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Organized by EHL Hospitality Business School and the Harvard Data Science Initiative, the second iteration of the Vine to Mind conference took place on EHL’s iconic Lausanne campus in June 2025. Discussions centered on the role that data science plays in the wine industry. Drawing participants from over 20 countries, the conference featured presentations rooted in academics, data science and in-the-vineyards insights. The conference put forward a clear and informed message: the evolution of the wine industry now depends as much on advances in data science as on traditional expertise in viticulture, winemaking, and business.

For centuries, industries such as beer, wine and whiskey have been built on foundations of heritage and craftsmanship. Over time, these products have become precious, cultural artifacts, deeply tied to regional identity. The botti used for ageing Barolo wine in Piedmont, the ancient recipes used to produce beer in Germany, or the oak used for aging whiskey all carry symbolic meaning beyond their technical purpose. Entrepreneurs entering these fields quickly learn that innovation often means challenging industry traditions that entire regions have held sacred for generations. The price of novelty can be high: reputational risk, resistance from loyal consumers, even rejection from local communities who see innovation as an attack on authenticity. Inspired by research on the Swiss beer industry, this article proposes strategic ways of weaving centuries of tradition into new interpretations.

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY

Cvent, a market-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, and BeCause, the sustainability data hub for the travel and tourism industry, have announced an integration to enhance how hotels present sustainability information on the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN), one of the world’s largest venue-sourcing platforms. The integration allows hotels to automatically integrate verified sustainability information from BeCause’s live data hub – the largest database of verified hotel sustainability data in the industry containing more than 2 million data points across 10,000 metrics – into their CSN profiles, addressing the growing demand from event planners for easily accessible sustainability data when sourcing and booking venues. More than 12,000 hotels and venues are already sharing sustainability data and publishing it on CSN through this integration.

Gorgeous Smiling Hotels GmbH and Aspire GmbH are joining forces, consolidating their hotel operations and setting the stage for ambitious future growth. Their first deal as Gorgeous Smiling Hotels will be with the addition of Great2Stay Hotels, which is a hotel management company based in Augsburg. This move will create one of the largest operators in the DACH region portfolios of the year. The joint umbrella brand for all activities will be Gorgeous Smiling Hotels.

HOLLYWOOD, Florida, USA, September 29, 2025 – Shiji, the global hospitality technology leader, today announced that American Liberty Hospitality (ALH) has expanded its use of Infrasys POS, Stellaris Digital Dine, and Infrasys POS Move (iOS mobility solution) to seven of its properties, marking a significant milestone in the group’s digital transformation journey. The rollout includes the group’s newest acquisition, the Hilton Houston Westchase, a 275+ room property in Houston, Texas, which went live earlier this year and implemented Infrasys POS Move to further enhance mobility in its F&B operations.

Wellness is reshaping hospitality and real estate. It is no longer a luxury; it is a global economic force and a core business strategy. The global wellness economy reached $6.3 trillion in 2023 and is projected to hit $9 trillion by 2028, according to the Global Wellness Economy Monitor by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI). Of the 11 categories of wellness, the three (3) key growth areas include Wellness Real Estate, Wellness Tourism, and Mental Wellness, sectors now recognized as essential drivers in hospitality and real estate.

Future Hospitality Summit – FHS World is showcasing Albania’s wide and diverse range of hospitality investment opportunities with a dedicated pavilion highlighting the country’s fast-growing tourism sector, sustainable vision and plans to become a year-round, multi-sector tourism destination.

A hotel keycard may be small, but its impact on the guest journey can be monumental. That was the message from GCSTIMES, which presented its vision for the future of keycard innovation at the Wyndham SEAPR General Managers Conference in Thailand this month.