#corporate travel booking tools

[exploretechio]

Elevate your business travel game with our state-of-the-art corporate travel booking tools! Effortlessly streamline reservations, manage expenses, and ensure seamless journeys for your team. Experience efficiency redefined – your key to productive and cost-effective travel solutions!

[seoparekh]

How Travel Technology Tools are essential for Business Travel

The inception of travel technology tools has enhanced travel experience a lot. The entire world has shifted to a contactless situation and travel is no exception. Contactless travel and online travel booking solutions are now the new norm, and it is here to stay for long and evolve with time. With business travellers becoming busy again with lots of business meetings, conferences and MICE which results in increased travel, is leading to the rise in demand for travel technology tools. Travel technology tools have become very essential in this scenario as these tools are highly responsible in making the travel stress free and smooth. With the support of travel technology tools, business travellers will now feel lot safer and can take better decisions in travel.

Being a leading international brand in travel industry Lufthansa City Center Travel & Rentals has brought in latest travel technology tools equipped with best-in-class travel platform for seamless operations for our customers. Our travel technology tools will provide a single interface to book and manage travel for your travellers and keep a track for every travel detail, thus delivering customized business travel solutions that you would need in your employee's travel.

Travel technology has advanced a lot since its inception, bringing us a myriad of benefits that enhance every aspect of the journey. One of the primary advantages of travel technology is the ease and efficiency with which travelers can plan their trips. Travel safety is another aspect that a traveler can enjoy with latest updates in travel. Online platforms and mobile applications provide instant access to a pool of information allowing users to remain updated about the destinations, changes in weather, sudden emergency, flights updates and much more. With just a few clicks now a traveller can compare prices and book accommodations.

With our latest mobile applications, a traveller can get real-time updates on flights, weather conditions, disruptions in destination and traffic that contribute to seamless travel logistics. For travel booking purposes, a traveller can reap best benefits from our online travel booking solutions that facilitate real time information on flights and hotels. From a wide variety of options available in our online booking tool, a traveller can enjoy the freedom of booking as per choice and requirement.

Travel technology also offers enhanced safety measures. Emergency assistance, medical resources, and location tracking services provide a sense of security for both solo and group travelers.

Online Travel Booking Simplified

Our Online Booking Tool holds the perfect example of smart and effective travel technology tools that brings to you a robust bouquet of fares and inventory which are compatible within the scope of your organization’s travel policies. Our distribution package offers complete end-to-end travel solutions with all travel managers'/ travelers’ needs being incorporated into it. From self-booking capability, duty of care issues to reimbursement, data analytics, timely reporting and many more, are covered in organized manner to keep you updated and stress free

What all you need is to click the below link, fill up your details and sign up with the latest travel technology system that are truly dedicated for corporate and small and medium enterprises.

Welcome to better travel booking experience.

Payment Solutions - easy payment methods

Contactless payment has already gained popularity and being widely used by Lufthansa City Center Travels & Rentals keeping in mind the convenience of the consumers. Our payment methods offer easy interfaces that make business travel simpler, secured, and smarter. With our digital payment system, we have effectively removed the load of offline payment from our customers and deliver clarity on travel spend. You can now book flights, hotels and other travel services online easily with latest travel technology tools.

Profile Management - organized database

Our latest travel technology tool comes with a huge repository where customer profiles are managed and maintained efficiently. The storage system is one-of-its-kind as it is robust and secured with PCI-DSS compliance. It has a unique capability of sending auto notifications for visa and passport validity. It also provides alerts for any changes or updates that you would like to add to your profile. For a faster turnaround it is integrated with our primary GDS system. In short, your profile is secured and better managed.

Connect with us today for an amazing travel technology experience.

[manishaadivaha]

Navigate the World of Business Travel with Our Corporate Booking Tool

Efficient management of corporate travel and expenses plays a critical role in the success of modern businesses aiming for growth and global expansion. It emphasizes how the emergence and evolution of corporate booking tools have transformed the traditional approach to handling travel arrangements within organizations.

It points out that as businesses strive for expansion, managing travel and expenses becomes a crucial aspect. The use of corporate booking tools has brought about a revolution by significantly improving how companies handle travel-related tasks. These tools streamline processes, make them more efficient, reduce costs, and ultimately contribute to enhancing the overall efficiency of managing corporate travel.

Key Features and Functionalities

Corporate booking tools come packed with a range of features and functionalities designed to streamline and optimize the entire travel management process. Some key features and functionalities include:

1. Centralized Booking Platform: Offering a single interface where employees can book flights, accommodations, transportation, and other travel services, consolidating all travel-related activities in one place.

2. Policy Adherence and Compliance: Enforcing company travel policies by ensuring bookings align with preferred vendors, budgetary constraints, and travel guidelines set by the organization.

3. Expense Management Integration: Seamless integration with expense management systems, allows for easy tracking, reporting, and reimbursement of travel expenses incurred by employees.

4. Reporting and Analytics: Generating comprehensive reports and analytics that provide insights into travel patterns, expenses, compliance metrics, and other key data points to aid in decision-making and cost optimization.

5. Mobile Accessibility: Offering mobile applications or responsive interfaces that enable employees to manage bookings, access travel information, and make changes on the go using smartphones or tablets.

6. Supplier Negotiation and Management: Facilitating negotiations with travel suppliers to secure better rates, manage relationships, and ensure favourable terms for corporate travel.

7. Approval Workflows: Implementing workflows that require approvals for certain types of bookings, ensuring managerial oversight and compliance with company policies.

8. Travel Risk Management: Providing tools and information to manage and mitigate travel risks, including real-time alerts, traveler tracking, and assistance during emergencies.

9. User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces that simplify the booking process, making it accessible for employees with varying levels of technical expertise.

10. Integration Capabilities: Offering the ability to seamlessly integrate with other enterprise systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or HR software to streamline data flow and ensure consistency across departments.

Benefits of Corporate Booking Tools

Implementing a corporate booking tool can yield numerous advantages for businesses:

Cost Savings: Corporate booking tools often allow companies to negotiate better rates with preferred vendors due to bulk bookings or partnerships, resulting in reduced travel expenses. By enforcing travel policies within the booking tool, companies ensure that employees adhere to set guidelines, avoiding unnecessary expenditures and optimizing costs. The tool provides clear visibility into expenses, enabling better cost tracking and management.

Increased Efficiency: Automation within the booking tool streamlines the booking process, reducing the need for manual intervention. This saves time for both employees making bookings and administrative staff overseeing them.

Policy Compliance: The tool ensures that bookings align with company travel policies, including preferred vendors, budget limitations, and other guidelines. This helps in controlling and managing travel-related expenses effectively.

Improved Visibility and Control: The tool generates detailed reports and analytics on travel patterns, expenses, compliance metrics, and more. This provides companies with insights to make informed decisions, strategize better, and optimize travel-related spending.

Enhanced Employee Experience: Offering a user-friendly interface makes it easier for employees to navigate the booking process, reducing frustration and increasing efficiency. With mobile accessibility, employees can manage their travel arrangements conveniently from anywhere, boosting satisfaction and productivity.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite the evident benefits, deploying and optimizing a corporate booking tool comes with its own set of challenges:

Employee Adoption:

Encouraging employees to embrace new technologies and workflows introduced by the corporate booking tool might face resistance initially. Employees may be accustomed to existing processes and might require training or support to adapt to the new system effectively.

Integration Complexity:

Seamless integration of the corporate booking tool with existing systems such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), expense management software, HR systems, and other enterprise-level applications can be complex. Ensuring smooth data flow between these systems is crucial but can be time-consuming and require technical expertise.

Data Security and Compliance:

Handling sensitive travel and financial information within the corporate booking tool necessitates stringent measures to ensure data security and compliance with various regulations (such as GDPR, HIPAA, etc.). Safeguarding this data from unauthorized access, and data breaches, and ensuring compliance with legal requirements is a paramount concern.

Vendor Selection:

Choosing the right vendor for the corporate booking tool is critical. Companies need to select a vendor whose solution aligns with their specific requirements, scalability needs, and budget. Factors such as vendor reliability, customer support, system flexibility, and future updates or enhancements also play a crucial role in the decision-making process.

Trends Shaping Corporate Booking Tools

Several trends are shaping the future of corporate booking tools:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning:

Integration of AI and machine learning into corporate booking tools brings advanced capabilities. These technologies analyze vast amounts of data to personalize travel recommendations for employees based on their preferences, previous bookings, and company policies. AI can predict expenses more accurately, optimize travel itineraries, and continuously enhance the user experience by learning from user interactions.

Mobile-Centric Solutions:

There's a growing emphasis on mobile applications to facilitate seamless and convenient booking experiences on smartphones and tablets. Corporate booking tools are increasingly optimized for mobile use, allowing employees to manage their corporate travel technology arrangements on the go, improving accessibility and flexibility.

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):

Corporate booking tools are evolving to include features that promote eco-friendly travel options and align with a company's CSR initiatives. This might involve suggesting or prioritizing travel options that have lower environmental impacts, such as recommending public transport or eco-friendly accommodations.

Blockchain Technology:

There's an exploration into leveraging Blockchain technology within corporate booking tools. Blockchain offers secure and transparent transactions, which can enhance the security of bookings and payments. It can also facilitate identity verification and create a more transparent and tamper-proof system for managing travel-related transactions and records.

How user-friendly are these tools for employees?

The user-friendliness of online corporate travel booking tools for employees can vary based on the specific tool and its design. However, many modern corporate booking tools strive to prioritize user experience to ensure they are intuitive and easy to use. A well-designed interface that is visually appealing and easy to navigate can significantly enhance user-friendliness. Clear labelling, logical flow, and minimalistic design contribute to ease of use. Streamlining the booking process by reducing unnecessary steps and offering a guided, step-by-step approach makes it easier for employees to book flights, accommodations, or transportation. Tools that offer mobile applications or responsive web interfaces ensure that employees can manage their travel arrangements conveniently from their smartphones or tablets, adding to accessibility and user-friendliness. Providing options for personal preferences, such as saving frequently used locations or travel preferences, enhances the user experience by reducing repetitive data entry and tailoring the tool to individual needs. Offering tooltips, help sections, or tutorials within the tool can assist users in understanding its functionalities and troubleshooting common issues, improving overall usability. Adequate training and on-going support from the IT department or the tool's provider help employees familiarize themselves with the tool's features, reducing the learning curve and improving user-friendliness. Tools that incorporate feedback mechanisms or user surveys can gather input from employees, enabling continuous improvement based on user experiences and preferences.

