliers to experiment with technology to accomplish these goals thanks to the region’s position as home to many new and developing trends. For example, Asia is moving quickly to attempt to be the first to define a next-generation 5G mobile network, which will further the Internet of Things trend by “providing connectivity…to billions of [smart] devices” from cars to smart hotel room features to home appliances.
Two major trends now having a large impact on Asian hotel technology are mobility and cloud computing.
Thanks to digital investments such as this and the generally expanding influence of technology on travel, Asian hoteliers are seeking to create an alternative standard to the traditional guest experience. Two major trends now having a large impact on Asian hospitality technology are mobility and cloud computing. Both of these are contributing to a more flexible, robust hospitality technology infrastructure.
Mobile technology, such as hotel apps for guest or staff use, provides improvements to overall staff and guest experience, workflow structure, engagement, and communication, as well as offering key customer/guest data and staff performance metrics. Hotel cloud technology allows hotel management to create a more scalable digital environment that can be housed off-site with large technology providers or trusted partner vendors to assist in managing hotel information technology needs.
Another major trend within the Asian hospitality industry is the expansion of business travel, as 80 percent of Chinese corporations and 78 percent of Indian companies forecast an increase in enterprise travel and entertainment spending in 2016. This places Asian hotels in the position to have to prioritize finding ways to satisfy the needs of these business travelers. In the coming years, intra-Asian travel will be dominated by large-scale conferences, exhibitions, and meeting groups.
Hospitality Technology 2016 is a biennial exhibition held in Singapore, showcasing the newest developments in the hospitality industry related to technological shifts. This year, there appears to be a large focus on evolving topics like:
• In-Room Technology and Entertainment
• Mobile Enterprise Solutions
• Hotel Data Management
• Hotel Information Technology
• Marketing Technology
• Computer Hardware / Technology Systems
• Security and Safety Systems
As connected and mobile technologies drive rapid change throughout the continent, the Asian hospitality industry will continue to aggressively pursue the implementation of new and exciting operational and guest service technologies. Asia may very well be the birthplace of the next big thing in this regard.
