Officially: the future is approaching (or has already arrived). The hospitality industry is changing faster than ever, and it is almost impossible to keep up with all the trends in hospitality, travel, and hotel management affecting this dynamic business. Whether you want to start your hotel, manage it now, or want to know what the tourism industry is because it is one of the largest and most influential globally – this article is for you.
Disclaimer: this is not an article about tourism trends after the virus, which you already know everything about.
While we may not be at the point where beds make themselves up or don't enjoy self-cleaning bathrooms, technology and innovation bring new and exciting changes to the theme of modern tourism trends.
In addition to cutting-edge hotel technology, we see changes in the workforce and work culture, changing guest preferences, and an increased focus on sustainability.
Are you wondering what are the new trends in tourism industry? Well, let's move on to our topic "Trends in tourism"?
Smart rooms
From access to streaming services to a room key on a smartphone, basic in-room hotel amenities are becoming increasingly digital. Guests need concierge services or temperature controls at the touch of a button (or the touch of a finger), and voice control expands beyond just asking Alexa to play your favorite song. These new trends may sound futuristic now, but in a few years, guests will expect them. Many of these innovations require only minimal changes to the modern guest room, so a visionary hotelier can implement them quickly and efficiently.
Bring your own stream: Portable streaming devices like the Amazon Fire Stick allow guests to pack their own movies or shows in suitcases, but you can only watch them if you have a USB port on the TV in your hotel room. Hotels can also use a platform like Enseo, which allows guests to log in to their favourite streaming accounts and then log out automatically when they leave the hotel.
Charging a wireless device: Cords are such a past century. Wireless charging transfers power from the charging "mat" to a smartphone or headphones device when the device is on the mat. Hotels can use a platform like Chargifi to deliver wireless charging in their rooms.
Intelligent Control: digital controls for temperature, lighting, and power, such as the "Socket", which can be configured and programmed with a single touch of a finger from a smartphone or other device.
Tablet Control: Forget about the traditional bookbinder containing information about hotel services; guests want to see restaurant opening hours, room service menus, spa services, and area recommendations on the tablet in the room, which can also play music, control room lighting, and temperature, and make special requests. Some popular brands include Crestron, INTELITY, SuitePad, and Crave.
Sound-proofing: The new standard of sound-proofed windows uses acoustic technology to minimize noise from traffic, planes, or loud music, meaning that noise complaints can disappear forever.
Voice Control: Upgrade a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa to handle specific hotel requests with a system like Volara. These systems allow guests to use voice commands to request services such as house cleaning or valet parking.
Smart Mirrors: This high-tech convenience combines a TV screen and a mirror in the guest room. While shaving or brushing your teeth, guests can watch the news, check the weather, or request hotel services using the concierge function. Check out all the features of Savvy by Electric Mirror.
Keyless entry: A keyboard code, a digital version of the room key, or a smartphone app eliminates the need for physical room keys and speeds up the registration process. Keyless entry from ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions is second to none. Keyless entry systems will be fully integrated with the best hotel software systems, allowing guests to control all the experiences of their stay on the hotel grounds using the app.
Concierge Video Chat: With a quick scan of the QR code, communication systems such as Crave allow guests to talk, send text messages or video chat with hotel staff in real-time. Guests can skip a walk to the front desk, and staff can quickly and efficiently answer questions or process a request.
Green Revolution
The emphasis on environmental sustainability is not new, but the degree to which guests expect (and prefer) eco-friendly products and services is growing by the day. Simply offering guests to reuse towels for an extra day is not enough; the modern traveller wants to stay in hotels that have integrated eco-friendly practices into all aspects of their business. From physical changes to hotel buildings, such as solar panels' addition to F&B menus with more vegetarian and vegan choices, it's clear that these eco-friendly trends have come here to stay.
LEED Certification: Short for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design", this global certification measures environmental safety. The assessment covers water efficiency and indoor environmental quality, and the building can receive a Certificate, Gold, Silver or Platinum status.
Solar Energy: Hotels can use solar energy either by generating energy from their solar panels or purchasing solar energy from an electricity supplier. Hampton Inn Bakersfield uses solar power to take advantage of a 30% federal tax discount while reducing its electricity bills by 35-45%.
Water-saving: Any effort to minimize water use can help the hotel become more "green", from the introduction of slower showerheads to the use of more efficient washing machines. IoT for the hotel business INTEREL is working on a technology to save cool water.
No plastic: Consumers are moving away from plastic, so hotels can respond to these travel trends by replacing plastic straws, cutlery, water bottles, toilet bottles, and shipping containers with compostable or reusable alternatives. Most major hotel chains are phasing out single-use plastic toiletries, and California regulators have even banned them altogether!
Motion Sensors: Hotels can save energy by implementing motion sensors that turn off the power as soon as no movement has been detected for a certain period.
Waste management: Add to this more eco-friendly waste management options by introducing trash bins in guest rooms and compost bins in foodservice outlets.
Green hospitality: Follow Starwood's guidelines and encourage guests to minimize their environmental impact by skipping cleaning in exchange for hotel credit or loyalty points.
Meat Alternatives: You know that meat alternatives weren't just an "alternative" when Burger King started serving the "Impossible Burger," a plant-based version of the burger. Hotels can take advantage of vegan and vegetarian travel trends, offering non-meat options on each menu and indicating whether a particular dish contains meat or dairy products. Beyond Meat is another very popular brand of meat alternatives.