What measures ensure data security and compliance with regulations when handling sensitive travel information?

Ensuring data security and compliance with regulations when handling sensitive travel information within corporate travel booking tools involves implementing a range of measures and best practices:

1. Encryption:

Encryption involves encoding data during transmission (SSL/TLS) and storage, preventing unauthorized access. It secures sensitive travel information as it moves between users' devices and the corporate booking tool's servers.

2. Access Control:

Strict access controls and user authentication mechanisms limit data access to authorized personnel only. Role-based access ensures that individuals can view or modify specific data based on their roles within the organization.

3. Data Minimization:

Reducing the collection and retention of sensitive data minimizes the risk of exposure in case of a breach. Storing only necessary information within the corporate booking tool helps limit potential vulnerabilities.

4. Regular Audits and Assessments:

Periodic security audits and risk assessments identify vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with security standards. Addressing any identified issues promptly helps maintain the integrity of the corporate booking tool's security measures.

5. Compliance with Regulations:

Adherence to relevant data protection regulations (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.) governing the handling of personal and sensitive information is essential. Aligning the tool's practices with these regulations ensures legal compliance.

6. Secure Storage:

Storing data in secure, encrypted databases with restricted access ensures the protection of sensitive travel information. Backups and disaster recovery plans prevent data loss in case of system failures or cyber-attacks.

In conclusion, the emergence and evolution of corporate booking tools have transformed the landscape of business travel management software. These tools offer a comprehensive solution for companies, streamlining processes, reducing costs, and enhancing overall efficiency. By centralizing bookings, ensuring policy compliance, and providing insights through analytics, corporate booking tools empower organizations to optimize travel expenditures while offering a user-friendly experience for employees.

[travelwebsitedevelopment]

Corporate Travel Management

What is Corporate Travel Management?

Corporate Travel Management refers to a tool designed to help small and mid-sized businesses plan their business travel in a cost-effective manner. This primarily integrates all types of inventory required for frequent travelers at corporate fares. Corporate booking tools can help organizations with revenue management, time management, and convenience management.

Travel managers can use a Corporate Travel System to book, track, and evaluate business travel. Primarily, a Corporate Travel Software refers to a platform that includes travel inventory, travel policies, and reporting, but may also refer to the overall process of corporate travel management.

The backend travel agency management solution enables travel agencies to automate their operations in order to meet the needs of their travel business. Travel agent can manage the global corporate portfolio, corporate policy compliances, approval-workflow, and corporate credit and deposit policy. In addition, the system can generate a variety of reports for corporate and supplier reconciliation.

Corporate Travel Management Software is designed to help travel agents, tour operators, destination management companies and travel agencies quickly respond to their customers’ requisites.

If you're looking for end-to-end Corporate Travel Software for your Travel Management Company and corporate clients, you've come to the right place.

Among the numerous great corporate self-booking tools on the market today, FlightsLogic's Corporate Booking Tool is the one you can easily afford to use for your corporate customers.

We develop immensely lucrative solutions for clients who are consistently satisfied when they meet a specific requirement related to their business.

Our travel enterprise software includes several tools to assist you in making the best-value offers to your clients and thus maximizing your revenue and loyalty gains.

Our advanced web-based Tour Management Software provides you with the versatility you need to run a successful travel business. The system includes a plethora of user-customizable features such as hotel booking, flight booking, bus and car booking, travel packages, and travel insurance.

FlightsLogic has a Corporate Online Travel Services that was designed to meet the needs of small and mid-sized businesses. This enterprise solution combines various sources which serve their purpose with quality in an effective way with the advanced technology incorporation and extended support.

Delivering corporate travel booking software over the last decade, we identify the complexity behind the everyday work of corporate travel managers. We precisely tailor our technology to make travel management more streamlined and productive.

Our specialized travel and expense management software prefers the ease of managing a corporate client with complete support of traveler data, corporate policy settings, flexible approval schedules and other valuable features.

Which is the top travel technology platform for Corporate Travel Management?

FlightsLogic develops one of the most advanced and high-performance Corporate Travel Management Software on the market. We provide high-end travel domain-specific solutions to ensure that your business grows to its full potential.

We are travel industry experts who have developed a solution with all of the features to assist travel agents in their day-to-day tasks and inspire their entire team. Our solution is fully integrated, flexible, and secure, and it greatly enhances your efficiency.

In the Online Self Booking Tool, we designed and built a tool that allows TMCs to book travel products for their corporate clients or to give them direct access to search and book the appropriate travel products and manage their travel expenses.

With the help of our simple online booking platform, our software enables businesses of any size to manage the entire process in one place.

We provide the best travel itinerary development software for tour operators, as well as a full travel quotation management system, allowing them to create personalized travel itineraries with hotels, flights, transfers, car rental, and other travel services to improve the customer travel experience.

With the app, you can increase sales, manage customers, generate reports, and improve efficiency. We will help you achieve the height of your desire.

Our travel management solution allows you to book, plan, and track all of your company's business trips from a single platform. It’s vital that your business travelers can access and manage all their travel arrangements, expenses and itineraries easily and quickly.

By utilizing our travel management platform, you will have access to everything you need to manage your travel at the click of a button, on any platform, from anywhere in the world.

Our Corporate Travel Management Tools are designed to simplify complex travel processes, allowing Travel Management Companies and Corporations to concentrate on their core business.

Our Corporate Business Travel Management Services includes everything you need to keep your corporate travelers happy. It enhances the business travel experience with faster and easier corporate bookings.

Our Corporate Self Booking Tool Solutions are designed to help corporate customers simplify the complex travel process, allowing travel management companies to focus on their core business.

It enables the request of travel, approval, maintaining itineraries, and generating invoices. You also gain full control within the organization while offering flexibility and convenience for business travel.

By using our best corporate travel management software, you are not only able to improve the user interface and give greater flexibility for a corporate travel manager but also be able to help the business traveler as well.

The booking platform has been developed by having in mind the requirements, trends, and dynamic demands of corporate. The services we provide through the portal are extremely dynamic and long-term beneficial.

Our corporate business travel management services provide all aspects of business travel planning, management, and support through a single interface. Booking costs, itinerary information, travel expenses, and emergency information (e.g., weather delays) are all accessible in a single digital platform, making business trips very simple for the traveler.

It enables corporate clients to request travel, approval, manage itineraries and generate invoices. Your corporate clients gain full control within the organization while offering ease and convenience for business travel.

How can FlightsLogic help you modernize your corporate travel program?

If you're having difficulty managing corporate travel, you're probably looking for ways to streamline everything from orders, price offers, and bookings to expense management and reporting.

Having an effective corporate travel management system is now a top priority for the majority of large corporations. To maximize profits, it is essential in developing a strategic approach to the organization's travel policy.

FlightsLogic has built an interactive Corporate Online Travel Services to help travel professionals manage, search, and book travel services for their corporate clients, as well as provide them with direct access to book the required travel products.

FlightsLogic's team has gained a new skill set as a result of interacting with our customers for over a decade. Working with the world's top TMCs has enhanced our experience, and combined with our quality processes, we ensure that our customers receive value-added products and services.

Our years of industry expertise as a technology-leading provider enabled us to establish a strong position and become one of the industry's most trusted brands. We intend to continue providing our customers with comprehensive travel solutions that simplify their business processes in the minimum time.

We guarantee that we take a good look at your requirements to provide you with customized corporate travel portal solutions. Our portal development experts are skilled with the latest technologies and market trends to provide you the web solutions. Our corporate travel portal provides you with access to all of your travel management needs.

The corporate solution from FlightsLogic enables travel management companies to offer their customers an online self-booking tool for their travel needs.

Our corporate travel reservation system allows you to plan, manage, and support business travel from a single platform. We also offer website & portal applications, corporate travel systems, corporate travel management tools, business travel management software, and travel management systems to travel agents worldwide.

FlightsLogic can help you manage inventory, group travel, customers, and travel agents, as well as fully automate the sales process, improve service orders, manage accounts, and provide comprehensive insights into your business travel.

Our comprehensive suite of software products is designed to meet the needs of any travel agency, regardless of size, business model, or market.

Travel companies rely on us since our diverse portfolio of travel technology solutions provides them with a competitive edge. Our cost-effective and world-class solutions can help you take your business to next level.

We understand that anticipating your clients' needs is at the heart of your business model, and we strive to assist you in developing productive and meaningful relationships as your business strategy evolves.

We make certain that we evaluate your requirements to provide you with customized corporate travel management software. By utilizing our Corporate Self Booking Tool, you can provide your clients with an ideal and simple travel management process, as everything occurs instantly.

The FlightsLogic Corporate Travel System enables travel management companies to offer their customers an online self-booking tool for their travel needs. The features of our corporate travel booking system are business travel planning, management, and support all through one central channel.

Key Benefits of Corporate Travel Management System:

Below is the list of benefits served by Corporate Management Software to travel businesses:

Travel Management Software makes it simple to manage discounts, promotional offers, and various payment policies.

This software aids in obtaining a detailed report of business insights as well as gathering the data required to develop future business strategies.

Travel Management Software helps to eliminate manual errors.

Using travel management software, travel agencies can reduce their day-to-day operations and distribution costs.

The implementation of Travel Management software to the travel business offers a better scope of growth, expansion, and collaboration with other travel giants.

With a detailed market research report, the Travel Agency Management Software assists the travelling corporate in introducing and running various advertising campaigns.

