Days ago, The New York Times published an article on its website called "The 'Smart' Trend in Hotels", indicating that "hotels around the world are using technology in new ways, with the goal of speeding up or personalizing more services for guests". I fully agree with this idea, especially after I paid my visit to The 15th International Exhibition of Food & Drink, Hotel, Restaurant & Foodservice Equipment, Supplies & Services last month, at which I was attracted by all the exhibited intelligent hotel services.

Many services impressed me: some hotels have developed their own smartphone applications for customers to download; there are charging/speaker docks for multiple models of cell phones; customers can use their smartphones to control everything from lighting and air-conditioning to TV channels shifting or even curtain controlling; cloud technologies are used by some hotels to store customer information, detailing their flavor and calorie consumption through their use of body-building apparatus, so that these hotels are able to provide more personalized services.

Actually, in 2010, The Upper House, a hotel located in Admiralty, was selected as one of the top 10 hotels in terms of high-tech and also ranks 5th in this year's best hotels worldwide. But this kind of hotel is still very rare in Hong Kong. As an international metropolis, Hong Kong should specialize in providing professional services, in which hotel service is one of the most important indexes. Therefore, I suggest we should advocate the popularization of intelligent services.

Other than the pursuit of high-end services in hotels, intelligent home furnishing is also a trend in the near future. In the past, an intelligent home seemed beyond the reach of common families and could only be afforded by the rich. Along with the improvement and universalization of intellectual science, many smart products have played a role in the normal life, especially the smartphone. It is estimated that by 2019, the number of smartphone users in the world will be 4.5 billion, indicating that an intelligent life is within reach.

Apart from huge convenience brought by intelligent home furnishings to people's daily life, it is more noticeable that the elderly will also benefit enormously. With a smartphone, they will be able to solve assorted inconvenient issues, including asking for help, calling doctors, and etc., which will be much quicker than the use of an emergency alarm service currently provided to senior recipients. A small smartphone can already lessen their burden a lot, so it's not very difficult to imagine how the elderly will benefit from a full set of interactive furnishings.

However, I still find most of the elderly have a relatively resistant attitude towards intelligent technologies, fearing that these devices are too complicated to operate or they are easily broken. Actually, the trend of the smart products generally is becoming easier and easier, and once they get to realize how simple it is to use them, not only can they enjoy the great convenience, but they would also be exposed to more information in the society, which helps reduce their feeling of loneliness.

It is recommended that the related authorities should teach the elderly to use smartphones and other devices. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer has done a great job in encouraging ICT (Information and communications technology) adoption among the elderly by organizing different activities every year to allow more elderly people to be engaged in technology-related competitions or courses.

Government subsidies for these events, however, are still insufficient for popularization; therefore, government should consider appropriating more funds for these projects, given that the financial surplus is considerable, which will definitely be better than giving every resident a certain amount of money.

It is also suggested that the Hong Kong SAR government should input more resources to establish a more comprehensive Wi-Fi network to support the popularization of intelligent services.

The author is vice-president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong.

(HK Edition 06/14/2013 page9)