HTNG & HOTREC to Promote Hospitality Technology Interoperability and Standardization in Europe

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. April 15, 2013

CHICAGO / BRUSSELS - April 15, 2013 - Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the membership association that unites the world's hospitality companies and technology innovators to solve industry challenges, today announced a partnership with HOTREC (Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes in Europe).

HOTREC is the umbrella association of national trade associations representing the hotels, restaurants, cafes and similar establishments Europe. Its membership is currently comprised of 44 member organizations from 27 European countries. Europe is the largest tourism destination in the world with a market share of around 50%, representing some 475 million international arrivals. People are spending over 1.5 billion nights in hotels and similar establishments in the European Union.

The goal of the partnership is to make European hospitality establishments more competitive through expanded access to HTNG technical specifications. HTNG specifications promote interoperability and standardization among many of the key technologies used in the hospitality industry, thus enabling more efficient, functional, and cost-effective technology expenditures.

“HTNG is working with HOTREC to facilitate the sharing of market knowledge, expertise, best practices and other information, and to help vendors more fully meet the needs of the hospitality industry in Europe, particularly among smaller hotels and hotel groups who may have limited IT resources,” said Douglas Rice, Chief Executive Officer of HTNG. “HTNG provides access to solutions and best practice documents that have the benefit of the input of global hotel groups and technology vendors, but are readily applicable to solving the business problems and improving the guest experience of hotels of all sizes. HTNG's partnership with HOTREC will streamline European hotelier access to this business critical information, benefiting hoteliers, their guests and technology vendors alike.”

HTNG's mission is to foster, through collaboration and partnership, the development of next-generation systems and solutions that will enable hoteliers and their technology vendors to do business globally in the 21st century. HTNG is recognized as the leading voice of the global hotel community, articulating the technology requirements of hotel companies of all sizes to the vendor community. HTNG facilitates the development of technology models for hospitality that foster innovation, improve the guest experience, increase the effectiveness and efficiency of hotels and create a healthy ecosystem of technology suppliers. Current initiatives include the development of specifications for intelligent guest rooms, mobility, back office management systems and a recently released secure payment framework developed to meet the unique structure of the hospitality industry.

“This cooperation opens new doors for the European hospitality industry for its future development. We invite our members to make good use of the tools developed by HTNG,” said Kent Nyström, President of HOTREC.

About HOTREC
HOTREC represents the hotel, restaurant and cafe industry at the European level. The sector counts 1.7 million businesses, with almost 92% of them being micro enterprises employing less than 10 people. The industry provides some 9.5 million jobs in the EU alone.

HOTREC brings together 44 National Associations representing the sector in 27 different European countries. For more information please visit www.hotrec.eu.

About Hotel Technology Next Generation
The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, nonprofit organization with members from hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, and other industry members including consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards. Where necessary, it also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Membership in HTNG is open to hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, academics, press and others. Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including most of the world's leading hotel companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 16 top IT leaders from hotel companies around the world, itself has responsibility for about 2.3 million guest rooms. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. Specifications are released to the public domain as they are ratified by the workgroups. For more information, visit www.htng.org.

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