It empowers or assists travel companies in obtaining detailed reporting levels that are vital for expanding travel management clients to bill, report, and settlement.

It includes travel package records, descriptions, videos, maps, and images.

With Travel Management Software, it is easy to access discounts, promotional offers, and various payment policies.

This module allows to get a detailed report of business insights and gather data required to develop future business strategies.

Travel agencies can decrease the expense of day-to-day activities and distribution costs via travel management software.

The incorporation of Travel Management software for the travel industry provides greater opportunities for growth, expansion, and collaboration with other travel pioneers.

Travel Agency Management Software allows Travel Businesses to initiate and run various promotional campaigns with a detailed market analysis report.

With the effective use of travel management software, the travel corporate can design various tour packages, highly-customized as per client’s requirements; display the travel products via automated interactive technologies to the prospective consumers and so on.

For more details, Pls visit our Website:

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

I have spent a quarter century obsessed with the weirdest corner of the weirdest section of the worst internet law on the US statute books: Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 law that makes it a felony to help someone change how their own computer works so it serves them, rather than a distant corporation.

Under DMCA 1201, giving someone a tool to "bypass an access control for a copyrighted work" is a felony punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine – for a first offense. This law can refer to access controls for traditional copyrighted works, like movies. Under DMCA 1201, if you help someone with photosensitive epilepsy add a plug-in to the Netflix player in their browser that blocks strobing pictures that can trigger seizures, you're a felon:

https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-media/2017Jul/0005.html

But software is a copyrighted work, and everything from printer cartridges to car-engine parts have software in them. If the manufacturer puts an "access control" on that software, they can send their customers (and competitors) to prison for passing around tools to help them fix their cars or use third-party ink.

Now, even though the DMCA is a copyright law (that's what the "C" in DMCA stands for, after all); and even though blocking video strobes, using third party ink, and fixing your car are not copyright violations, the DMCA can still send you to prison, for a long-ass time for doing these things, provided the manufacturer designs their product so that using it the way that suits you best involves getting around an "access control."

As you might expect, this is quite a tempting proposition for any manufacturer hoping to enshittify their products, because they know you can't legally disenshittify them. These access controls have metastasized into every kind of device imaginable.

Garage-door openers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Refrigerators:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/12/digital-feudalism/#filtergate

Dishwashers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/03/cassette-rewinder/#disher-bob

Treadmills:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vapescreen/#jane-get-me-off-this-crazy-thing

Tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

Cars:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

Printers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/inky-wretches/#epson-salty

And even printer paper:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#dymo-550

DMCA 1201 is the brainchild of Bruce Lehmann, Bill Clinton's Copyright Czar, who was repeatedly warned that cancerous proliferation this was the foreseeable, inevitable outcome of his pet policy. As a sop to his critics, Lehman added a largely ornamental safety valve to his law, ordering the US Copyright Office to invite submissions every three years petitioning for "use exemptions" to the blanket ban on circumventing access-controls.

I call this "ornamental" because if the Copyright Office thinks that, say, it should be legal for you to bypass an access control to use third-party ink in your printer, or a third-party app store in your phone, all they can do under DMCA 1201 is grant you the right to use a circumvention tool. But they can't give you the right to acquire that tool.

I know that sounds confusing, but that's only because it's very, very stupid. How stupid? Well, in 2001, the US Trade Representative arm-twisted the EU into adopting its own version of this law (Article 6 of the EUCD), and in 2003, Norway added the law to its lawbooks. On the eve of that addition, I traveled to Oslo to debate the minister involved:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/28/clintons-ghost/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

The minister praised his law, explaining that it gave blind people the right to bypass access controls on ebooks so that they could feed them to screen readers, Braille printers, and other assistive tools. OK, I said, but how do they get the software that jailbreaks their ebooks so they can make use of this exemption? Am I allowed to give them that tool?

No, the minister said, you're not allowed to do that, that would be a crime.

Is the Norwegian government allowed to give them that tool? No. How about a blind rights advocacy group? No, not them either. A university computer science department? Nope. A commercial vendor? Certainly not.

No, the minister explained, under his law, a blind person would be expected to personally reverse engineer a program like Adobe E-Reader, in hopes of discovering a defect that they could exploit by writing a program to extract the ebook text.

Oh, I said. But if a blind person did manage to do this, could they supply that tool to other blind people?

Well, no, the minister said. Each and every blind person must personally – without any help from anyone else – figure out how to reverse-engineer the ebook program, and then individually author their own alternative reader program that worked with the text of their ebooks.

That is what is meant by a use exemption without a tools exemption. It's useless. A sick joke, even.

The US Copyright Office has been valiantly holding exemptions proceedings every three years since the start of this century, and they've granted many sensible exemptions, including ones to benefit people with disabilities, or to let you jailbreak your phone, or let media professors extract video clips from DVDs, and so on. Tens of thousands of person-hours have been flushed into this pointless exercise, generating a long list of things you are now technically allowed to do, but only if you are a reverse-engineering specialist type of computer programmer who can manage the process from beginning to end in total isolation and secrecy.

But there is one kind of use exception the Copyright Office can grant that is potentially game-changing: an exemption for decoding diagnostic codes.

You see, DMCA 1201 has been a critical weapon for the corporate anti-repair movement. By scrambling error codes in cars, tractors, appliances, insulin pumps, phones and other devices, manufacturers can wage war on independent repair, depriving third-party technicians of the diagnostic information they need to figure out how to fix your stuff and keep it going.

This is bad enough in normal times, but during the acute phase of the covid pandemic, hospitals found themselves unable to maintain their ventilators because of access controls. Nearly all ventilators come from a single med-tech monopolist, Medtronic, which charges hospitals hundreds of dollars to dispatch their own repair technicians to fix its products. But when covid ended nearly all travel, Medtronic could no longer provide on-site calls. Thankfully, an anonymous hacker started building homemade (illegal) circumvention devices to let hospital technicians fix the ventilators themselves, improvising housings for them from old clock radios, guitar pedals and whatever else was to hand, then mailing them anonymously to hospitals:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Once a manufacturer monopolizes repair in this way, they can force you to use their official service depots, charging you as much as they'd like; requiring you to use their official, expensive replacement parts; and dictating when your gadget is "too broken to fix," forcing you to buy a new one. That's bad enough when we're talking about refusing to fix a phone so you buy a new one – but imagine having a spinal injury and relying on a $100,000 exoskeleton to get from place to place and prevent muscle wasting, clots, and other immobility-related conditions, only to have the manufacturer decide that the gadget is too old to fix and refusing to give you the technical assistance to replace a watch battery so that you can get around again:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24255074/former-jockey-michael-straight-exoskeleton-repair-battery

When the US Copyright Office grants a use exemption for extracting diagnostic codes from a busted device, they empower repair advocates to put that gadget up on a workbench and torture it into giving up those codes. The codes can then be integrated into an unofficial diagnostic tool, one that can make sense of the scrambled, obfuscated error codes that a device sends when it breaks – without having to unscramble them. In other words, only the company that makes the diagnostic tool has to bypass an access control, but the people who use that tool later do not violate DMCA 1201.

This is all relevant this month because the US Copyright Office just released the latest batch of 1201 exemptions, and among them is the right to circumvent access controls "allowing for repair of retail-level food preparation equipment":

https://publicknowledge.org/public-knowledge-ifixit-free-the-mcflurry-win-copyright-office-dmca-exemption-for-ice-cream-machines/

While this covers all kinds of food prep gear, the exemption request – filed by Public Knowledge and Ifixit – was inspired by the bizarre war over the tragically fragile McFlurry machine. These machines – which extrude soft-serve frozen desserts – are notoriously failure-prone, with 5-16% of them broken at any given time. Taylor, the giant kitchen tech company that makes the machines, charges franchisees a fortune to repair them, producing a steady stream of profits for the company.

This sleazy business prompted some ice-cream hackers to found a startup called Kytch, a high-powered automation and diagnostic tool that was hugely popular with McDonald's franchisees (the gadget was partially designed by the legendary hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang!).

In response, Taylor played dirty, making a less-capable clone of the Kytch, trying to buy Kytch out, and teaming up with McDonald's corporate to bombard franchisees with legal scare-stories about the dangers of using a Kytch to keep their soft-serve flowing, thanks to DMCA 1201:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Kytch isn't the only beneficiary of the new exemption: all kinds of industrial kitchen equipment is covered. In upholding the Right to Repair, the Copyright Office overruled objections of some of its closest historical allies, the Entertainment Software Association, Motion Picture Association, and Recording Industry Association of America, who all sided with Taylor and McDonald's and opposed the exemption:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/us-copyright-office-frees-the-mcflurry-allowing-repair-of-ice-cream-machines/

This is literally the only useful kind of DMCA 1201 exemption the Copyright Office can grant, and the fact that they granted it (along with a similar exemption for medical devices) is a welcome bright spot. But make no mistake, the fact that we finally found a narrow way in which DMCA 1201 can be made slightly less stupid does not redeem this outrageous law. It should still be repealed and condemned to the scrapheap of history.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[retiredteabag]

An Uninformed Narrative

Synopsis: You had lived in Stardew Valley for a year before you met the hunter from the adventures guild, Sukuna Itadori. It did not take long for him to catch your attention but you couldn't help feeling as if his affection resided anywhere but you.

Pairing: Sukuna x Reader

This is a Sukuna stardew valley au, heavily inspired by @tearzintheclub's similar series with butcher!sukuna, I highly recommend reading their work, they are super kind and were a big motivation for me to make this!

〰・♡・〰〰・♡・〰〰・♡・〰〰・♡・〰〰・♡・〰

You had been dying for a decade before coming to the valley, still, unmercifully, alive. The bitter years you spent milling away on a computer, endless days blurring onto the next. A monotonous cycle of tireless work for a corporation that left you unfulfilled, complacent, and depressed. Holed up in a city you did not even like.

It was corrosive, only now, a year later, could you look back and realize that life didn't begin for you until you moved to your grandfather's farm.

