Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

HITEC 2017  (Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference) came to an end in Toronto last week.  Hosted and organized by the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals ( HFTP ),  HITEC is the world's largest annual hospitality technology event. This year's conference in Toronto took place at a special time — during the week of  Toronto Pride , Canada's  150th anniversary  and a new wave of  global cyberattacks . The conference featured  four keynote speakers , including: Dave B erkus — "super angel" investor, speaker, author, governance expert and entrepreneur Alex Tapscott — CEO of Northwest Passage Ventures, author, speaker and investor Kevin Rosen — partner at Shutts & Bowen, LLP Robert Villan ueva — executive vice president at Q6 Cyber These speakers shared their visions of hospitality technology in three keynote speaker sessions and highlighted two critical issues: 1. The future belongs to those who ...

I read an article entitled “Hotel Sales – It’s Time to Use Video Email to Outsell the Competition” on Hotel-Online.com . As a person who works at a wedding venue and catering business myself, I actually see many flaws of the article. The article states that phone calls are becoming less common, and emails have become a more desirable form of communication because of its new power of sending videos email videos. The author further used an example of sending a video to a potential client during an event set-up stage, stating something along the lines of “if you choose us as your venue, this is what your setup would look like”. I have found a few issues with this approach of promoting sales for a company. I currently work as a set-up lead, server, and tour guide at the Kellogg House and Kellogg West on Cal Poly Pomona’s campus, and I am going to provide examples and explanations as to why this article is flawed. At the Kellogg House, we do our best to allow tours during the tim...

Yelp is an app that provides raw and authentic reviews from the public for a wide variety of different establishments. Before technology gave birth to the internet, social media, and the public review system, individuals had to rely on commercials, paper advertisement, or word-of-mouth for recommendations. False advertisements often existed where consumers' high expectations turned into disappointing experiences. Yelp changed that forever as this generation heavily relies on reviews and star ratings to make decisions on what is the best place to eat Japanese ramen, get their eye brows threaded, and so much more. Yelp changed the way how marketing and businesses work. Earning a reputation through digital influences is something that came along with this new millennia. Consumers today do not like surprises, it’s frightening walking into a new hair salon without knowing what to expect. It is so convenient now to find out a business’s hours of operation, location, and photos in ju...

The Year of 2017 has been a year full of renovations, many of which happened to take place within the hospitality industry. One specific topic is still, and might always be pondering in the minds of those in a hotel's or a resort's Marketing and Advertising Department. Who is the best market to cater to? Or more specifically --- Who is the best market to cater to for 2017-2018? Family vacationers could be the answer. Here is some insight into what families will be looking for and how a resort can get the businesses from family vacationers. The “adults-only” segment To answer this question, I took the liberty of investigating through last year's highlights to see what all the fuss was about for “adult-only” resorts and hotels. In 2016, "adult-only" resorts and hotels are popular among honeymoon goers, singles traveling, and overall, couples having some quality time to themselves. What drew them in were resorts based on a coastal, island settings. Suc...