Hospitality & Tourism

Would you fly in glass-bottom planes? The real revolution in flying is way smarter than that. Airplanes are quietly becoming digital platforms. Here’s what’s actually changing the passenger experience: 🔹 Windowless concepts (yes, really) Not glass floors — digital walls. Future cabins may replace windows with ultra-high-resolution screens streaming live exterior views, data overlays, or even calming environments. 🔹 Big screens > tiny seatbacks 4K displays, projection-based entertainment, and BYOD (bring-your-own-device) systems reduce weight while improving personalization. 🔹 Cabin pressure & humidity upgrades New aircraft (787, A350) keep cabins closer to ground conditions → less fatigue, fewer headaches, better sleep. 🔹 Mood lighting driven by circadian science LED lighting synced with your destination’s time zone to fight jet lag. 🔹 Fast satellite Wi-Fi Streaming, video calls, real productivity — the cabin is becoming a flying workspace. 🔹 AI-powered personalization Entertainment, food, lighting, and services adapting to you, not the seat number. 🚫 What’s NOT happening (yet): Glass floors, gimmicks, sci-fi stunts. ✅ What IS happening: Aircraft evolving from transportation machines into experience platforms. The future of aviation isn’t about looking down through the floor — it’s about redesigning everything around the human sitting in the seat. #Aviation #FutureOfTravel #Aerospace via @bedorafizz #CustomerExperience #AI #Innovation #Boeing #Airlines #TechTrends

 "The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power." Warren Buffett said it. Football proves it. Here's the €50B paradox destroying club-fan relationships: ✅ The Ultimate Pricng Power Football fans: ▪️ 0.3% switch clubs in their lifetime ▪️ 78% buy merchandise regardless of performance ▪️ 92% renew season tickets automatically ▪️ €2.4K average lifetime spend per fan Compare to other industries: ▪️ Netflix churn rate: 5.2% monthly ▪️ Gym memberships: 71% quit within 2 years ▪️ Restaurant loyalty: 23% return rate 👉 Football has the world's most captive customers ✅ The Dangerous Assumption "They'll pay anyway" thinking in action: ▪️ Premier League ticket prices: +1,011% since 1989 ▪️ Champions League final tickets: €70 → €690 (2005-2024) ▪️ Replica shirt prices: €30 → €120 in 20 years ▪️ Streaming subscriptions: €480/year for full coverage ❗ Wage growth same period: +168% Fans aren't getting richer. Clubs are getting greedier. ✅ The Hidden Competition Football doesn't compete with other clubs. It competes with: ▪️ Netflix + Disney + Spotify: €35/month ▪️ PlayStation Plus: €60/year ▪️ Concert tickets: €80 average ▪️ Cinema + popcorn: €15 One match ticket = 3 months of entertainment elsewhere. 👉 When a father of two does the math, loyalty has limits. ✅ The Engagement Cliff What happens when fans feel exploited: Stage 1: Stop attending midweek games (-23% across Europe) Stage 2: Cancel cup competitions (-31% early rounds) Stage 3: Share season tickets (growing) Stage 4: Stream illegally (47% of Gen Z) Stage 5: Emotional detachment (priceless loss) ❗ They don't switch clubs. They switch off. ✅ The Smart Pricing Strategy Clubs getting it right: 1️⃣ Bayern M.: €170 season tickets for standing 2️⃣ Borussia D.: Price freeze since 2019 3️⃣ Fortuna Düsseldorf: Free tickets experiment Result: ☑️ 98%+ attendance ☑️ Highest merchandise sales/capita ☑️ Generational fan renewal ☑️ Premium sponsor attraction ✅ The Business Case for Respect Lower prices drive higher value: ▪️ Full stadium atmosphere: +27% TV value ▪️ Young fan acquisition: €45,000 lifetime value ▪️ Social media content: Packed stadiums = viral moments ▪️ Sponsor premiums: 40% more for sold-out venues 👉 The math is clear: €20 less per ticket × 40,000 fans = €800K "loss" Full stadium premium from sponsors = €3M gain ❗ Respect isn't charity. It's strategy. ✅ The Buffett Principle, Reimagined Yes, football has ultimate pricing power. But the question isn't "Can we raise prices?" It's "Should we?" Because when you abuse pricing power with captive customers: Short term: Record revenues Long term: Lost generations The clubs that survive 100 years understand: Fans aren't customers to monetize. They're partners to respect. ❓ Is your club treating you as a customer or a partner? #FootballBusiness #FanEngagement data: UEFA Benchmarking Report, Deloitte Annual Review, Fan Engagement Index 2024 ph: Live India