It had been hard work. You knew it would be. Still, the labor it took to keep up with crops and farm animals had been more than you anticipated. But you had friends now, and goals. And that was more valuable than anything.

One year ago, when you came to the valley, romance was quite possibly the last thing occupying your mind. Only now, being able to comfortably settle into your home, could you allow yourself to think about things other than the prosperity of your land and the health of your animals.

That brings us to now.

You had read books about the Stardew Valley mines back in the mountains north of town. Harvey, the village doctor, had warned you of its treacherous depths. Having focused most of your efforts on farm/house maintenance, you had not traversed into dangerous territory beyond upgrading your tools and acquiring bug meat.

This is why, after a whole year of living in the valley, you were surprised to receive a notice in your mailbox from "The Adventurers Guild", an initiation of sorts, requesting you to slay 10 slimes to be granted entry.

You had thought about it all evening. By the next morning, you felt up for the challenge. After taking care of the chores you left you made your way up past the carpenter's shop, dropped off a fish you caught the night before to your friend Linus, and entered the mines.

It had been scary but you protected yourself well and acquired some gems and geodes to show for it. It was late when you made the trek home, but you were determined to enter the adventurers guild the next day.

It had been a delight to meet Gil and Marlon, the two men who ran the guild. They sold weapons and protective gear, offered rewards for monster slaying, and purchased monster loot. Still having some on you, you traded them in for the cash. With a smile on your face, you decided to go into town to buy some icecream for Yuuji, Jas, and Vincent.

Penny, the town's teacher, had the kids in the museum for lessons until 2 PM, so you traveled quickly to meet them in time.

Penny was always a delight. Kind to everyone, even if they did not deserve it. She was so good with the kids as well, and dedicated much of her time to their education.

You had met Penny just a few days after moving to the town at the local flower shop in the Cidersap Forest. You had learned she was quite fond of Poppy flowers and the owner of the little place, Jin Itadori, was unbelievably generous, always interested in hearing about your farm, and always willing to give out a flower or two.

Yuuji, being the florist's son and Penny's student, became a quick friend of yours and always wanted to talk whenever you came by the shop. Of course, you never minded and listened intently whenever the boy felt like sharing a fun fact about the flora in his home.

--

Time passed with the changing of the seasons and it wasn't long before fall was upon you.

Ever since entering the mines and joining the Adventures guild, you have been thinking about the quests Marlon and Gil have sent you on. Though it is dangerous, scouring the mines for the flesh of monsters, it brings you a thrill to know you are doing something good for the community.

A post had gone up on the community board in town about collecting bat wings and bringing the population down to a manageable level the other day, and in your spare time, you had been working on completing the quest.

It was late one night when you began to make your way back up to the mountains from the mine's elevator, you had quite the collection and enough time to sell it at the Guild before making your way home.

"You've been keepin' busy." Marlon greeted you as the wind pushed the door open along with your arm.

You smile at the man, unloading the backpack of your finds. "Well there's always something to do around here." you reply.

"True as the day is long...." Gil rocked back and forth in his chair, pretending to hear your conversation.

"I must say I'm glad to have you 'round. The quest board in town seems to be worked through much faster now." Marlon takes the post you handed him and the 200 bat wings, he was just about to hand you the payment when the door to the Guild swung open.

The hinges seemed to rattle with the shock of the large man's blow of it. He's huffing, yanking a balaclava up and over his face.

He has thick, pink hair and bright red eyes, he's enormous, having to duck just a bit so as not to hit his head on the door frame.

You looked at him, a bit shocked at his garish entrance. He looks so familiar, but his face is covered in tattoos. A unique style you've never seen before, certainly not in Stardew Valley

Despite being at the counter yourself, the lumbering man strides right up next to you, a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. And just then, you have a thought.

Was he doing town board requests too? He was clearly not from the village, you would have met him by now. But Marlon does not spare him much of a glace, even when a stack of bones and a collection of rings is placed on his counter.

"Those damn haunted skulls are somethin' else." The man looks at Marlon with a gaze of distaste but the Guild leader just laughs. The large man doesn't look at you once.

Despite the chill of fall present in the air, he has sweat glistening on his exposed neck, he runs a hand through his hair and you can't help but notice how handsome this man is. The only thing, who was he? And why was he monster hunting in the Valley's mines?

"You got a problem?" Shocked from your thoughts, you look up. You hadn't meant to stare but upon his antagonized question your eyes bulge a bit.

"No! No, no, sorry..." You turn away, collecting the gold Marlon left out for you, ready to turn and leave when the man behind the counter made a gesture with his hand.

He called your name, "This is Sukuna, likely haven't met em' have ya? He's real reserved and all."

So he lives here? How could that be? "Oh, it's nice to meet you!" You go to shake his hand but he just looks you up and down, effectively dissuading that desire.

"So you're the rookie taking all the board requests in town, hmm?" He looks so domineering, still, even having just met him, you can reasonably assume that's just what his face looks like.

You shuffle where you stand, "Er... maybe so, yes... I'm sorry, I didn't know that was your area..." You wave your hand to the array of loot he had seemingly just acquired. He scoffs.

Marlon looks to you, "Sukuna is our most tenured monster hunter-"

Gil interjects from his rocking chair, "If ever there's a board request this here man can't handle, I know hell's right about frozen over."

The man before them did not crack a smile. A shiver went down your spine.

"I see, well, I live on the farm behind the Cidersap Forest-"

He cuts you off, looking almost annoyed, "I know who you are."

Oh.

Okay...

"Gotcha, sorry, well... it was nice meeting you." Sukuna stares at you for a moment before turning back to the Adventurers Guild leaders.

The awkwardness of the moment was painful, you already know youll be obsessing over this first impression for the next month or so and your shaking leg is telling you it is time to escape the embaressment before this man shuts down any more small talk.

You wonder if perhaps Sukuna is upset with you for "taking his job". Or maybe he had a bad day. If he really had been hunting Haunted Skulls, he had probably been dangerously deep in the mines.

Even though his gaze had been piercing, his frown looked permanent, and his tattoos gave off a highly intimidating look. You could tell there had been no malice behind his demeanor. And that, would be a small comfort as you mulled your way through the darkness.

You spent the whole walk home thinking about the large man. You had been everywhere in Stardew Valley yet had never met him.

He must live out of town, you thought as you checked the weather for tomorrow.

Rain. That meant another day in the mines. You needed an upgrade on your equipment if you were going to continue supplying for your growing crops' demands. That meant plunging deeper into the depths of the mine.

Sleep pulled at you even still, just as your eyes fell shut the memory of the pink-haired man popped back up into your brain.

His shirt stuck nauseatingly to his toned chest, his neck glimmering in the firelight of the guild, and those eyes. The red, sharp eyes he had looked you up and down with.

"I know who you are."

It was a small town. Even if you were from the outskirts. It was a shame though... having not met the man before... he certainly seemed interesting.

You shook the man from your thoughts as your dog climbed into the bed and the two of you began to doze off.

Unknown to you, a long and unexpected day awaited you at dawn.

[seriously-not-horny]

D's D&D Recap: Session 2

Following the parties success in the mines, the group has set about acquiring more money to build their ship. As part of their introduction into the Inner City, they had stopped at the Misfits Consultant Agency, an adventerers guild that went global commercially, offering their services and adventerers to complete various quests and missions for the general public.

In addition to this, those of the criminal persuasion can pick up "The Blacklist" a series of less than legal jobs that are off the books. The Key, being a thief, immediately jumped at the opportunity, and gained intel on a potential heist they could pull in order to steal a chest of gold from Acquisitions Incorporated, a mega-corporation that has developed a monopoly on magical curiosities and the collection and resale of those curiosities.

Spending an evening in the tavern they've been residing in, they plan out their heist, and ultimately decide to hit the caravan transporting the gold before it arrives at the storage facility nearby. They would create a series of dramatic effects, utilising The Aberration ability to shape shift, and a series of coloured smoke grenades they received from a local artificer the Construct had befriended in the city. This same Artificer was also responsible for repairing the Mimir that The Construct had found during session zero, granting the party access to a powerful tool and encyclopedia of planar knowledge.

On their way out of the Inner City, and passing through the Outer City, they pass by the resident temple of The Priest, and discover that the sisterhood of peaceful healers and clerics that worshipped there had been conscripted into the armies of humankind, forced to convert their temple into a triage for the wounded soldiers that would soon be returning from the battlefront. It is during this visit that The Priest, a devout pacifist and pious young woman, was handed her conscription papers, and informed she is to report to the front lines to act as a battle medic. This desecration if her temple is the first prediction from the cards to come true.

The Priest card, Reversed: A place that was consecrated, but has been converted to secular use.

Despite the disrespectful and dismissive tones of the soldiers within the temple, the Priest keeps a level head, and accepts this test of her faith. Mother Lariette, The High Priestess of the temple, and adoptive mother of the young and orphaned Priest, also discovers that the mysterious basket if treats that The Priest had received as a gift happened to be a Haven Satchel, a magical basket containing an extra dimensional space, used to stabilising and transporting wounded or dying individuals. These baskets are rare, and Mother Lariette is both pleased and perplexed as to why someone would offer her adoptive daughter such an important object.

Leaving the temple, they continue on their journey to acquire wealth to provide their group with a ship.

The plan was to disguise The Aberration as a traveler, and plant the smoke grenades along the road the caravan is taking. Thanks to some well timed smoke clouds and The Aberration altering his form to seem petrified, the carvaners panic, cutting their horses loose and running away into the woods, suspecting they have encounters a Gorgon, a bull like monster that petrifies it's foes with it's thick, gaseous breath. In the confusion and the smoke, The Key is able to sneak aboard the caravan and begin picking locks on chests, seeking to locate their chest of gold.

In addition to finding their chest of gold, they also came across a few magical cloaks and a Wildspace Orrery a device that acts as a rotating and changing map that tracks the movements of the planets in the local Wildspace system. Wishing not to leave any evidence of their presence behind, they burn the caravan, and make their escape back towards the Inner City.

