Trends we spotted | Week 39
At Horecatrends we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the smaller trends we use in our weekly column. This week, amongst others about a chatbot that consults tourists and gave them personalized tips to visit Antwerp. And it’s possible to meet Rembrandt in virtual reality.
If you like to read the whole article, click the title. Enjoy reading!
Tripfixer | This chatbot is helping tourists in Antwerp.
Last summer, the province of Antwerp launched the Tripfixer chat robot. This chatbot gives visitors personalized tips about over 14,000 activities in the province. The Tripfixer was quite popular and conducted 11,400 calls in July and August, therefore they decided to let the Tripfixer consult this fall and winter as well.
Virtual reality | Meet Rembrandt
Virtual Reality makes it possible to meet Rembrandt. By using the ‘Meeting Rembrandt’ app, visitors can take a look at the ‘Gouden Eeuw’ in Amsterdam. The VR glasses brings history to life, says Arthur Houtman, CEO of Force Field. “It feels like you’re experiencing the moment when history was written. You interact with Rembrandt in his studio and house and he tells you why his work was so controversial at that time.”
A flying car is taking off near the Motor City
Detroit Flying Cars is currenly developing a flying car. They hope to have its WD-1 in the air by next year. The founder of the company, Sanjay Dhall, says that other developed flying machines don’t fly like planes and others don’t drive like cars, but his will do. Despite the good intentions, it will probably take some time till the first flying car will participate in traffic. We will keep you posted!
‘Terroir’ symposium unlocks Budapest’s food scene
According to S. Pellegrino all foodies have to go to Budapest to learn about the great food that Hungaria is offering, like for example the Mangalitsa pigs. On the 30th of October, Hundreds of chefs, producers, hoteliers, wine experts, culinary tourism experts, journalists, media and international business leaders will gather for the first ever edition of S.Pellegrino sponsored by Terroir Budapest. The full terroir experience adds an additional three days to the schedule to allow visitors to discover the rich and little-explored producuction of the land. Culinary tours, dinners, wine tastings and more will all be offered to explore the very best of the currently and coming food venues. Check out this video!
Deliveroo to invest in ‘dark kitchens’ roll-out
Deliveroo has raised their funding to £284m ($385m) to help roll-out its ‘dark kitchens’ to more locations in the UK and overseas. ‘Dark Kitchens’ are kitchens provided by Deliveroo, but the menus and staff are provided by individual restaurants that want to launch or increase their deliver capacity.
