Glamping goes digital. VFS Global expands empire. SITA’s gold standard. More – Glamping Passion

Farmers take tech to the farm gate 

Farmers in the UK are benefitting from a property management system (PMS) that is pushing customers to the farm gate.

UK glamping pioneer Wigwam Holidays and eviivo are using tech to transform more than 80 UK sites into “outdoor hotels”.

Eviivo says the dynamic pricing technology is helping 70% year-round occupancy and integrating OTA listings.

“What’s interesting is that 80% of Wigwam’s franchisees are farmers with little to no background in hospitality or tech before this,” eviivo says.

“With eviivo, they’re becoming pro hoteliers. One site saw 300% increase in bookings within six weeks.”

Eviivo says the system provides farmers with more than much-needed extra cash. “It gives a break from the isolation and stress of farm life. They love having guests around.”

Wigwam Holidays’ digital transformation provides franchisees with access to eviivo’s Suite and mobile app, enabling them to automate and simplify glamping operations across bookings, guest communications and payments.

VFS Global nabs Indonesia contract

Indonesia has appointed the international visa service provider VFS Global as its new visa application provider to help streamline services.

Indonesia said the move will improve traveller convenience and attract more tourism and investment to Indonesia “while making the visa application process as easy as possible”.

Indonesia has been slowly improving its online visa services, covering holiday, second home and golden visa categories.

Visa enables easier QR payments

Visa is working with QR payment providers to enable streamlined touchless digital payments across Asia.

A pilot programme will launch in Singapore and then rolled out across the region.

Visa will enable consumers to use their everyday payment apps to scan and pay at QR merchants.

Visa is working with Lakala in Mainland China, Touch ‘n Go Digital in Malaysia, FOMO Pay in Singapore, Line Pay in Taiwan, and VNPay and Zalopay in Vietnam.

They will become Visa’s QR connectors, enabling their QR merchant networks to accept Visa payments. Users from participating digital apps can then scan these QR codes and pay securely.

Visa provides technical capabilities to QR payment providers by working with payments tech company Juspay.

“These partnerships represent a significant leap forward for the payments ecosystem in Asia Pacific,” said T.R. Ramachandran, SVP, head of products and solutions, Asia Pacific, Visa.

“Consumers accustomed to QR payments at home can now enjoy the same seamless and secure payment experience abroad.”

Travelex taps into new technology

Travelex has refreshed its international ATM estate, replacing the hardware and software of its entire portfolio of 600 ATMs across eight countries.

The new portfolio unlocks a wide range of new features for Travelex customers, including contactless cash withdrawals (rather than traditional buttons), barcode readers and contactless readers.

Contactless readers enable customers to withdraw cash by tapping a card or any other NFC enabled device (such as a phone or smartwatch).

The Travelex network of ATMs is being replaced by NCR Atleos’ SelfServ ATM range, alongside NCR Atleos’ software and SaaS monitoring tool, called Vision.

The latest ATMs will be installed across the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Australia and New Zealand

SITA goes for gold with IPS

SITA has formerly integrated IPS Intelligent Passenger Solutions into its SITA Airports portfolio.

Under its new name, ‘IPS a SITA company’ delivers a range of intelligent passenger solutions like self-service bag drop systems, kiosks, touchless scanners and printers, and associated technologies.

The company says the new gold standard for the Aviation Technology Industry (ATI) and passengers alike will deliver travellers  reduced wait times, smoother journeys, “and a new era of personalised and easy to use digital services”.