Following the success of their heist, the group leveled up, and they set about gathering more materials for their ship. They recruit the owner of the tavern they're residing in, offering to take his busted old ship that had been converted into a bar, and restoring it into a Spelljamming vessel and traveling tavern, allowing the owner to spend his retirement exploring the stars and serving the drinks denizens of Wildspace. They also recruit the Artificer that had provided them the smoke grenades, after learning that he was in considerable debt, and was ultimately the one that posted the heist to the blacklist, revealing that in order to make ends meet, he had resorted to stealing money from Acquisitions Incorporated and salvaging his materials instead. They grant him his share of the gold they stole from the caravan, and hit the Spelljamming dock to get their parts and equipment lists in order.

Finally, they joined up with The Spacer Guild, a guild designed to cater to space faring travelers and Spelljamming captains. The guild offers services to guild members, such as free repairs and restocking of ship supplies, as well as acting as the agency responsible for handling the employment and payment of ship crew.

In summary, my players are progressing a lot faster than I anticipated! They've already managed to acquire materials and a suitable hull for their basic ship, they simply need to arm it, upgrade it, and stick a Spelljamming helm into it, and they'll be ready to enter Wildspace (3 whole levels before I anticipated them to)

[whencyclopedia]

Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories

"Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories" is a sweeping and jarring work of how opium became an insidious capitalistic tool to generate wealth for the British Empire and other Western powers at the expense of an epidemic of addiction in China and the impoverishment of millions of farmers in India. The legacy of this “criminal enterprise,” as the author puts it, left lasting influences that reverberate across cultures and societies even today.

Written in engaging language, Smoke and Ashes is a scholarly follow-up to the author’s famous Ibis trilogy, a collection of fiction that uses the opium trade as its backdrop. In Smoke and Ashes, the author draws on his years-long research into opium supplemented by his family history, personal travels, cross-cultural experience, and expertise in works of historical verisimilitude. Composed over 18 chapters, the author delves into a diverse set of primary and secondary data, including Chinese sources. He also brings a multidimensional angle to the study by highlighting the opium trade's legacy in diverse areas such as art, architecture, horticulture, printmaking, and calligraphy. 23 pictorial illustrations serve as powerful eyewitness accounts to the discourse.

This book should interest students and scholars seeking historical analysis based on facts on the ground instead of colonial narratives. Readers will also find answers to how opium continues to play an outsize role in modern-day conflicts, addictions, corporate behavior, and globalism.

Amitav Ghosh’s research convincingly points out that while opium had always been used for recreational purposes across cultures, it was the Western powers such as the British, Portuguese, the Spaniards, and the Dutch that discovered its significant potential as a trading vehicle. Ghosh adds that colonial rulers, especially the British, often rationalized their actions by arguing that the Asian population was naturally predisposed to narcotics. However, it was British India that bested others in virtually monopolizing the market for the highly addictive Indian opium in China. Used as a currency to redress the East India Company (EIC)’s trade deficit with China, the opium trade by the 1890s generated about five million sterling a year for Britain. Meanwhile, as many as 40 million Chinese became addicted to opium.

Eastern India became the epicenter of British opium production. Workers in opium factories in Patna and Benares toiled under severe conditions, often earning less than the cost of production while their British managers lived in luxury. Ghosh asserts that opium farming permanently impoverished a region that was an economic powerhouse before the British arrived. Ghosh’s work echoes developmental economists such as Jonathan Lehne, who has documented opium-growing communities' lower literacy and economic progress compared to their neighbors.

Ghosh states that after Britain, “the country that benefited most from the opium trade” with China, was the United States. American traders skirted the British opium monopoly by sourcing from Turkey and Malwa in Western India. By 1818, American traders were smuggling about one-third of all the opium consumed in China. Many powerful families like the Astors, Coolidges, Forbes, Irvings, and Roosevelts built their fortunes from the opium trade. Much of this opium money, Ghosh shows, also financed banking, railroads, and Ivy League institutions. While Ghosh mentions that many of these families developed a huge collection of Chinese art, he could have also discussed that some of their holdings were most probably part of millions of Chinese cultural icons plundered by colonialists.

Ghosh ends the book by discussing how the EIC's predatory behaviors have been replicated by modern corporations, like Purdue Pharma, that are responsible for the opium-derived OxyContin addiction. He adds that fossil fuel companies such as BP have also reaped enormous profits at the expense of consumer health or environmental damage.

Perhaps one omission in this book is that the author does not hold Indian opium traders from Malwa, such as the Marwaris, Parsis, and Jews, under the same ethical scrutiny as he does to the British and the Americans. While various other works have covered the British Empire's involvement in the opium trade, most readers would find Ghosh's narrative of American involvement to be eye-opening. Likewise, his linkage of present-day eastern India's economic backwardness to opium is both revealing and insightful.

Winner of India's highest literary award Jnanpith and nominated author for the Man Booker Prize, Amitav Ghosh's works concern colonialism, identity, migration, environmentalism, and climate change. In this book, he provides an invaluable lesson for political and business leaders that abdication of ethics and social responsibility have lasting consequences impacting us all.

Continue reading...

[exploretechio]

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[futurebird]

Bolting

“I really think the media is blowing it out of proportion. This isn’t a new thing you know?” Petra was working on cracking the formidable locks on the door to the old woman’s apartment. She let out a sigh, the vibrating lock pick had failed, so she rummaged in her many pockets for a different tool. 

She went on:  “I mean, this has always happened in big cities. People get so emotional, bent out of shape about it. And, you know, I get it!” The balloon on the inflatable lock pick let out a sharp pop. Petra’s dark eyes sparkled with delight. She was very good at picking locks. Probably one of the best. And yet, she was also far too cool to act like what she’d done was a big deal. With a deliberate and professional casualness she went on with her story. 

“I get it, I really do! The idea of dying alone is terrifying. The idea of dying alone, no one noticing.” She turned the handle in the door. It clicked. 

“The world going on without you?” She pushed, then stood, tucking the tool back into her pocket. She put her shoulder to the door and shoved. 

“It’s all distilled for us in these cases.” The door opened to darkness and dust.

The rotten smell coming from the apartment had been an apparition in the hall, impossible to pinpoint or rule out as a figment of your imagination. But, the neighbors noticed. They noticed how the smell would seem to change location and strength. They noticed how it was so much worse when heat index warnings kept everyone inside. But now? The seal of the door broken, all bets were off. The odor was real, pungent, corporal: death. The air from the dark apartment was cool, heavy with stillness. When I first started this job the smell of a decaying human corpse would have been all that I noticed. So overwhelming and distinct. But, from experience, I knew to expect other scents, the staleness of food. The very particular smell of a neglected fish tank. This time there was something else: something verdant and a little damp, a green smell. Petra was looking for a light switch just inside the door. The space was lit by cracks of light filled with dust motes that fell from drawn curtains. The old woman was on the couch, a colorful crocheted blanket drawn up over her too small to really cover her. Her little frail body was curled up. I hoped she didn’t die painfully. 

I took in the rest of the room, my eyes now adjusting to the light. A pleasant little space. Photos of the woman and a man, presumably her husband, told a story of travel: There they were at the grand canyon, on a small sailboat, at a cafe somewhere that felt European. Not all of the photos had been hung up, there were more empty frames and prints in a pile on a shelf just below. This seemed like a recent project of the deceased. One she had abandoned. The photo on the top of the pile waiting to be framed was a large print of just the man holding a very unhappy looking tabby cat kissing it tenderly on its head. He had to be dead, her husband. That’s why there was no one to notice when she vanished too. We had both fallen silent for a bit. Working for a morgue can make you callous and flippant in the presence of the deceased– but there was something about the stillness of these kinds of rooms, where a person had died alone that made that impossible. Even Petra couldn’t continue her lecture. “Let’s look around.” I said in a hushed voice. “Then we’ll start packing up.” By which I meant, the dead woman.

We walked around as if in an art gallery, not touching anything, taking in all of the details of the well lived-in space. Two desks, one with a computer that had been used recently, the other mostly empty with an older and very dusty laptop, the closet which contained mostly small clothes that would fit the old woman, but in the back there was also a single moth-eaten men’s suit. Prescription pill bottles, most very recent, there were a great many. And so many books. Shelves lined every wall, some custom built to go over the doors, and even under the raised bed. Many were on physics, some on education. “Hey where do you think this goes?” Called Petera from the next room. She was investigating a door just off of the living room. It was down a little three-step flight of steps. “Probably just laundry or storage.” I said. Yet, Petra has never met a door she didn’t want to open, and this one wasn’t even locked. She opened it, and the apartment filled with light. On the other side was another world: the bright midday sun, a vast beautiful garden. 

The smell of death vanished beneath the rich scents of soil and grass, pollen and leaves. The greenery,  dense and deep, butterflies and bees alighted on bright blossoms, vines swayed lazily in a breeze. The effect of opening such a door was of a magic trick. Like finding a portal–  for a moment, squinting I wondered lazily if some absent-minded angel of death, come to collect the old woman’s soul, had forgotten to close the way back to Heaven. “Woah-” Said Petra,who almost never is surprised or impressed by anything. My brain, now catching up with my imagination, I said. “I didn’t know this unit had a greenhouse.”  As if I’d even bothered to check about such a thing. As if huge greenhouses were typical things you found in city apartments. But, it made a lot more sense than a portal to Heaven. We were on the top floor, so there could have been a terrace on the back of the building we didn’t notice when entering. It struck me what a brilliant idea it was to have your own garden in the city. Fresh vegetables were something of a luxury. But, even if I had a greenhouse of my own I don’t think I know where to start when it came to growing things. I remember when my mother put the stem of a lettuce plant in a dish of water on our windowsill. This was in one of our many miserable little apartments, shortly after our second migration, in the days of the 4th pandemic. The apartment was in one of the machine-printed buildings with lumpy striped walls and mysterious drafts. 