Mass Tourism is dead. Hilton 2026 trend report says what's next for the industry. For decades, the tourism industry was built on volume. Crowded resorts. All-inclusive packages. Selfie sticks and bucket lists made on Instagram. But that era is fading fast. The next wave of travel isn’t about where people go, it’s about why. According to Hilton’s new 2026 Trends Report, travellers around the world are making a radical shift: from mass tourism to meaningful tourism seeking connection, calm, and authenticity instead of crowds and checklists. Here are the key trends reshaping the future of travel: 1. “Hushpitality”: Seeking Silence and Stillness In an overstimulated world, travellers crave peace. Hilton found that almost half of travellers now add extra days to disconnect before or after family trips and many are choosing destinations where they can simply breathe. Wellness, mental clarity, and calm have become new luxury. 2. Home Comforts Are the New Carry-On The modern traveller wants familiarity. From favourite streaming shows to pet-friendly rooms, people are bringing their routines with them. Even abroad, 77% of travellers enjoy browsing grocery stores, proof that comfort and local discovery can coexist beautifully. This is also why long-stay travel and remote-work destinations are booming: people want a “home away from home” they can trust. 3. Generation Remix - Families Are Redefining Travel Family vacations aren’t what they used to be. Children help plan itineraries. Grandparents take grandkids on “skip-gen” trips. Families are seeking shared play, not screens. Travel is becoming a tool for bonding and shared growth across generations. 4. Inheritourism: Travel With Legacy and Meaning People no longer travel to escape their lives, they travel to understand them. More than half of families now plan trips to connect with their roots and local traditions. “Cultural immersion” isn’t a buzzword anymore — it’s a priority. 5. Purposeful Journeys: The Rise of the “Whycation” The biggest transformation is philosophical Travellers are asking why they travel. To rest. To reconnect. To grow. This emotional motivation — rather than location — is now the foundation of modern tourism. And This Is Why We’re Transforming Roatán At the Roatán Tourism Bureau, we see these shifts as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We’re helping local businesses evolve from mass tourism to meaningful tourism, from quick visits on cruiseships to long-term value. That means: - Supporting hotels and hosts to create spaces that feel like home. - Training local operators to attract digital nomads and wellness travellers. - Promoting authentic cultural experiences that connect visitors with the island’s people and traditions. - Partnering with communities to ensure growth benefits everyone. Travel is changing — fast. And Roatán is getting ready to lead this new chapter: quieter, deeper, and more intentional.

I once lived at distributor’s home in a small town because I had no choice... When Marico Limited was nascent, Bombay Oil Industries was still the family’s backbone. In those early days, I wanted our business to transform from a commodity trade into a branded consumer company. To do that, I had to understand the ground truth. There were no fancy hotels in the towns we visited. I stayed in dusty and small guest rooms. I sat with distributors over chai and samosas. I watched how coconut oil was stored, how shopkeepers priced it, how packaging changed hands. One day, a retailer told me matter-of-factly: “You always sell big tins. When people come back to buy, they carry a few kilos. If your packet is small, they will pick your brand at convenience.” That simple insight was a turning point. It nudged us to expand SKU ranges, introduce smaller packs, and think about how to become a “grab-and-go” brand, rather than just a bulk commodity supplier. If you ask me where innovation begins, it begins in the least glamorous places. In the musty shelves of neighbourhood stores, in conversations that feel insignificant, in paying attention to what people don’t say aloud. Takeaway for entrepreneurs: Your real research lab isn’t spreadsheets or agencies. It’s the ground. If you go build empathy for your customer at the shelf level, the brand strategy almost builds itself. #entrepreneurship #business #resilience #mindset #growth

Every year, I enjoy diving into our Marriott Bonvoy’s Ticket to Travel research report—our annual snapshot of how people across EMEA are planning their holidays and full of insights that help us understand what travellers are looking for.    The latest edition, launched today, draws on Mortar research from over 22,000 travellers across 11 markets in EMEA. And the message is clear: consumers across the region consistently regard travel as an important means of spending their leisure time and discretionary income. 79% of travellers say they’ll take the same or more holidays in 2026 than they did in 2025 and people are planning five trips a year on average for next year.    Several compelling trends stand out from this year’s findings: AI is increasingly shaping how travelers plan their trips, passion-led travel is becoming more common and ‘lux-scaping’ is a new way of travelling for people to gain access to luxury experiences.    2026 is shaping up to be a year of innovation, opportunity and deeper connection—with our guests, our partners and the industry. I can’t wait to see how the year unfolds.    Click to read the full report: https://lnkd.in/dV_mGBUB

