| |JULY 20219IoT:The Internet of Things is becoming and will be the `trend of interest' in the future. Alexa for hospitality is the epito-me of changing scenarios of personalised customer expe-rience. From monitoring room temperature/lights, call-ing room service/front desk, playing music, checking the weather, guests are in for a vivid technology delight. Infusing physical experience with guests' personal dig-ital experience is another achievement for IoT technology. Travellers can screencast their handheld device onto the TV for enhanced in-room guest satisfaction. Apprehending the vitality of IoT in travel tourism, Spain's Hotel Technology Institute (Instituto Tecnológi-coHotelero, or ITH) stated: "IoT is going to be the major transformative factor in the personalization of the custom-er experience over the next few years.''Big data, AI, ML:The rise of technology has opened gates for big data analy-sis, artificial intelligence, machine learning in the hospital-ity and travel sector. Since the majority of travel planning and bookings happen online, big data analysis allows prop-erties to read through travellers' behaviour, online book-ing patterns and gauge their expectations and preferences. AL and ML have penetrated the industry in the form of chatbots, AI concierge robots (Connie for Hilton), Alexa for hospitality and more. All these mediums put forth the insights collected from the guests to facilitate an enhanced travel experience. Big data, AI and ML function in sync to empower hospitality businesses for uplifting guest satisfaction.Virtual Reality (VR): Virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) has already amended the way people perceive their travel. The ability to examine a cabin on the cruise or amenities of the room one will stay in is surreal. Technology has evolved expo-nentially to seamlessly teleport people from their current location to the other corner of the world. It makes them live the actual site and experience the ambience sitting in the comfort of their space. Modern travellers, particularly mil-lennials, are keen on such tech.VR has become an integral part of the accommodation businesses' strategies to help extend unique experiences to their guests.Remote yet connected:Social media applications, travel review sites, forums - tourists have many mediums to stay connected while holidaying. Facebook, Instagram have avid travellers doc-umenting their experiences through photos, videos, and live streaming. Technology has brought the world closer, so much that it lies on electronic devices and reachable via fingertips. Travellers become a mirror of the hospitality they ex-perience and share it with the world. Technology, directly and indirectly, influences people's choices and perception. Moreover, it also enables hoteliers to better curate experiences to keep up with travellers ex-pectations. The technological revolution has been tremendously impactful. It starts providing a personalised experience even before tourists begin their journey. Mobiles have be-come the actual travel planners in 2021. According to Tripadvisor, 45% of users use their smart-phone for everything having to do with their vacations. It is estimated that a traveller uses around 13 apps during his voyage.It is evident that travel, technology and guest experi-ence go hand in hand. Constant development and advances in technology have succeeded in bringing more versatility and a new dimension to experience-based travel. Irrefutably, geosynthetics will play an integral role in achieving the aggressive infrastructure timelines and budget over the coming years in the nation
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