We had just started to settle in, though dad kept on saying how we’d “find something better soon” – we all lived in that one room and though no one would say it, we knew we were lucky. The borders had closed soon after we’d made it in. Since my father was a doctor we still might have gotten through after– if we ever made it far up enough in the line to speak to anyone, if that person would even believe us and not just take one look at our skin color and send us away. There would be a border guard on our third migration that refused to believe my father was a real doctor. It enraged him. By then we were old hands and moving and dealing with officials. My father had said “If you won’t believe in medicine you may instead believe in this.” and bribed the man who was all too happy to take it. Fortunately, he didn’t notice the utter contempt in my father’s eyes as he handed over the money we’d saved for our deposit. But, on that day when my mother put the lettuce stalk in the dish of water, explaining to me how we could grow more, I think we still had a lot more hope as a family. My mother said that the trick of re-growing lettuce so you could eat it twice had “gone viral” when she was in college. Indeed the lettuce plant did grow. Remarkably fast. In days there were a cluster of leaves emerging from the heart. Soon they grew tall and pale leaning towards the light of the window. 

But, the regrown lettuce, fed on only water, and what little light made it between the 3D printed shelters was nothing like the head that we’d bought in the store. That plant had been deep green and sturdy. This new incarnation, for it seemed the plant refused to die, put out a web of gossamer translucent roots into the water. The leaves were white, starved for sunlight, thin, unnaturally long and ghostly. I kept expecting it to die, but it went on growing as my mother religiously kept the water dish full. “Doesn't it need dirt?” I asked my mother, gently touching the long white leaves. “Probably that would be better. But we don’t have any soil so there is nowhere for it to put down its roots.” I was hurt when I came home to discover that my parents decided that we should eat it. It seemed disrespectful to its valiant effort at survival. “Lettuce is an annual. It doesn't make a good house plant. Anyway these conditions aren’t good enough for it to bolt.” “Bolt? Like run away?” “No, that’s just what you call it when an annual goes to seed. But store bought plants never produce usable seeds. If we don’t eat it it will just die and go to waste.” I remember the taste of those leaves, insubstantial, like water. Looking back I’m certain we also had to eat it that day because there was little else for dinner. And we’d reached the point when fresh vegetables were beyond our means, except perhaps on holidays. “That wasn’t exactly incredible.” Said my father of the re-grown lettuce. “But we’ll all find something better soon!” “Mom, do you think when a lettuce regrows like that, is it a new plant? Or is it still the same plant that grew in a field somewhere and had sunlight?” “Well, that’s a very interesting question!” Said my mother laughing. “I don’t know.”

“Our daughter is so smart.” Said my father pinching my cheek in the way that always made me angry but that also secretly I loved.  I wondered if the little plant could remember the way that it was before, when it was green and strong. When it could have bolted away, producing its own strange flowers, its own strange little seeds, even if they were seeds that everyone said could never grow.

It must have, right? Why else would it have even made the effort?

Shaking off the memory I looked more closely at the dead woman’s garden. On closer inspection it had gone a little feral. Weeds packed the raised beds. A dripping sprinkler system explained why all of the plants weren’t simply dead.

“Someone should take care of this.” I said.

“I’m certain someone will. Though, my money’s on this getting converted to an extra bedroom.” Said Petra.

“It’d make a terrible bedroom. It has too many windows. It would be freezing in winter.” I felt the need to defend this old woman’s project. But then, something caught my eye: “Look, Petra! Bolting lettuce!”

“Bolting? Huh?”

“It’s gone to seed.” I said, looking at the long browning stem that rose from the rosette of familiar dark green lettuce leaves.

“I didn’t know you were such a gardener.”

I’ve never stolen anything from our “clients” homes. But, that day I took a few of the seeds from that lettuce plant. I hoped that the old woman wouldn’t mind. And what does it matter? They will never grow anyway.

[mybeingthere]

Bertha Boynton Lum (1869 – 1954) was an American artist known for helping popularize the Japanese and Chinese woodblock print outside Asia.

Here is her story by Olga Harmsen:

"Bertha Boynton Bull was born May 1869 in Tipton, Iowa. Her father, Joseph W. Bull (1841–1923), a lawyer, and her mother Harriet Ann Boynton (1842–1925) were both amateur artists.

In 1885, Bertha attended the Art Institute of Chicago for one year focusing on design. A few years later she studied stained glass with Anne Weston and illustration with Frank Holme. Her aesthetic sensibilities were further shaped by the display of Japanese prints at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and by Arthur Wesley Dow’s influential textbook Composition (1899), which promoted Japanese color woodcuts as models. It is said Bertha was also influenced by Lafcadio Hearn, who translated Japanese legends and fairy tales into popular books.

In 1903 Bertha married Burt F. Lum, a corporate lawyer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and persuaded him to travel to Japan on their honeymoon. It was her first of many adventures in the Orient.

“Before I went to Japan, I thought that print makers were as easy to find as paper lanterns or kimonos but after I spent six weeks asking everyone who spoke English – guides, rickshaw boys, hotel proprietors and curio dealers – were I could buy tools and see them make prints, and found no one to tell me, I became utterly discouraged and only succeeded the week before I sailed back home, in being directed to a shop where they reproduced old prints, and it was an hour spent there that gave me all the knowledge I had of the process aside from what I had learned from books.

This shop, as great favor, allowed me to pay $20 for thirteen tools (and I was glad to get them at any price) though I found on a later trip that they were of inferior grade and I then bought fifty of the best for $5.

When I returned home I added to the knowledge gained in this short time by reading everything obtainable on the subject, and started to make prints.”

Back in the U.S. she produced some lovely prints like “China Boy” or “Lanterns”. Three years later (1907) she returned to Japan for fourteen weeks with an introduction letter to Igami Bonkotsu (1875-1933), a master block cutter in Tokyo. Bonkotsu disclosed to her the techniques of carving and arranged for her education in block printing.

“…The next day we started early and went miles and miles far into the suburbs of Tokyo, down back streets and finally at the end of an alley, where the poorest people lived, in a very small house of four rooms, we found the man who was supposed to cut the best blocks in Tokyo – and there I worked every day for two months. My teachers were mostly two apprentices of twelve years of age, “the master” coming in once or twice a day to approve, or mostly disapprove, of my progress.”

The master carver was Igami Bonkotsu.

After having learned how to cut, she went to the printer (Kamakichi Nishimura) and there again she stayed many weeks watching young apprentices color in her own prints.

“When I was ready to stop cutting blocks, accompanied by the professor and “the master” I was taken to another part of the city and presented with due ceremony to the printer. We drank tea and ate cake for two hours and all was arranged for me to begin work the next morning. I went every day for four weeks and did no printing but watched the man work out my ideas from the blocks I had cut. It was in a part of the city where foreigners never go and when I appeared at the end of the street it would immediately fill with men, women and children and when we reached the house my rickshaw boy go so near I could slip into the front door. We worked in a room on the first floor with only the paper shojii between us and the mob, all that could come near enough, would wet a finger, punch it through the paper and then use the hole as a peep-hole and you could look up any time and see a dozen or more eyes watching and the entire screen would have to be recovered each day after my departure. None of these people spoke a word of English my Japanese was only useful in bargaining for junk so you see there were some difficulties to be overcome."

Continue https://aboutartnouveau.wordpress.com/.../bertha-lum.../

[manishaadivaha]

Discover the Best Corporate Travel Booking Tool for Your Business

Self-Booking tool streamlines the corporate travel planning process by allowing travelers to search for and book flights, hotels, and rental cars quickly and conveniently as per a defined set of rules/policies. Finding the right corporate travel booking tool can help revolutionize your travel business, making planning more manageable and less stressful. We’ll look at what you should consider when choosing a corporate booking tool and how it can make your travel business more efficient, cost-effective, and enjoyable.

 What Is a Corporate Booking Tool?

A corporate travel booking tool is a software platform designed to streamline the process of booking business trips. These tools provide businesses with a simplified interface for trip planning, budgeting, and expense tracking and reporting. Plus, access to helpful features like flight and hotel recommendations, traveler safety protocols, and 24/7 customer support ensures that business trips run smoothly and securely.

Research Corporate Travel Booking Tool Providers

When selecting a corporate travel booking tool provider, there are a few key factors to consider. First, look at each provider's range of solutions – do they offer the services you need such as online reservations, real-time availability of fares and rates, discounts from airlines and hotels, etc.? Secondly, check if their solutions are designed with the modern traveler in mind – can your team book trips on the go? Does it sync with other popular tools like Outlook and Google Suite? Finally, make sure you understand the pricing model so you know what fees will be associated with using the tool.

How do corporate booking tools help travel Managers?

Corporate booking tools offer travel managers many benefits. These tools help reduce the administrative burden on travel managers by automating the booking process. They also provide visibility over the entire booking process and can show which employees are traveling, where their destination is, and when they plan to travel. As corporate booking tools typically integrate with corporate finance systems, they make it easier for travel managers to reconcile and manage all related expenses.

What are the benefits of using a corporate booking tool?

With the help of a corporate booking tool, businesses can gain access to more efficient and accurate travel management. The primary benefit of using such a tool is that it allows businesses to reduce the time required for planning trips by automating the entire process. It also offers benefits such as improved visibility into bookings and expenses, better travel-related data tracking, and tighter control over a company’s travel budget. Additionally, corporate booking tools often come with built-in compliance features that help corporate organizations manage duties of care and ensure employees’ safety while traveling.

Choose a Corporate Travel Booking Tool with Clear Policies

It’s important to read the fine print when selecting a corporate travel booking tool. For example, make sure you know what services and cancellation/change fees your business will be charged for bookings. Look out for compliance-related features such as approval workflows and audit trails, which can help ensure all of your team’s expenses are compliant with your organization’s policies. Understanding all of these terms will help you choose a tool that fits both your business needs and budget.

Assess the features you need in a corporate travel booking tool.

When evaluating different corporate travel booking tools, carefully consider the features you need and the ones you can do without. Does your business require automatic itinerary sharing with clients? Do you need the ability to track expenses and generate reports? Tailor your tool to the exact needs of your business and identify how each feature will help you save time and money on travel bookings.

