Customer trends to help shape travel & tourism Industry

As the world becomes more sophisticated, new ideas and beliefs to live a more connected life have emerged as part of the online and offline experience and integration. The world is transforming rapidly and powerful global demographic, political, economic, and technological forces are impacting the travel and tourism landscape, producing different expectations among consumers, obligations for businesses and policymakers, and opportunities to succeed.

Leaders need to manage companies that are able to satisfy new customer demands and expectations and to cope up with the next revolution in data capabilities and heightened business risks. Increase in consumers who tend to move beyond experiences as social currency to seek shared experiences to deliver meaning, self-improvement, and stronger connections.

Millennials and Generation Z hate to depend on experts and are more likely to rely on personal networks. Even these consumers value technology but are uncomfortable with over-automation and are in need to be treated as individuals by companies they can trust in privacy while sharing their values and provide authenticity.

The urgent need of the travel and tourism industry is to invest and take advantage of the new realities through enhancing their understanding of their customers — present and future — and ensure to maintain a competitive edge by establishing a voice in the arena of the global conversation.

The tech-powered economies like “gig economy” and “sharing economy”, which are in the phase of fast growth, will lead to a change of expectations about work, life, and culture. Nowadays people prefer to engage in independent work and the independent workforce is only going to rise as life becomes self-directed and travel will become more of a lifestyle.

Like any other business tourism initiatives also need to lean into brand values to guide their innovation and maintain transparency with their consumers. The need to invest in creating sharable moments, strive for customer service excellence, and ensuring that their brand has a point of view in the global, social discussion. For travel and tourism organizations, merely establishing a presence in new markets won’t be enough as it will be critical to understanding the future consumer.

The need to balance the responsibility in short and long-term priorities is high since the health of our planet and the availability of resources are increasingly threatened. According to researchers, by 2050, the consumption of natural resources will triple as the global population will exceed 9.7 billion. The travel and tourism sector with sustainable business practices, brand stories to sustainable solutions will become the core of a robust growth strategy.