The holiday season is upon us and we're all ramping up to prepare for upcoming busy long weekends and time off over Christmas and New Year. Hoteliers specifically are energising their marketing campaigns to bring more business in and drive revenue from those already booked in. So, what better way to help get prepared for all this, than to set up an automated online and mobile experience for your upcoming guests?

New research released by global travel technology provider, Sabre Corporation (www.Sabre.com), has revealed that African air travel spend is expected to rise 24% with the introduction of the pan-African passport in 2018. The new passport will enable African travellers to visit other countries on the continent without a visa.The comprehensive survey by Sabre aimed to uncover the opportunities and challenges faced by travellers in Africa today, to help airlines' growth and provide African travellers an overall better journey. Travellers from four countries – South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt were surveyed, with those having flown in the past 24 months saying they would spend 24 percent more with the introduction of the passport (from $1,100 to $1,500 annually).But despite a willingness among travellers to spend more on flights, travel in Africa still remains inaccessible to the majority, with only 23 percent of those surveyed having travelled abroad at all in the last two years. When asked what prevents them from travelling more, the top reasons were:

Guestline, market leaders in hospitality software, are pleased to announce the appointment of James Cannon as Head of Commercial Development to meet the growing demand for their solutions overseas and to develop the product portfolio on offer.

It provides hoteliers worldwide with a reliable, concise and clear understanding of the solutions SALTO Systems provides for the sector.

Last week we published an infographic about meeting the needs of modern business travelers. An important aspect didn't fit in the previous infographic, so we made a second one. What aspect, you ask? Mobile apps. A traveler's experience isn't complete without them!

Most hoteliers associate the term Social Media with Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. But there is much more to Social Media. Facebook & Co. are one aspect, the other important part is rating portals. Communities are nice and valuable, but money is made through TripAdvisor, HolidayCheck, and Google+.

Guestfolio, the award winning hotel marketing platform is honoured to announce that The Nettleton Collection, a group of leading, unique hotels in the south west of England, has partnered with Guestfolio.

Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced availability of The 2016 Smart Decision Guide™ to Hotel Property Management Systems.

Having worked intimately with revenue management solutions, implementations and training at many different hotel portfolios such as InterContinental Hotels Group, Shangri-La Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotels and PARKROYAL for nearly two decades, I've experienced the effects of successful implementation and change management practices within different organizational ranks of the hotel structure.

Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced that registration is open for the annual industry-leading Agilysys Inspire User Conference & Executive Summit 2017. A popular event for Agilysys customers, the conference will be held Jan. 23-25 at M Resort in Las Vegas, and will feature thought-leadership sessions focused on 'Re-Imagining Hospitality' designed to help customers drive revenue growth while improving the guest experience.