Search for Reviews and Testimonials from Past Customers.

It’s always a good idea to do your research when selecting a corporate travel booking tool. Look for reviews and testimonials from previous customers to learn about their overall experience. Read up on their features, customer service, and any additional benefits they provide—establishing a good relationship with the tool provider can help ensure you get the best rates available. Additionally, many providers offer free trials so that you can kick the tires on the system before taking out a full subscription.

Setting up Your Corporate Booking Tool.

Getting set up with a corporate booking tool is generally a fast process. First, contact the selected provider and provide some basic information about your organization such as your name, size/number of travelers, and travel destinations. Then, the tool can be immediately accessed by all authorized personnel in the company. After initial setup, you will likely want to customize the settings to match your company’s specific needs and preferences for travel policy and fares. Finally, integrate it with other systems like your accounting or finance software to get an all-in-one solution for managing corporate travel.

[redskyhospitality]

Is My Hotel Room Pricing Logical ?

For Some People, Setting Prices is Straightforward, While for others, It's More Challenging. But let's Put Aside Whether it's Easy or Complicated and Focus on the Core Question: Is the Price I'm Setting for my Hotel Rooms Logical?

Consider These Scenarios to Explore This Question:

You have a 50-room hotel with one room type. A group books 25 rooms, bringing your occupancy to 50%. Should you increase or hold retail pricing on OTAs and your brand's website? What factors influence this decision?

If your Corporate Individual – Negotiated Segment bookings are strong, should you increase or hold retail pricing? Why?

If you have only 5 rooms left to sell for today, should you raise prices or keep them steady?There may be many situations, where you might be inclined towards increasing the price points, when your property occupancy increases or Vice versa.

While it might seem intuitive to raise prices as occupancy increases, is occupancy the only factor to consider when setting prices?

Ultimately, the customer decides whether to book your room at the given price. You can set whatever price you like, but it's the buyer's decision to accept or reject it. To ensure you're competitive and growing revenue and profitability, you need to find the right price point.

How Do You Determine The Right Price?

The answer lies in understanding the Behaviour of your property. Just as people can be polite or rude, hardworking or lazy, hotels have characteristics that inform pricing decisions. To understand your hotel's Behaviour, consider these key aspects:

🟢Lead Times: Do bookings happen well in advance or closer to the arrival date? For example, weddings are typically booked well ahead of time, while business Travellers might book closer to their stay.

🟢Day of the Week Patterns: Leisure Travellers might prefer weekends, while corporate clients usually book weekdays.

🟢Length of Stay (LOS): What's the typical length of stay for different market segments?

🟢Price Elasticity: How does demand change with price fluctuations on different days of the week and during different seasons?

🟢Demand and Supply Balance: How does seasonality affect demand and supply across different market segments?

🟢Past and Current Trends: Are there noticeable changes in booking patterns?

🟢Socio-Economic Factors: What broader factors could impact customer Behaviour?

These insights help you forecast more accurately and make better pricing decisions.

It's important to remember that simply raising prices doesn't guarantee increased revenue. You need to consider the market segment mix, channel mix, and strategies to extend length of stay to grow occupancy during quieter times. Accurate forecasting enables you to make well-informed decisions about pricing, yield management, and channel management.

Expanding your distribution through a channel manager with a wide reach can also help increase demand, boosting your property's revenue.

RedSKY Hospitality provides services and expertise to help revenue managers optimize market segments and channel mix to maximize revenue and profitability. Using advanced technology, they can forecast and make informed pricing decisions.

Precium Technologies offers tools to aid accurate forecasting and competitor rate shopping to keep you up-to-date with market trends. Their AI-based pricing recommendation tool helps suggest the optimal price to maximize RevPAR and profitability.

By understanding your property's Behaviour and using advanced tools, you can set prices that attract customers while maximizing revenue and profitability.

[autisticsupervillain]

FTF: Isekai Invasion

The show where we take a character and drop them into a different franchise at a random location to see if they can conquer the world.

This Episode....

Mary Jane Watson invades Mount Massive Asylum!

Conditions:

Insomniac Games's Mary Jane

MJ as of Spider-Man 2 with all her associated equipment.

MJ will be replacing Miles Upshur in the plot of the original Outlast with all the same goals. If she can escape the Asylum alive with all the evidence needed to bring Murkoff to justice, that will count as a win.

MJ cannot call in the Spider-Men or anyone else for help.

Scenario:

The same set up as Outlast but with MJ replacing Miles Upshur. Mary Jane Watson, reporter for the Daily Bugle, gets an anonymous email from a burner account about the atrocities being committed by Murkoff at Mount Massive and goes in to investigate. MJ speculates that the building has a jammer when she mysteriously losses all signal after getting in range, but she pushes on regardless. It is only after MJ can no longer get out the way she came in that she realizes the building has been overrun, leaving her no choice but to push in deeper.

Invader: MJ

Mary Jane Watson. One of the most iconic damsels and love interests in comic book history. Though iconic for her role as damsel in distress in the Rami movies, Insomniac's Mary Jane is more in line with her comic counterpart. She's a freelance reporter capable of kicking as much ass as her superhuman boyfriend sometimes and she'll do anything to unbury the truth.

She's surprisingly an expert in stealth and infiltration. She's snuck into the compounds of crime lords like Tombstone and Hammerhead, snuck past the international mercenaries of Silver Sable and her men, and avoided capture by Kraven the Hunter's mercenaries. Using her boyfriend's Spider Lures as a distraction, she's even managed to break into the Oscorp undetected.

While writing a book on the country of Symkaria, MJ got some self defense training from Silver Sable herself, as well as a fancy new taser that can drop a goon in one shook. She later upgraded this taser gun with Peter's gadgets, allowing it to shoot webs and shoot sonic blasts loud enough to ward off a symbiote behemoth. With these tools, she's able to take down Kraven's hunters, who are strong enough to kick down steel doors with a single kick snd survive rpg rockets exploding in their face. These are the same rockets that usually explode with an energy equivalent to 650 kilojoules.

Source:

What's more, MJ is fast enough to dodge arrows from a hunter's crossbow, which csn travel up to 350 feet per second or 106.68 meters per second.

Source:

Honestly, Mary Jane Watson is kind of a badass. She's escaped from being captured by Kraven's hunters, fought her way through a symbiote hive, outrun a Symbiote controlled Spider-Man trying to kill her, and managed to fight off the control of the Scream Symbiote, with some help from Peter.

This MJ is a far cry from the damsel in distress she's stereotyped as and she's just as vital a member of Spider-Man's team as the Spider-Men themselves.

Invaded: Mount Massive

The Murkoff Corporation could never be said to have had a sterling reputation. The company had an unofficial history of human experimentation and exploitation. Never on American soil, of course. Never anywhere that the American public would actually care about. Not until they bought out Mount Massive Asylum.

Because if there's one group that Americans care about less than foreigners, it's the mentally ill.

Murkoff wanted to exploit the theories of the retired Nazi Dr. Wernicke by diving into dream theory. The enlisted him in their Morphogenic Engine program, hoping to summon, empower, and control the nanotechnological ghost known only as the Walrider. To this end, the experimented on the mentally ill, physically and psychologically torturing them. Turning the compatible into human engines so their nightmares could fuel the god they wished to enslave while leaving the incompatible to rot and die. Even loyal members of the company, like executive Richard Trager and Father Martin Archimbaud, were used as test subjects at the earliest convenience. The variants, as they were called, begain to mutate and deform. Tumors formed over their bodies, clogging their mouths and block their eyes. Their hair begain to fall out and they emancipated into borderline skeletons.

The variants pre-existing conditions worsened. At best, they became catatonic and unresponsive to the outside world. At worst, they became violent and murderous.

And then they found a subject fully compatible with the Walrider. Able to sustain it, control it, and survive as its host. Billy Hope. As soon as he was in control, all hell broke loose. The Variants broke out and happily took their revenge on their tormentors. Scientists and security alike were butched like pigs, heavily armed soldiers were impaled on pikes. And the Walrider was set free.

Notable Variants include the likes of Eddie Glusken, a misogynistic serial killer who was only made worse by the Morphogenic Engine. Granted superhuman strength by the treatments, he was now strong enough to lift a full grown man off the ground with one arm. "Doctor" Richard Trager was now strong enough to cut off limbs, decapitate his victims, and cut open the gates to the elevator with his giant scissors. And every varienty in the build was now strong enough to bash down doors and kill reporter Miles Upshur, who survived a massive explosion that blew him out a window. An explosion thst generated an energy equivalent to 11,840 kilojoules.

Source:

But the most dangerous Variant in the entire building was Chris Walker. Once a simple war veteran suffering from severe PTSD, Chis became a killing machine with an enhanced sense of smell, hearing, and sight that could let him track down his victims even in the dark. Obsessed with containing the threat of the Walrider, Chris's judo skills and military training make him a veritable beast, capable of easily ripping Miles's head clean off with one hand and bashing down reinforced steel doors.

But even he is still just a man next to the Walrider. A futuristic marvel of nanotechnology that feeds off the dreams of its host to survive, the Walrider can fly, go through walls, go through your pores and rip you apart from the inside, and is nigh-invisible to the naked eye, only complely visible on night vision cameras or during the day.

The only issue, however, is that the Walrider is completely submissive to the will of its perfect host, reliant on them to survive. And if its host is not perfect, as Miles Upshur turned out to be, they will be reduced to a walking corpse overtime by the possession.

Mount Massive Asylum represents one of the biggest atrocities committed in the name of corporate greed. A warcrime that even drew the digust of the Nazi forced to work on it. No one cares about "a building full of forgotten lunatics". Let it burn, I say.

Throwdown Breakdown:

The stats on this one are rather interesting. Miles Upshur is 11x more durable than the goons MJ can one-shot, meaning every single thug in the building is going to be strong enough to rip MJ apart if they get their hands on her, seeing how Miles is almost completely helpless against them.

