Need to Know
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Washington, DC – Eaton Workshop founder Katherine Lo’s Eaton Hotel concept aims to bring activism to the hospitality sector with an extensive ‘content and programming agenda underscoring its core advocacy values’, which include climate change and race relations. Scheduled to open in April 2018, the hotel will host ‘activist artists in residence’, and feature exhibitions by artists including AJ Schnack, whose video installation exploring the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016 will feature at the hotel entrance.

Lo is planning to open new Eaton Hotel locations in Hong Kong, San Francisco and Seattle within the next two years. In August 2017, The Standard Hotel in New York adopted a similar Brandstanding approach, installing a public telephone booth with a direct line to the US Capitol switchboard at its New York location.

US – The launch of medical subscription platform Roman could signal a new era for men’s health. In a bid to address the problem of erectile dysfunction, Roman invites users to engage in a dynamic online visit, which collects their medical history and and other medicinal preferences, before issuing a prescription from a trained physician. The medication is delivered directly to the customer at no extra cost once a monthly or quarterly subscription has been paid.

Traditionally, issues such as erectile dysfunction have been considered mainly applicable to an older demographic, but a new wave of online Post-pharmacy Brands such as Roman and Hims are opening up a dialogue with younger consumers who are also affected by the condition but are often unwilling to seek help for fear of embarrassment.

New research by Euromonitor indicates that Singapore will become a more popular tourist destination than London, driven by outbound tourism from China. At present, Hong Kong and Bangkok are the two most visited cities, with London ranked third. See our Emerging Youth Travel Market for more on the countries whose young, affluent consumers are set to disrupt the travel sector.