globalEDGE Blog - Page 107

The Danish firm Novo Nordisk confirmed on Monday, January 30th its investment of 144.5 million dollars to employ about 100 academics and scientists to perform research and treatments for type 2 diabetes. This investment has helped raise the economic standard of the UK which has been on a decline since the announcement of the Brexit. The research will occur in Oxford, but any new treatments are likely to be developed and produced in Denmark. This will help both countries economically, and boost confidence for further investments. 

China has recently stated its intentions to produce rain over five dry provinces in the country’s northwest. To accomplish this, the Chinese government plans to use a technique called cloud seeding. Cloud seeding involves inserting a substance, usually silver iodine or dry ice, into a cloud. The goal of this is to alter the precipitation the cloud produces. The most common way for China has practiced cloud seeding in the past is to disperse silver iodide into the sky in the location which rain was desired. In early 2009, China experienced a three day long continuous snowfall which ended its longest period of drought in nearly 40 years.  China hailed this result as a great success for their cloud seeding program; however, many scientists dispute claims that cloud seeding works at all. Other scientist point to events like China’s incredibly heavy 2009 snowfall as evidence that cloud seeding is effective in increasing precipitation levels. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 20,000 for the first time ever on Wednesday. Due to investors betting on higher interest rates and less regulation under our new president, banks have been seeing the most growth, with some stocks up nearly 30%. However, some economists are seeing red flags; have investors gotten too carried away?

It is no secret that the new President of the United States, Donald Trump, favors protectionist economic policies. We are most used to hearing how his policies might affect relationships with China, Mexico, and Russia, but almost all countries will be impacted by the new president's policies. One of the countries who might see significant economic change from Trump's economy is India. India’s largest export, IT Services, face a particularly concentrated threat, and other industries such as pharmaceuticals also find themselves impacted by Trump’s America first policies.

Following his first days in office, President Donald Trump has taken immediate action to reorder U.S. economic alliances, scheduling meetings with leaders from Mexico, Canada, and the UK. President Trump has emphasized trade deals to be one of his first priorities after entering office on Friday, January 20th.

The globalEDGE team is proud to announce that we have revamped our website with a completely new design. We hope the new website will be easier for our users to maneuver while also better highlighting the sections of the site we feel are most useful. The new panel on the home page is part of this effort, and each week we will use this area to direct users to different areas of the site.

China was able to achieve a 6.8% economic growth rate in the last quarter of 2016, which marks the end of its constant declining growth after more than 2 years. This boost was fueled by higher government spending and record bank lending. Overall, the economy grew at 6.7% in 2016, which is within the government’s growth target but still the slowest in 26 years.

Many companies all over the world are concerned with the challenges of the hospitality industry including the threat of Airbnb, as well as social responsibility and liability complications. Airbnb is seen as an increasing threat to the hospitality industry and researchers predict that the company will eventually become a replacement for extended stay hotels, bed and breakfasts, rental sites, and corporate apartments. As Airbnb is continuing to grow, hotels are having a hard time maintaining their nightly and occupancy rates that they had the year before. Not only are companies like Airbnb a threat to the hospitality industry, but other challenges include liability alleviation and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

As global business practices become increasingly digitized, industry sectors are forced to constantly adjust to their transforming infrastructures. This is especially felt within the hospitality industry, where technological mainstays are driving business on both a domestic and an international scale. Technology has allowed for further integration and optimization of industry practices, accelerating overall efficiency. Outreach efforts have also expanded, attracting more consumers to the industry and continually changing their personal engagements with procedures for lodging and travel. Here is a closer look at the various ways technology is shaping the future of hospitality.

2017 will be an exciting year for the hospitality industry. In terms of booking methods, hotel design, and even locations, there will be many changes that impact the hotel portion of the hospitality industry. In no particular order, we have listed ten trends that 2017 will bring below.