Hotel Tech Trade Show HITEC Faces Competition From New Event

A major hotel technology trade show in North America appeared to get sudden competition on Thursday thanks to a new conference backed by a major U.S. hotel lobby.

For five decades, hotel tech professionals have run HITEC, the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference. But on Thursday, American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and Questex, an events operator and publisher, said they had partnered to create The Hospitality Show at The Venetian Las Vegas.

The new event will take place from June 27 to 29. The dates overlap with HITEC's dates of June 26 to 29.

The announcement came after news in May that AHLA had made an unsolicited merger offer to the trade group Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) — which produces HITEC. The tech professionals group rejected the offer, as Skift noted.

Since then, AHLA has