the experience economy
How Hotels Can Embrace the Experience Economy
David Millili | May 16, 2019
By David Millili Atif Rafiq begins his tenure at MGM Resorts this month. A departure for a casino hotel operation that would typically hire from within the industry, Rafiq's background isn't in hotels at all. Instead, his most recent position as chief digital officer and global chief innovation officer at Volvo Cars signifies a shift in the way MGM is thinking about hospitality, moving away from traditional approaches and toward digital experiences. As Rafiq tells Skift, "Being a Silicon Valley native in tech companies, I want to think about how to bring the digital and physical together. I'm looking at it how a tech company would look ...
Is The Experience Economy Passing Your Hotel or Resort Company Right By?
Bernard Ellis | February 20, 2017
By Bernard Ellis These days, hotel and resort operators are feeling more and more heat from their owners to move the needle on ancillary revenue. RevPAR growth has dramatically slowed down to a pace that appears to be a new normal, finally joining the lukewarm growth trend that has famously hit so many other sectors of the economy for so long. But hotels have taxes to pay and debt to service, and will have to find that profit somewhere else. The good news/bad news aspect of the story is that, thanks to improved automation and the sheer necessity brought about by the Great Recession, hotel operators have gotten extremely good at cost con...