If your multicultural campaign planning starts with “Which languages should we translate into?”, you’re leaving serious opportunity on the table. If you're an Australian-based marketer or comms professional, you know that an effective campaign strategy starts with deeply understanding your audience. And understanding your “multicultural audience” goes well beyond knowing which languages your audience speaks. So here’s a little visual representation I’ve put together using ABS Census data from 2021. Yes, the data is a few years old now, but the point remains. This image shows the median age of people in Australia who speak a language other than English, and who speak English “not well” or “not at all”. As you can see, the “who” behind your multicultural campaign can look vastly different. While it can be convenient to think about “multicultural” or “Culturally and Linguistically Diverse” audiences as one broad campaign audience, the reality is far more nuanced. Non-English speaking audiences are many distinct audiences, with different demographics, migration histories, levels of English proficiency, cultural contexts and communication needs. A campaign targeting Thai speakers will almost certainly require a very different approach from one targeting Italian speakers. Think media consumption habits, preferred channels, messaging, literacy levels, family influence, trusted voices, cultural references and the role of community organisations. That’s why multicultural strategy needs to be tailored to the audience, instead of built around language selection alone. It’s also why at Ethnolink we put so much time, effort and investment into multicultural strategy for our clients’ campaigns. The best campaigns start with insight. They show a deep and authentic understanding of the audience they’re trying to reach. Did any of this surprise you? #multicultural #communications #CALD #culturaldiversity #translation

There's a consistent theme in many of the conversations I'm having in the industry... many businesses are wrestling with the invisible weight of technical debt, while others in the industry are pulling away. At the heart of this is legacy systems, fragmented IT, and siloed upgrades that undermine innovation and ROI. Our latest research with Enfuse Group | B Corp™ reveals a stark reality where digital transformation has become a key battleground for survival. Successful businesses are increasingly defined by agility, scale and speed, which is widening the performance gap. Our research found that businesses investing in their digital transformation the longest plan to invest an average of £66m in digital transformation over the next 2–3 years, compared to just £17m among early-stage companies. Underlying this paralysis is tech debt, which has become a silent value destroyer. Fragmented systems, disconnected data, and under-investment in IT infrastructure are now the biggest barriers to transformation, driving ROI challenges and stalling scalability. We found that early-stage businesses focus on customer-facing improvements, while those who have been longer in the game are investing heavily behind the scenes in AI, automation, real-time inventory, and data-driven decision-making. This is creating the infrastructure for long-term competitive advantage and in my mind, we're seeing many of the successful businesses leveraging the benefits of significant levels of previous investment. Leadership and culture are critical. Only 22% of businesses say their digital strategy is fully aligned with their corporate goals. Without executive-level alignment and digital fluency, transformation efforts risk staying stuck in pilot mode. For retail and hospitality leaders, the message is clear: 💥 Build digital readiness before scaling investment: robust IT systems, data governance, and workforce capability are critical. 💥 Shift from cost-cutting to strategic investment: leading businesses are using AI and predictive analytics to unlock new revenue streams, improve decision-making, and future-proof their operations. 💥 Treat back-end infrastructure as a growth engine: true transformation happens behind the scenes as without it, customer experience gains will plateau. Download our report here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eSizaBXr

