"The
tiredness of the confinement that 2020 left, will make tourism
multiply in 2021", predictive phrases like this and many others
we have heard during the year 2020 and 21 from the mouths of many
CEOs and businessmen, some more positive, others more negative and of
all colors.
During 2021 we have seen thousands of analyzes of
tourists movements, how many of them entered, how many left, if hotel
bookings go up or go down, what were the most used touristic terms in
search engines, etc, etc. But, if everything depends on the tourist's
decisions, at this time, would it be better to analyze tourism or the
tourist?
Accommodation
In
the field of tourism, it always seems that hospitality is the key
business, the protagonist, but it is not so, even in social networks,
when talking about tourism, the hotel dominates the posts. The
preference for a more decentralized tourism, further away from the
cities and with more contact with nature, finally became a fact,
something that before the pandemic was just a trend and for a few
eccentrics, ended up being almost a responsibility in the head of the
tourist, to be able to link all their actions with sustainability,
personal and family well-being. The global growth of the glamping
business is one of the proofs of the preferences of the new tourist,
if even the same resorts included domes in their properties to excite
the new tourist and the old wood cabins revived hanging on the
marketing of glamping. But the big hotels continue to face great
challenges of innovation and adaptation to the new tourist, from the
redesign of spaces, through sustainability, new offers for workation
and remote work, to the endless creation of the "perfect
experience".
Mobility
Mobility,
for its part, has also undergone great changes in 2021, from the
growth of hourly car rentals by apps, to the inclusion of monthly
vehicle rentals by subscription for private use, something that used
to be previously destined only for corporations. According to the
report of several countries, automotive industries and rentacars,
there is less interest in owning vehicles, today the common citizen
prefers to outsource the problems and expenses involved in
maintaining a vehicle, adhering to monthly subscriptions, a business
model that is has copied from Netflix, this strategy is being
implemented not only by classic car rental companies, but also by the
car manufacturers themselves. And as an extra condiment, another
preference that is on the rise when it comes to renting a car through
an app, is the inclination for electric cars, which is strongly
linked to feelings of ecological
responsibilities.
"There is no more tourism, nor less tourism, there is other type of tourism and we have to go look for it"
Gastronomy
I have always said that gastronomy, in the midst of its complexity, is like a kind of lifesaver in all kinds of businesses and especially in big crises. 2020 and 21 were very special years for the food business, solving major problems of unemployment and restaurant closures, but enpowering and perfecting delivery, something that is necessary, not only for the common citizen, also for tourists, especially business tourism.
OTA's
For OTAs,
2021 has been a year of great changes, many of them are going through
their worst moment, as a result of their abuses due to their
predominant position, they have made big mistakes, from exaggerated
commissions to hotels and rentacars, lack of payments, misleading
information and lack of flexibility until others amount of mistakes
made in both directions: with its strategic partners and with its
clients. This has led to the demand of large hotel chains from
countries such as Malaysia and Spain, to their government to
implement greater controls and restrictions.
But, not all of
them are doing badly, for some of them, as in the case of AirBNB and
a few others that knew how to make a good reading of existing
problems in the new tourist, 2021 was one of the best years, added to
the need of a more decentralized tourism and being able to reach
every lost village on the planet. Also the appearance and growth of
new OTAs that are not related to hospitality and mobility, but to
other services such as insurance and travel
assistance.
Technology
In a certain way, technology
has made a tourist more self-confident, someone who can see further
before traveling, from his Google maps streetview, he can know what
is there before arriving, as if he had binoculars all the time. And
not only thanks to communication, but also to the possibility of
being able to access many basic services from their smartphones. The
new tourist is encouraged to go much further, without the need for a
tourism agency or a tourist TV program.
Summary
Constant data analysis is certainly good to follow the steps of the tourist, but perhaps it would be better to know what this new tourist is like, how we could relate to him and focus less on where he is going. Look less at competitors and more at ourselves and our relationship with this new tourist.
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