MIAMI – As the Caribbean and Latin America tourism industry continue to be battered by the global recession, many international organizations predict a worsening slump for 2009. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that in 2008, tourism grew between 2 and 3 percent, a very distant cry from the 6.6 percent reached during the previous year. In 2009, it is expected to expand even less, somewhere between 0 and 2 percent.
David Andrade, CEO at POWERi Technologies, one of the fastest growing interactive agencies in the U.S., sees this business climate as the perfect opportunity for the hotel industry in these regions to ensure that they incorporate the online reservation tools and processes that are now pre-requisites to effectively compete.
“This is the reality of the industry right now. The market place is in free fall and will only accommodate those businesses who can leverage technology, best practices and collaboration as a means of surviving this global recession, and come out stronger on the other side. This is the reason a product like ReGIS® is so timely and represents a perfect solution for independent small and medium hotels hoping to survive in this environment.” states Andrade.
ReGIS®, a proprietary booking engine developed by POWERi is on the cutting edge of SAAS (Software As A Service) technology. SAAS technology allows companies to integrate business solutions quickly and costs a fraction of the price of other traditional software solutions.
Several well-known destinations such as The Shelborne Hotel in Miami Beach, the Marco Polo Beach Resort in Sunny Isles and Grace Bay Suites in the Turks & Caicos Islands have all implemented the ReGIS booking engine within their site and have seen their ROI increase by as much as 60%.
The advantage of ReGIS® for small and medium-sized hotels (20 rooms or more) is that it is very easy to integrate within an existing website; and at a price of $10.00 per room per month, it is much more cost effective than competing systems and requires substantially less profit margin generated from online sales because clients are booking instantaneously and directly on a site versus using a third party aggregator.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) notes that countries like Curacao, Trinidad and Cuba will continue to see double-digit growth within their tourism trade. This is due partly to recent investments that have placed them in a better position to compete for the decreasing demand for tourism services expected in the near future.
“The days of hotels and destinations not having a website to service customers are over. The days of using e-mail as a means to book rooms are also gone. But more importantly not having your website serve more as a web service is also quickly becoming a business model of the past. By using ReGIS® to instantaneously sell, manage inventory, provide Customer Relationship Management and control online promotions at a fraction of the cost of other solutions is the new reality. Hotel owners who understand this will not only survive, but thrive even in a down economy.” further states Andrade.
For information on the ReGIS® application, you can view a demonstration by visiting www.Regisres.com. For more information about POWERi Technologies, contact them at 954-382-3900 or e-mail at [email protected] or visit www.POWERi.com.