But, none of the Variants have ever demonstrated superhuman speed, meaning they're absolutely never catching MJ, who can move fast enough to dodge subsonic projectiles. Sure, Chris Walker is fast, but MJ is faster than a speeding car. If he doesn't get the drop on her or corner her, he's not getting his hands on her.

Then there's MJ's other gadgets. Her sonic blasts will likely have no effect, as they're specifically designed to fight Symbiotes and ordinary humans are unaffected. At most, I could see them potentially stunning Chris Walker due to his advanced hearing. MJ's noise devices could be a good distraction, but her taser could likely be tanked due to how much stronger the Variants are. On the flipside, I don't see any of the varients breaking free of her webbing. This is the exact same webbing Peter regular uses to lift cars and restrain his supervillains. That's a bit out of the league of most Variants. Meaning she could probably skip Trager's whole segment by webbing him to the wall, which is admittedly funny.

This is compounded by MJ's far superior stealth. Walker might be a military veteran, but MJ's snuck past some of the best international mercenaries on the planet. It's no contest on that front, even with Chris's enhanced senses.

It's with the Walrider that this becomes tricky.

The Walrider isn't invisible or intangible in the same way, say, a ghost is. It's basically a cloud of microscopic nanites. It's difficult to spot and touch because it's a very thin cloud. For most people in most circumstances, it's difficult to spot until it's basically right in front of you, at which point it's too late to escape. This means that I'm pretty confident in it getting through MJ's webs, even if some of its components get stuck.

The issue is how damn fast MJ is. The second it appears in her face, she's gone halfway down the hall. It doesn't help that it prefers to throw its victims around before killing them, which would only give MJ the opportunity to escape.

I think the Walrider could easily end MJ's run if it got the drop on her. Which it very well could. It got the drop on Miles several times and he actually has the means to see it coming in less than optimal conditions, something MJ wouldn't without a night vision camera.

But, this is where MJ's superior stealth comes into play. With a sneaking ability far superior to Miles and a speed that the Walrider can't keep up with, MJ could avoid getting ambushed by the Walrider by never getting found by it in the first place.

There are plenty of scenarios where MJ gets ripped apart or, worse, possessed by the Walrider. But there are more where MJ uses her superior stealth and speed to avoid it long enough to complete her mission. And once she kills Billy Hope, whose sitting helpless in a tube at this point, the Walrider wouldn't be able to make her a new host to survive due to her just being too fast for it to catch.

Overall, I think Ms. Watson has all the skills she needs to get the scope she's after.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Mary Jane Watson!

[europeincoming-24]

Exploring the Dynamics of FIT Tours and MICE Business Travel: A Guide for B2B Tour Operators

In the rapidly evolving travel industry, two significant segments have emerged as lucrative opportunities for tour operators: FIT (Free Independent Traveler) tours and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) business travel. Both cater to unique audiences, yet they offer complementary avenues for growth and diversification in the B2B sector. This blog delves into the nuances of FIT tours and MICE travel, exploring how B2B tour operators can effectively tap into these markets.

Understanding FIT Tours

FIT travelers are independent tourists who prefer customized travel experiences over pre-packaged group tours. They value flexibility, personalization, and the ability to craft itineraries that align with their interests.

Key Characteristics of FIT Travelers:

Independence: They prefer to explore destinations at their own pace without adhering to fixed schedules.

Tech-Savvy: They leverage online platforms for research, bookings, and reviews.

Experience-Oriented: They seek unique, immersive experiences over generic sightseeing.

Why FIT Tours Matter for B2B Tour Operators:

Customization Opportunities: FIT travelers demand personalized itineraries, providing tour operators a chance to showcase their expertise.

High Profit Margins: Tailored experiences often come with premium pricing.

Diverse Market Appeal: FIT tour attract solo travelers, couples, and families across various demographics.

MICE Business Travel: A Growing Opportunity

MICE travel is a specialized segment focusing on corporate events, business meetings, and incentive trips. It involves meticulous planning and execution to meet the specific needs of corporate clients.

Key Elements of MICE Travel:

Meetings: Organized corporate gatherings.

Incentives: Reward trips for employees or clients.

Conferences: Large-scale industry events.

Exhibitions: Trade shows and product showcases.

Why MICE Travel is Crucial for B2B Tour Operators:

High Revenue Potential: MICE events involve large budgets, covering travel, accommodation, and event management.

Repeat Business: Corporations often partner with reliable tour operators for recurring events.

Networking Opportunities: Collaborating with businesses opens doors to new partnerships.

Strategies for Tour Operator B2B

Leveraging Technology:

Online Booking Platforms: Provide seamless booking options for FIT travelers.

CRM Tools: Use customer relationship management systems to track corporate clients’ preferences and history.

Virtual Tours: Offer virtual previews for FIT itineraries and MICE venues.

Personalization and Customization:

Tailored Itineraries: For FIT travelers, design unique experiences like culinary tours, adventure activities, or cultural immersions.

Corporate Branding: For MICE clients, customize travel arrangements and events to reflect the client’s brand identity.

Building Partnerships:

Local Collaborations: Partner with local guides, hotels, and transport providers to enhance the authenticity of FIT tours.

Corporate Alliances: Build long-term relationships with businesses for MICE travel services.

Marketing and Promotion:

Social Media Campaigns: Highlight unique FIT tour packages and successful MICE events.

B2B Networking: Attend trade shows and expos to connect with potential corporate clients.

Content Marketing: Share blogs, case studies, and testimonials showcasing expertise in FIT and MICE travel.

Challenges and Solutions

For FIT Tours:

Challenge: Managing last-minute changes.

Solution: Implement flexible booking and cancellation policies.

Challenge: Catering to diverse preferences.

Solution: Offer a wide range of customizable options.

For MICE Travel:

Challenge: Coordinating large-scale events.

Solution: Use project management tools and experienced event planners.

Challenge: Adapting to client demands.

Solution: Maintain clear communication and regular updates.

Future Trends in FIT and MICE Travel

Sustainability: Eco-friendly practices are becoming a priority for travelers and corporations alike. Offer sustainable travel options to appeal to conscious clients.

Bleisure Travel: Combining business and leisure travel is a rising trend in MICE travel. Create packages that blend work and relaxation.

Tech Integration: Virtual and augmented reality will play a larger role in pre-travel planning and event execution.

Conclusion

FIT tours and MICE business travel present vast opportunities for B2B tour operators to expand their horizons and achieve sustainable growth. By understanding the unique demands of these segments, leveraging technology, and focusing on customization, tour operators can position themselves as leaders in the industry. Whether catering to an independent traveler seeking a bespoke adventure or a corporation planning a high-profile event, the key lies in delivering exceptional experiences that leave a lasting impression.

[vaayutripdmc]

Top Strategies for Growing Your B2B Travel Agency in 2024

A B2B travel agency is a critical player in the travel industry, bridging the gap between suppliers and resellers. In this blog, we address the most common questions people ask about B2B travel agencies, helping you understand their significance and future potential.

What Is a B2B Travel Agency?

A B2B travel agency focuses on facilitating travel services between businesses rather than serving individual travelers. They work with suppliers like airlines, hotels, and tour operators to offer travel solutions to corporate clients and other travel agencies. This model is designed to create streamlined, cost-effective, and scalable travel services.

Key Features of B2B Travel Agencies

Access to bulk travel deals.

Tailored packages for corporate clients.

A vast network of suppliers and resellers.

How Does a B2B Travel Agency Operate?

B2B travel agencies operate by building strong partnerships within the travel ecosystem. Here’s a simplified process:

Supplier Collaboration: Partnering with airlines, hotels, and transport companies.

Inventory Management: Maintaining up-to-date travel options.

Distribution Channels: Sharing inventory with travel agents and corporate clients.

Customer Support: Providing assistance throughout the booking and travel process.

This system ensures efficiency and reliability for all stakeholders involved.

What Are the Benefits of Using a B2B Travel Agency?

Businesses prefer B2B travel agencies for their ability to provide seamless and cost-effective travel solutions. Some of the key benefits include:

Cost Savings: Access to wholesale rates and bulk discounts.

Customization: Tailored travel plans that meet specific business needs.

Time Efficiency: Simplified booking processes reduce administrative workload.

For travel agents, B2B agencies offer access to an extensive range of travel products without the need for direct supplier negotiations.

What Are the Challenges Faced by B2B Travel Agencies?

Despite their advantages, B2B travel agencies face certain challenges, such as:

Market Competition: Staying ahead in a competitive industry.

Technological Integration: Keeping up with rapidly evolving tools and platforms.

Customer Expectations: Adapting to the changing needs of businesses.

By addressing these challenges proactively, agencies can maintain their market position.

What Are the Future Trends for B2B Travel Agencies?

1. Sustainability

Eco-friendly travel options are becoming a priority for businesses. B2B travel agencies are expected to offer green travel packages and carbon-offset programs.

2. Hybrid Travel

With the rise of remote work, hybrid travel—a combination of business and leisure trips—is gaining popularity. Agencies need to cater to this emerging trend.

3. Technological Advancements

Virtual reality (VR) for destination previews, artificial intelligence (AI) for trend analysis, and blockchain for secure transactions will shape the future of B2B travel.

4. Personalization

Clients increasingly demand personalized travel experiences. Agencies that leverage data to offer customized packages will thrive.

How Can Businesses Choose the Right B2B Travel Agency?

When selecting a B2B travel agency, businesses should consider:

Reputation: Look for agencies with a proven track record.

Services Offered: Ensure the agency provides comprehensive travel solutions.

Technology: Opt for agencies that use advanced tools for seamless operations.

Evaluating these factors helps businesses find a reliable partner for their travel needs.

Conclusion

Understanding how a B2B travel agency operates and the value it provides can help businesses make informed decisions. Whether you’re a travel agent or a corporate client, partnering with a reputable B2B travel agency can streamline your travel operations and enhance your overall experience. With the insights provided here, you’re well-equipped to navigate the B2B travel landscape in 2024.