Travel & Hospitality – Trends
- Intense competition from low cost carriers and international airlines -> driving down fares
- Airplane infrastructure upgrades to meet customers expectations: Wi-Fi service onboard, power for devices, etc.
- AI -> more personalised results offered by the travel websites
Chat bots provide customers with better service
1) Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas -> Rose robot 24/7, a customer can text it 24/7 and it’ll try to find complete one’s request
2) Marriott ->AI powered chat bots at 5,000 hotels
- Personalised moments – businesses willing to provide customers with tailored experiences and services (e.g. temperature in the hotel room) -> can help link the right promotions to the right customers
- Internet of Things -> airlines, hotel rooms connected -> improved travel experience
- Voice technology -> 2018 first hotel chain introduced voice assistant in every room
- Food delivery apps
- Health and wellness programming in the hospitality space
- Driverless cars
- Customer Relationship Management systems in restaurants
- Ride-hailing and car sharing
- Customers sharing their experience on social media -> encourages businesses to maximise customer satisfaction
- Virtual reality
- Cloudbeds
Challenges:
- Vulnerability of the industry (weather conditions, political unrest, etc.)
- Brands who fail to innovate risk losing market share
- Virtual reality may encourage travellers to choose VR over reality which would threaten hospitality industry
- Big data safety
- Overtourism -> stress on the local infrastructure, traffic, environmental impact
- Regulation of the sharing economy