Articles tagged “health”

An aging, less mobile population is a design challenge on one hand and a revenue opportunity on the other.

There's no longer a one-size-fits-all method to meetings. Smart hotels are looking to new ideas -- even if they're very old ideas like yoga -- to offer better options for planners and guests.

Westin is trying to carve out some brand differentiation with a $15 million campaign well-being campaign. It's local and trendy, and probably something for the brand to feel good about.

We're pretty disgusted by the idea of this, and want to think it will be a complete failure. But the pessimist in us thinks this will be a huge success.

With norovirus outbreaks hitting the cruise industry relatively hard in the beginning of 2014, Costa Cruises, still in recovery mode from the Costa Concordia crash, didn't need a suspected measles outbreak among crew on one of its ships. Neither did the passengers who, according to reports, have so far not come down with the virus.

These voyages stand out for the particularly high percentages of ill passengers onboard, but the cases give no further insights into how to stop outbreaks from happening in the future.

The average virus outbreak occurs on a 12-day voyage and causes 6.6 percent of passengers to fall ill. Longer cruises give the virus more time to spread but the factors that lead to an outbreak are the same on every ship.

The cause of a norovirus, whether it's a single passenger or malfunctioning dishwasher, is almost impossible to pinpoint making it tough for the CDC or cruise lines to say when, if ever, the risk will be mitigated.

In addition to a 50% refund on their cruise fares, the 630 stricken passengers on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas also get one future cruise day credit for each day they were incarcerated in their cabins. This hardly seems adequate, and Congress should give the cruise industry-written passenger bill of rights the old heave ho.

As hotels learn about what guests respond to and appreciate, their products will innovate and become more integrated in the general hotel experience. This is a trend taking place across the travel industry in airports, airlines, and even destinations' most popular attractions.