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Changing Times In Hospitality

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The Shangri-La story began in 1971 with our first deluxe hotel in Singapore. Inspired by the legendary land featured in James Hilton's 1933 novel, Lost Horizon, the name Shangri-La encapsulates the serenity and service for which our hotels and resorts are renowned worldwide.

Hospitality has its roots from the time since trade started between East Asian and European nations through Middle Eastern countries. Starting from small Inns and home stays to Luxury Hotels, hospitality has seen a tremendous change through its journey from the ancient, medieval period to the current scenario. Earlier travelling was chosen by those who could afford to but now travelling has become an essential activity for an individual, and as travellers increase, hospitality comes in.

Technology is the major component which has been developing new concepts which are used by many hotels around the globe. Robots in hotels and restaurants are being used for delivering an experience to their guests which they won't forget. Robots are used by many Japanese and American hotels to do various chores like check-ins and check-outs, serving food, concierge robot, luggage carrying robots and service bots which use Artificial Intelligence to interpret data and perform various tasks.

Voice activated services like using device like Siri to access various facilities in the room. Many hotels in India have started to use Chatbots to communicate with the guests 24/7, which helps in solving guest's problems and queries immediately. Besides AI also helps to store data and understand behaviour and make enhance the guest experience.

Smart Hotels is a new trend rising, wherein the hotels have a minimum number of staff and the major operations are carried out through various devices and humanoids. Virtual experience through VR glasses where Hotels play videos of their sister hotels or even some landscape within the locality to experience the scenario from a single point.

Besides technology, new trends have also been coming up among the travellers. The Millennials and the Generation X are the ones who travel most either for leisure or business. Detox stays and travel, in simple words travelling for rejuvenation, healing and seeking peace of mind is an upcoming trend observed. Experiential travel has been boosting enormously as Millennials have the craving to explore and experience new places and the things they offer to their guests.

Leisure travel is rising where travellers visit for both business and leisure at the same time. Many hotels have started offering packages which include both business and leisure activities. This trend started from United States but now has been adopted by everyone.

Travellers also have found a tendency to explore new taste buds giving rise to `Food Tourism', which not only gives an exclusive dining experience but also promotes tourism at the same time. Local Connect wherein the hotels and the locals work together for giving the best experience to their guests.

An unusual trend of travelling for clicking Instagrammable pictures has also been observed among the young generation mostly in Europe and United States.

Travellers are moving beyond the scenic beauty and landscape but are also considering other factors like food, culture, adventure, business with relaxation and major concern for them is experiencing new things which they generally don't get to do. One such example would be `Space Tourism". Space X is planning to colonise mars by 2025, and the astonishing fact about the voyage is that about a million people have already signed for the journey. This would be a whole together a never seen experience and who knows we could also see space stations in future.