Now track Flu trends with Google upto two weeks ahead of traditional flu surveillance systems
Google, ever the innovator, has just announced "Google Flu Trends", which will allow US searchers to track Flu Trends and flu-related activity upto 2 weeks ahead of traditional flu tracking and surveillance systems.
The official Google Flu Trends site explains how this is done:
Each week, millions of users around the world search for online health information. As you might expect, there are more flu-related searches during flu season, more allergy-related searches during allergy season, and more sunburn-related searches during the summer. You can explore all of these phenomena using Google Trends. But can search query trends provide an accurate, reliable model of real-world phenomena?
An Inspiring Video - A Global Charter to bring people together through Compassion
We urge you to take a moment to watch a short video that went live on the web today. Beautifully filmed and edited by Jesse Dylan and his team at Form TV, it might just be the most inspiring thing you see this week.
Learn more about this initiative...The Charter for Compassion
The Virtual World - A Successful Confluence of eCommerce and PR
One of the top trends in the ever-changing structure of Public Relations is the digital and interactive communications. Hospitality industry experts are focused on Customer Experience Management, Reputation Management, and Brand Communication. In the traditional manner, this focus is conveyed through offline and print publications. eCommerce has influenced all of these.
The major functions of Public Relations that eCommerce has changed are Media Relations, Internal and External Communications, and Branding.
The million dollar hotel marketing idea that’s been staring you in the face
I’ve been racking my brain for the last few weeks over what to write about. The interesting thing is that it’s not lack of choice that’s been the trouble…it’s too much of it! From the excitement caused by US underdog Barack Obama’s win and the promise of a brighter political future… to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer causing a buzz with his first-ever “holographic” interviews in the newsroom, there’s been plenty going on to keep techies and armchair futurists abuzz. And while CNN’s holograms weren’t really holograms when you cut to the chase…one development is very real…the advancing global recession that we’re slowly coming to grips with.
Hospitality media has been filled with reports about dropping profits margins, especially in hard hit areas and suggestions to hoteliers on how to best tackle the market situation, i.e. tough it out, work smart and dust off your selling shoes. What surprises me, though, is that while the hotel industry continues its distribution war with online 3rd parties with super-deep advertising pockets, it still continues to ignore its most lucrative booking distribution channel…its guests!
How are hotel management companies dealing with the economic slowdown
CNN's Richard Quest takes a peek at the hotel industry and what hotel management companies, big hotel brands and hotel owners are saying about the current economic downturn. The report claims that business / corporate travel is still going strong!
Hospitality Management in the Downturn - Bill Marriott on the Road ahead
It seems that the world goes through a crash and cleansing process every decade or so...this time it was the banks and financial institutions that brought the house of cards down. As business suffers and companies cut down on travel and "unnecessary" expenditure, hotels in certain parts of the world are suffering. Bill Marriott blogs about the road ahead in the current economic situation and says Marriott is poised for the future. To quote:
I've experienced eight downturns in my 52 years in business and we've always come out of them stronger and more competitive than when the trouble began. In early October, we reported our third quarter earnings results and also provided observations about business for the rest of 2008 and into 2009. At that time, we expected business in late 2008 and 2009 to decline, but in just the last few weeks our business outlook has further weakened. Although business is slowing, our corporate staff and our hotel management teams have been doing everything they can to operate as efficiently as possible.
We're doing what we can to contain costs, keep our loyal customers and attract new ones. This will help preserve jobs for our people, which is a top priority for me and for all of us. We are anxious to support the communities where we operate. Our hotels generate thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in wages and tax receipts that the local governments need to pay for schools, police and fire departments. We're all connected and we're all in this together.
Although we have to work our way through this tough economic patch, it's important to keep our eyes on the road ahead as better times will return.
Words of comfort indeed for many a hotelier! For now, though, it's time to buckle up those belts and go that extra mile to get the business in...the race is on!
