For bad and for worse: technology supports troubled hospitality sector

Franjiali's positive outlook on the hospitality sector coincides with a mix of feelings regarding the fate of the region's tourism sector in the foreseen future where one of the main concerns of the sector players today is to be able to sustain continuity of operations and yet stay efficient. Efficiency, in this sense, is for the sector to be able to continue providing a differentiated service, at an acceptable cost. Players in the hospitality sector believe that key to survival in both; troubled and flourishing period is the correct and efficient use of technology. "At troubled time, and when costs need to be reduced, technology helps you sustain a certain degree of quality service," said Clive Roach Senior sales and marketing manager, Quality and Horizon Hotel. "Technology has been key for us in providing a differentiated service and is key to our sustainability in these troubled days," he continues.

Information technology is playing an increasingly important role in meeting the sector's demand, especially with the increasing reliance on technology and property management systems to add value to customers, in the most efficient ways. "If you want to attracts global tourism, you should be able to compete on a global level," said Masood Al Janahi, managing director of Key Information Technology. "For that, you need to adopt the platforms and technologies that makes your service offering as or more attractive than the rest of the world." Technology providers like KIT carry the responsibility of provisioning killer technologies that enable the sector to operate on common technology grounds with the rest of the world. "When more hotels, tourist resorts, restaurants and others increase in number, there is a parallel increase to technology-based products and services. "Once the right technology is into place, your can be assured that your efficiency will continue to meet desired levels."

Dubai announced a 21.45% growth year-on-year for 2000; Jordan 's growth of Tourism was 9% in the year 2000 with over $500 million of private investments in the second quarter of the same year according to Jordan's minister of tourism; Lebanon expects more than a million visitors in 2005 and Syria expects to revenues generated by Tourism to reach $25 billions with 12 million tourists by 2020.

"We have seen the increased spending trends in the region on promoting the tourism sector and expect that this will create a unmatched demand for technologies that brings the sector in the region at competitive grounds with the rest of the world," said Al Janahi. "Our trust in the sector, and despite the recent negative feelings in the market, is not moved."

"Initially, software targeting the hospitality industry has always been fragmented. The front office is separated from the back office making it hard for the industry to efficiently maintain the system," commented Adnan Yateem, IT consultant at KIT.

As property management system, Micros-Fidelio has gained great international grounds in the hospitality industry and today, is the most widely used front office system around the world. Micros-Fidelio system is deployed by almost the entire pool of 4 and 5 stars hotels in Abu Dhabi, by 90% of the same hotel category in Dubai and has an 80% market share in the hotels of the region. With the total number of hotels in the UAE expected to rise to 405 in 2004, the demand for information technology products and services in this sector is experiencing an upward steep demand slope.

"We are geared to cater the IT needs of the hospitality industry and the growth trend in this sector calls for us, to expand our service offering to the hospitality industry by bringing integrated solutions that helps the industry provide more diversified, less costly and more efficient services to their clients. Micros-Fidelio is a great front office system and what we needed is a back office that would tie up seamlessly with the back office where the core of the operations reside." KIT and ACCPAC, a world leading end-to-end e-business solutions provider, announced a regional partnership with ACCPAC, a world leading provider of end-to-end solutions, that allows KIT to cater integrated solutions to the hospitality sector. This new partnership makes ACCPAC financials available to every back office hotel information system in the UAE. "Our partnership with ACCPAC allows us to offer the industry a solution integrated with our Micros-Fidelio as a front office and ACCPAC modules as a back office."

The partnership deal brings ACCPAC financial modules to be integrated with Micros-Fidelio, making KIT a one stop shop for industry players looking for integrated, cost effective and efficient solutions. KIT engineers will provision the hospitality industry with one solution that ties together front and back office needs on the industry. "By tying up ACCPAC with Micros-Fidelio, we bring to the industry yet another killer application that adds to the sector's competitiveness and efficiency."

According to Van der Ven, ACCPAC and Micros-Fidelio are currently being used as a single property management system in many hospitality sectors around the world and the partnership between the two companies brings the international capabilities to the hospitality sector of the Middle East.

KIT will offer the hospitality industry with one solution that ties together front and back office needs on the industry. The immediate implication of the KIT-ACCPAC partnership for the hospitality industry is an integrated solution that streamlines the accounting and finance processes of the hotel industry, thus providing cost saving and efficient operations for the sector. "With technical support readily available for us and our clients in an industry where client servicing is of supreme importance, ACCPAC proves to be the partner that will secure the satisfaction of our clients," commented Al Janahi.

The main drive behind increased spending in the hospitality sector is driving information technology providers targeting this sector to expand and enhance their business portfolio to this sector. "In an increasingly competitive markets, the hospitality industry in the region is focusing more on servicing details. The general competitive trend in this industry across the region is to be differentiated, not only by price, but more importantly, by the levels of services. Technology helps drive a variety of services to the sector and this is where we come in as technology providers.

We would tend to support Franjiali's positive outlook on the fate of global tourism and that of our region. With the efforts of the region's governments and private sector to continue during the tourism sector forward, the use of technology by this sector proves to be essential for the sector's survival in troubled times as well as in peace.

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