Travel Daily News - Global megatrends revolutionizing the tourism industry

Travel Daily News - Tourism Trends by Tourism Control Intelligence

Michael Nowlis, consultant and director for the Tourism Control Intelligence makes predictions for the travel industry:

These two items in particular strike me as offering opportunities:

Consumers will systematically consult travel health sites before checking ticket or room availability.

Consumers will increasingly expect to negotiate hotel and airline rates.

While these two items highlight dangers:

The Internet will become the dominant distribution channel for all travel and tourism products eliminating most intermediaries.

As hotel reservations made through global distribution systems diminish, GDS will exploit communications advances to reduce fees and costs.


Other possible openings and dangers include:

London, New York, Sydney and Dubai will be the leading tourism poles through the end of the decade.

While hotel and cafe guests will increasingly expect wireless Internet access, other factors will encourage hospitality operators to invest in it - serving as a platform for mobile point-of-sales, reducing cable costs and more efficient restaurant table auditing.

Understanding customers as people - their likes, dislikes, habits, interests and hobbies - will become critical to establishing competitive advantage in hospitality marketing.

Customer retention will replace customer acquisition as travel agencies` strategic objective.

Data warehousing and data mining will provide one-to-one and relationship-marketing opportunities never imagined.

Print media advertising will move onto the Web.

Increasingly value-conscious customers will demand more and better product information.

"Rave` tourists will travel further abroad in search of the perfect party (BringItOn! Travel, Like Hiptrips, Experienceibiza, etc.)"

"Travel guidebooks will become highly specialized and more frequently consulted - primarily on the web."

"By the end of the decade, a score of management companies will control the world inventory of branded hotel rooms."

"Franchising will experience explosive growth as hotel companies strategically reposition to get out of the hotel business and into the business of hotels (i.e. Radisson, Choice, Cendant, Holiday Inn, etc.)."