The deployment of contactless and connected services, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has typically been gradual in the hospitality industry.
However, with the pandemic accelerating a shift in regulations and consumer priorities on safety and hygiene, hoteliers have been forced to undergo an overnight pivot towards digitally driven models.
Simultaneously, the rapid digitalisation in everyday lives has also led to higher consumer expectations of hotel experience.
Heading into 2022, the anticipated resurgence of the travel industry and new dimensions of tourism will irrevocably transform how hotels operate and interact with its guests. As travelling restarts, and consumers are eager to make up for lost vacation time, digitalisation is empowering an era of new contactless guest experience in the hospitality industry.
A contactless era
Mobile devices have become crucial in the evolving hotel-customer dynamic, and targeted notifications that convey essential experiential services, such as automated check-in guides or booking of amenities like the gym or swimming pools to consumers’ personal smartphones will continue to be even more commonplace in 2022.
Such methods not only provide hyper-personalised attention but can allow staff to provide services from a safe distance as people learn to adjust everyday activities around Covid-19. Contactless technologies can even do away with access cards and allow mobile applications to open electronic door locks.
Similarly, with people now demanding integration of services into popular daily applications, hotels will be leveraging its property management system (PMS) to collect user information to offer tailored services and products.
Such collected data can even be used to develop applications that detect users’ location and then provide timely location-related services in response. For example, alerting staff to attend to guests who can then tip through QR codes on the staff’s badges without making physical contact, or even enforcing proper safe distancing measures in an overcrowded space.
Smarter facility management
Hotels will also increasingly use a wider range of connected sensors, lights and devices to provide more efficient and “smarter” facilities management.
For instance, the use of IoT applications will allow smart doors connected over the network to automatically adjust a room’s air conditioning if a door is left open for some time, or even activate nearby security cameras when unsuccessful attempts to unlock the door are detected.
Ideally, management of such smart facilities should be through a single integrated network platform, which can enable more granular control of other essential protocols like guests’ experiences and staff operations that are also empowered by IoT.
Great experience starts with great connectivity
Reliable high speed internet access will be at the centre of guest experience for both business and leisure travel. Merely offering free internet access is no longer enough, as customers expect their chosen accommodations to provide similar speed, dependability, and convenience that their office or home network provides.
In most cases, a good Wi-Fi connection is one of the determining factors whether someone chooses to stay in a hotel, or to be a returning guest. Good connectivity in the hotel not only ensures customer satisfaction, but also enables the efficient processing of user data between the IoT applications and connected devices for the hotel to deliver improved guest services.
With the increasing bandwidth demand, investing in next-generation Wi-Fi 6 is critical for hotels to be able to support large-scale and high-speed connectivity. This includes faster performance, with speeds up to four times faster than Wi-Fi 5, bringing the maximum throughput speed to 9.6 Gbps up from Wi-Fi 5’s 3.5 Gbps.
With the IoT market expected to grow to US$398.6 trillion by 2023 in Asia-Pacific alone, we can expect an increasing adoption of connected devices. Wi-Fi 6 deployments can help hotels leverage this exponentially growing trend, by enabling the connection to remain robust and seamless even if multiple devices are connected, ensuring optimal network performance in crowded or remote areas within the premises.
Providing improved and fuss-free guest experiences with heightened standards of connectivity and safety will be key in the economic revival of the hospitality sector. Underpinning this is effective digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies that will no doubt be vital for the success of the industry, while ensuring better preparedness for the future.
Myanmar will reopen land border crossings with China and Thailand next month ahead of a planned resumption of international air travel by 1Q2022.
The decision comes as vaccination rates have improved significantly amid clear signs of economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the Ministry of Information.
Maung Maung Ohn, minister of information, said travel restrictions will be eased by January 2022 at Muse which borders Ruili city in China’s Yunnan Province and at the three Myanmar towns of Tachileik, Kawthaung and Htee Kee which border Thailand.
Travel at border crossings with Laos, India and Bangladesh are currently permitted due to lower incidences of infection.
According to the statement, the government continues to receive vaccines mainly from China through donations and national procurement programmes.
A total of 14.4 million citizens above the age of 18, or 42.5 per cent of the population, have received at least one dose of vaccine as of Friday. This will increase to 50 per cent of the population by end of 2021.
With the acceleration of the vaccination programme, coupled with a fall in Covid-19 cases, the State Administration Council is accelerating resumption of social and economic activity to restore national stability following the challenges of the pandemic and the internal social unrest.
To prepare to resume international air travel, six government ministries are coordinating efforts to standardise testing and safety procedures such as social distancing, contact tracing and quarantine as well as vaccination status certification, the minister said.
“Air travel is important to facilitate the return of Myanmar citizens, expatriates, aid and development workers, and international business travel. We must ensure that hotels, transportation, health facilities, airports and airline operators are ready to meet the standard operating procedures. We will keep various embassies informed of progress,” he said.
The minister also said the government is cautiously assessing infection rates abroad ahead of the European winter. “Once our vaccination programme reaches targets and if global infection rates drop, we intend to resume international air travel in the first quarter of 2022,” he said.
“This will benefit not just tourism but also commercial activity and bilateral social, cultural and development activities and exchanges. In recent months, we have received substantial foreign interest in investments and business opportunities. These parties are eager to travel to Myanmar to conclude transactions.”
Despite clear evidence of economic sabotage and the effects of the pandemic, economic activity has largely restarted across most parts of the country with the onset of the dry season last month, the minister said.
He added: “Myanmar is recovering from challenges of a health pandemic, an economic downturn and social and political disturbances. The vaccination programme and the economic recovery efforts are gaining momentum… Business confidence is returning especially in major cities where religious activities recently have all been well attended. The resumption of air travel will be an important catalyst for tourism, the return of foreign investments and international business activities.”
As of November 12, the country has recorded a total of 511,717 cases of infection and 18,899 deaths due to Covid-19.