ICEbreaker November 2017

Hello and welcome to our monthly newsletter, ICEbreaker from ICE, the travel technology and digitalization experts.

This month’s highlights include travel in the age of Trump, fascinating statistics on Europeans spending longer searching for flights than actually travelling and what Second Life can teach us about the limitations on an online life.

Novenber is always busy. It started with The World Travel Market in London and we’ve also been preparing to chair the CLIA Technical Advisory Council in Miami which will aim to address some of the major technical challenges facing the cruise industry. Much of our time this month has been spent on strategy for 2018 and beyond. Our attendance at the Gartner Symposium in Barcelona confirmed how much in tune we are with the Gartner’s Technology Trends with our smart focus on Cyber Security, AI, VR, IOT and Blockchain innovations.

Talking of innovations we are pleased that The International Cruise Ship Industry online magazine has listed our innovation report on “Cyber Security – Is the Cruise Industry Ready?”

Last month we promised to share the IMO’s “Cyber Security at Sea” video that our sister company CRIBB consulted and appeared in. There will be further training videos to come in early 2018, so watch this space.

Until then,

Ian Richardson (Richie) and Conor Byrne
(ICE's founders)

Quote Of The Month

 “Talented people with bad values will do far more damage than virtuous people will lesser talents”

Charles Koch, CEO Koch Industries 

Number Of The Month

$10,000

The price of a single Bitcoin has crossed $10,000 for the first time, taking many investors by surprise.

Source: New York Times 

Articles Of The Month

 Tech transforms the future of flying

 With airline passengers expectations transformed by Amazon, The New York Times outlines the different ways technology will transform and improve air travel from biometric boarding to virtual reality design testing. 

Brisbane’s cruise wharf to open in 2020

Our clients in Queensland will be relieved to hear the long awaited $158m cruise terminal in Brisbane has been given the go-ahead.

Hi-tech floating playgrounds

Royal Caribbean outlines plans to transform its fleet into 37 high-tech, smart cruise ships with 30% kitted out by 2018. Its Sea Beyond tech ecosystem includes shipbuilding, customer experience and crew.

European wasting billions on flight search

43% of Western Europeans are spending an average of three and a half hours on searching and booking flights, according to Sabre. Indeed they’re often spending more time looking for flights than actually travelling.

Airbnbers splash out on restaurants

Airbnb guests spent over 2.5bn euros on eating in restaurants across 10 cities in Europe, 700 million euros more than 2016.

Hilton’s connected room

Hilton and Marriot’s share ambitious strategy to use internet of things to personalise guests’ experience including a smart mirror heart rate during morning yoga.

One slide at a time

The surprising story behind PowerPoint and how it took over the world – one slide at a time.

Travel in the age of Trump

Senior travel executives discuss the US President’s impact on travel. Final advice to the Trump administration? “It’s a big market, don’t mess it up.”

Remember Second Life?

It was supposed to be the future, but then Facebook came along. What does it teach us about the limitations of an online life?