How to approach digital wallet selection and implementation First things first: to decide on wallets, a travel business must be a merchant of record — an entity authorized to process transactions. Many companies in the tourism sector prefer to outsource this role: They just forward the cardholder data to suppliers and wait for commissions to be paid. Called an agent model, this scenario deprives you of control over your money and, subsequently, of the ability to make any choices regarding payment methods. Adopting a merchant model, on the other hand, empowers you to manage financial processes at your own discretion. If you’re already a merchant of record, you most likely partner with one of the popular payment gateways. So, it’s the right place to start your digital wallet journey. Check which digital wallets are available with your current payment gateway Popular payment gateways are commonly pre-integrated with several global payment wallets and local options. The setup process depends on a particular method — sometimes, you can get started in minutes. Gateway providers give detailed information on how to activate a wallet or offer you assistance from their tech support. Note that the same wallet can have different coverage across payment gateways. For example, PayPal integration with Apple Pay is available in the US only. Decide on the list of direct integrations Probably, your payment gateway doesn’t support all wallets you want to employ. That means you’ll have to build a separate connection. As a rule, wallet apps come with detailed API documentation that simplifies the integration. But anyway, it requires making an agreement with a wallet provider and involving developers to add the solution to your platform. To save you time and effort, carefully choose options to integrate with. Consider such factors as flexibility — whether it’s platform-specific or universal, the global number of users, penetration rate in your target region, payment methods supported, multi-currency options, security measures, fees charged per transaction, and compatibility with your platform. In most cases, the combination of global wallets and several local payment methods will guarantee the fullest coverage of your target market. For example, if you run your travel business in several European countries, it makes sense to add iDEAL for the Netherlands, Bancontact for Belgium, and Vipps MobilePay and Klarna for Scandinavia, while PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Wallet will satisfy everyone else. 👉 Subscribe for more insights https://lnkd.in/d94JgWBU Source Altexsoft #fintech #payments #wallets Leda Florian Alex Ali

I spoke basic high-school English. Now I publish and podcast in English. Non-native speakers face a double challenge: getting the message right and getting the language right. You are not alone: Over 1 billion people speak it as a second language in business. That's almost 3x the number of people who speak English as their first language. Many are stuck on the OK plateau of strong accents, mediocre vocabulary and clumsy syntax (now made worse by AI). That is a challenge, especially in leadership positions. I know the challenges, I had them too. When I moved to England at 22, I spoke basic average high school English. Today, I host a popular podcast, give TEDx and keynote speeches, and write books, all in English. So how did I go from average to articulate? Here are 7 steps that helped me master English and unlock opportunities I never thought possible. 1/ Choose your dialect (British or American - don't mix)  ↳ Mixing sounds weird to native speakers.  ↳ Decide which English you're going to speak and stick to it. 2/ Fix your articulation (not your accent)  ↳ Focus on the 10% of sounds that make your accent stereotypical.  ↳ Practice in front of a mirror, imitating lip, tongue, and mouth movements. 3/ Raise the stakes  ↳ Commit to a public speaking challenge within a month.  ↳ Pressure accelerates learning. 4/ Immerse yourself  ↳ The classroom model keeps you in mediocrity for years.  ↳ Hire a coach or spend time in an English-speaking country instead. 5/ Love the culture  ↳ Loving the culture makes learning fun - otherwise it's just hard work.  ↳ Ask yourself: what do you love about the English-speaking world? 6/ Know how you learn  ↳ Adults have an edge over kids: we know how we learn best.  ↳ Apps, live classes, cue cards - pick what works for you and double down on it. 7/ Aim for perfection  ↳ Unpopular advice, but if you want to lead internationally, aim high.  ↳ Look up every unfamiliar word or pronunciation. Don’t consider perfecting your English as a threat to your heritage and identity.  It’s about being understood and being taken seriously in business. ❓ What’s your top tip for learning a new language? - - - - ♻️ Repost to help others. And follow Oliver Aust for more. 📩 Get my 100 best cheat sheets: https://lnkd.in/dn9Nzznm

During my recent stay at Novotel Hotels Vijayawada Varun, I saw firsthand how hospitality brands are beginning to embrace sustainability. While I know these steps don’t yet make the hotel fully sustainable, it’s good to see meaningful action being taken. From biodegradable dental kits and refillable dispensers to glass water bottles, and cloth napkins, their commitment to reducing waste was clear.  They even provided sterilized reusable footwear - a practical and sustainable alternative to the typical disposable white slippers. Here are the three most impressive sustainability efforts that stood out during my stay: 1️⃣ Green Building: Powered by solar energy and equipped with LED lighting, sustainability is built into its foundation. 2️⃣ EV Charging Station: The first in Vijayawada, encouraging greener travel. 3️⃣ Composting & Herb Garden: Onsite composting and a vertical herb garden reduce waste and support local sourcing. These initiatives have earned Novotel Vijayawada Varun a Bronze Level in Accor’s Planet 21 initiative, a recognition of their efforts to support environmental stewardship. Accor, the parent company, has also committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and significant emissions reductions by 2030. While there’s still a long way to go, it’s encouraging to see brands I’ve grown up with starting to integrate sustainability into their operations. Every step counts, and it’s these thoughtful initiatives that can inspire broader change in the hospitality industry. What small sustainable changes have you seen recently that made an impression? Let’s share ideas! #Sustainability #GreenHospitality #EcoFriendly #ResponsibleTourism