Technology Is Revolutionizing The Hotel Industry

Travel agents beware. Technology is revolutionizing the tourism industry in general and the hotel industry in particular.

A further takeover by technology will make tourist agents obsolete.

Although not stated specifically by speakers at the annual meeting of the Israel Hotel Association at the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria on Tuesday, it was very clear from their “world in your pocket” remarks that anyone with a smart phone and the savvy with which to make use of online data bases has no need to consult a travel agent. Anyone can plan a customized business trip or buy a vacation package by surfing the net, reading guest comments and deciding for themselves what is good value for money and where they will have the best experience.

Technology is so advanced that hotel guests with an iPhone can use it to open the door of their room, check out menus, get directions within the hotel and even check in and out without going to the reception desk.

But just as technology can be one’s best friend, it can also be one’s worst enemy.

The cyber threat hovers everywhere, and last year, according to Assaf Aviv, Senior Cyber Security Consultant at Deloitte Israel, security was breached in 250 hotels in fifty countries.

There are five kinds of cyber threats, he explained. Hackers are making a statement. Corporate companies are gaining a competitive advantage. Government driven operators are into espionage.

Terrorists are creating disruption and criminals are breaching data control systems for financial gain.

For years people were told that technology would make their lives easier, but Roy Weiner, the global President of Sales for Howazit, demonstrated that if hoteliers want to protect their online reputations and avert negative publicity, they have to be available 24/7, and must be alert and aware of what goes on in every department of the hotel.

“Be pro-active. Be available and be informative,” Weiner said, emphasizing that hoteliers must establish contact with the guest before arrival, show the guest an on-screen view of everything the hotel has to offer, greet the guest at check-in, during the stay and after the stay to foster guest loyalty and to get them to return. All these factors combined, he said, reduce negative user reviews by 73 percent.

“You have to automatically handle customer responses. You have to have your finger on the pulse of everything that happens in the hotel. You have to be Big Brother,” he said.

While technology and its impact on the industry was the main subject of the day, it was not the only subject. Noaz Bar- Nir, a former director-general of the Ministry of Tourism and the current director-general of the Israel Hotel Association, said that Israel had gone through a difficult year in terms of incoming tourism and that there was a drastic need to be more competitive.

But the government is not doing enough to make competition feasible, he said. “It’s sending us to compete against our neighbors and Western Europe as if we were dragging an iron ball and chain.”

Although Germany is one of the most expensive tourist destinations in Europe, Bar-Nir said, for an Israeli hotel to earn what a German hotel earns by charging 100 euro a night, the Israeli hotel would have to charge 160 euro.

Moreover, in Germany, he continued, people who come to work in hotels have been fully trained.

In Israel they are trained on the job.

The rate of unemployment in Israel notwithstanding, the hotel industry finds it difficult to recruit local staff. As a result, there are 2,500 Jordanians working in Eilat and in the Dead Sea region.

ISRAEL: Israel's Tourism Industry In Trouble

Israel’s tourism industry is in a crisis, with incoming tourism lower now than it was even after Operation Protective Edge last November.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics data, some 209,000 tourists came to Israel in November, down 4.6% from November 2014, and down a full 18.5% from November 2013 – before Operation Protective Edge.

Before the current wave of terror began in October, it seemed as though Israel’s incoming tourism was slowly on the mend. Incoming tourism in September was 6% higher than in October 2013; and figures for August were close to what they were for August 2013.

However, things reversed course in October, as dozens of widely-covered terror attacks hit Israeli cities. The impact on incoming tourism was immediate. October tourism was 14.5% lower than the figure for October 2013, but still higher than in 2014.

Yet the recently released figures for November indicate that the downward trend has continued.

The figures for November hotel stays, published yesterday, add further backing to this trend. Hotels reported 699,000 hotel stays for the month, 11% less than in November 2014, when the tourism industry was already feeling the full effects of Operation Protective Edge, and a full 28% less than in November 2013.

Following the wave of terror that broke out in October, the United States has issued a travel warning for Israel.

“We just began to recover from Operation Protective Edge, and now there’s another crisis,” said Noaz Bar Nir, head of the Israel Hotel Association. “Reports from the field indicate there aren’t many reservations for the upcoming months and that tour organizers abroad are waiting until things quiet down here,” he said, calling for a massive PR campaign to encourage tourism from around the world.

Ilanit Melchior, who is responsible for tourism at the Jerusalem Development Authority, said past experience shows that tourism needs to be actively encouraged. Her authority talks with the Tourism Ministry on a daily basis in order to find creative solutions to make sure tourists keep coming, she said.

Melchior noted that there are opportunities in the tourism crises facing other countries in the region. For instance, Russian tourists are avoiding Turkey and Egypt now, she noted.

“We can offer them an alternative,” she noted, adding that her authority and its Tel Aviv peer organization are promoting reduced price tourism packages to Russian tourists.

The authority is also investing money and resources to bring high-profile conferences to Jerusalem, she added, noting that five are already scheduled for next year.

Michael Weiss, the head of the Jerusalem Tourism Forum, said his food tour initiative saw 30% fewer reservations in October, and 15-20% less in November and December.

“December should be a good month, but we’re seeing that people are choosing not to tour Jerusalem,” he said. Some tourism service providers are seeing even sharper drops, he noted.

“When Operation Protective Edge ended, at least the reservations started coming back, since the war had an end date. But now we don’t have even that,” he said, referring to the terror wave.

Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem, which caters to individual tourists as opposed to tourist groups, said November was its weakest month in four years. “For hostels, the decline began in October and continued through November. We’re not seeing cancellations, we’re not even hearing from people who want to know if it’s safe to come – people simply aren’t making reservations,” said Yaron Burgin, the hostel’s owner. The hostel was at 50% capacity last month, he added.

ISRAEL: Israeli Hotels Still Recovering

Avi Dor of the Prima Hotels chain explains the difficulties Israeli hotels have faced in the past year, and how to solve them.

More than a year after the end of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s hotel industry has not yet fully recovered, according to statistics released Sunday.

While the Israel Hotel Association reported an eight percent increase in incoming tourism compared to July of last year during the counterterrorism operation, it also reported a decline of 17% in incoming tourism compared to July 2013.

“We are still fighting to recover from last year,” said Avi Dor, CEO of the Prima Hotels chain.

“We still have problems with filling up the hotels, with tourists mostly, due to the fact that the situation is still in the news, we still have issues in Jerusalem,” he continued.

The solution, Dor believes, lies in “ongoing marketing because this is the only way we can recover from this situation.”

That marketing, he continued, is done by the state and not by each individual hotel chain, and seeks to take Israel out of the context of bad news and highlight the many positives in Israel.

Israel’s tourism is also negatively affected by the high value of the shekel and the goings on in Russia from a financial standpoint due to Western sanctions, said Dor.

Turning to potential tourists, Dor said, “I think that we have a lovely country. We have very nice attractions over here. We are very friendly, in the hotels and in the entire Israeli community, and I think it’s a very good choice to come and visit Israel.