Changing the workforce
While the increasingly digital world means that an employee's tasks are changing, the staff itself is changing. These changes are taking place not only in the demographic sphere, due to the growth of Generation Z and the more global nature of the workforce, but also manifest themselves in an increased focus on security, unionization, work "on the road", as well as on human resources management technologies. Hoteliers need to be aware of these changes in the workforce to effectively hire staff, reduce staff turnover, and ensure employees' safety and happiness.
Global Workforce and Immigration: Technology makes it possible to create a global workforce through communication tools that can connect teams and increase efficiency. However, as economic and political factors complicate immigration or force some people to move, hotels may face difficulties in hiring or retaining staff.
Generation Z: Generation Z is a group of young people born between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s. These young people are "digital natives", which means that they have never lived in an age without the Internet. Their views and habits related to the use of technology and social networks may differ from older generations' views and habits.
Safety Regulation: 2020 will be the year of hotel employee safety, as several states and cities have passed legislation requiring hotels to implement Employee Safety Devices (ESD), and the American Association of Hotels and Hotels' 5-Star Promise program provides additional resources to ensure employee safety. ESD devices range from stationary alarm buttons behind the reception desk to portable alarm buttons for service personnel.
Alternative accommodation options
Modern travelers have countless accommodation options; in addition to traditional hotels, they can choose between vacation rentals, hostels, serviced apartments, tree houses, and even hotels underwater. As people travel more often and for longer, and platforms like Airbnb allow any housing provider to reach a large audience online, the characteristics of the housing itself are changing. In the near future, "alternative housing" will become an alternative and part of the mainstream.
Vacation rentals: Vacation rentals are no longer just vacation rentals; besides the traditional beach rental home, the definition of "vacation rentals" can include everything from apartments to staterooms, from Instagram-worthy Airstreams.
Airbnb: The popular booking site started as a way to rent a room in someone else's house for the night, but now it includes entire apartments, luxury homes, hotel rooms, treehouses, castles, and more. New additions to the site include tours and activities, adventure travel, and an inventory of hotels following the acquisition by HotelTonight.
Mobile Hotels: Instead of looking for a new hotel every time you travel, a mobile hotel, which is essentially a hotel room on wheels, travel with you. Although it is still in the conceptual development stage, it is a very interesting idea for business travellers. We're all used to sleeping on boats on a cruise, and European travellers are familiar with luxury train services, but how cool would it be to sleep comfortably on a bus and wake up somewhere else? Super cool. Travellers can nap in Los Angeles and wake up in San Francisco-skip the TSA pre-check and wake up refreshed in your cabin.
Home Hotels: Brands such as Sonder and Stay Alfred combine the aspects of hotels and vacation rentals and short-term rentals with hotel-style standards and branding, as well as amenities such as concierge service, indoor laundry, and a full kitchen.
Next-generation Hotel Brands: As travellers strive to experience more of the local attractions, a new generation of hotel brands, such as Life House, eliminates the need for cookie-cutter fittings and incorporates the locals' character into the interior F&B, and personality of each hotel.
Traveling alone
Travelling used to be a family affair or something that couples took on together. While this is still the case for many, more and more people are choosing to travel on their own. Enjoying a solo trip is no longer so unusual, and modern trends in tourism increasingly reflect this. The needs of solo travellers are diverse. Some people want to travel without being distracted by a satellite. Others are young singles looking for opportunities to socialize or find a partner. Some widowed seniors even use a long-term hotel stay or cruise as a luxury alternative to traditional elderly care. These new trends in tourism will grow and develop.
Technology
It is not surprising that a significant part of our tourism trends and in the hotel business is related to technology. Innovation in hotel technology is booming; previously expensive technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital room keys are more accessible than ever, and the development of payment systems and app capabilities means that hoteliers and guests have exciting new opportunities when it comes to booking, paying, and staying at a hotel. Although these may now be "trends in tourism", they will only become more common.
A. I Booking Experience: Hoteliers can continuously optimize their sites with artificial intelligence such as the Hotelchamp Hotel Autopilot and Triptease Convert, which performs A/B tests to increase direct online booking speed.
Lightning Fast Internet: WiFi is no longer a one-speed convenience; if your internet service provider hasn't made any updates in a few years, your WiFi may be too slow to stream movies or download large files. 50 megabits per second (Mbps) is the threshold for adequate WiFi these days, and some providers, like Google Fiber, offer up to 1000 Mbps.
Robot Room Service: While some hotels are completely abandoning room service, others are turning it into a signature brand with a futuristic robot-like YOTEL YO2D2 that does on-demand delivery.
Cool translation apps: As the number of international travellers increases, so does the possibility of getting lost in translation. Equip the hotel staff with language translation tools, such as Waverly Labs-based headsets, to translate spoken words and text.
Contactless payments: First we missed, then we inserted a chip, and now we can pay by touching a credit card or mobile wallet, so hotels must upgrade their payment technology to accept payments via a short-range communication system (NFC).
Hotel App Markets: Leading hotel software vendors such as Mews, Cloudbeds, Protel, and SiteMinder currently offer a catalogue of additional apps in the software itself, making it easy to add sales promotion tools, price information, site selectors, and other useful tools to an existing PMS or hotel management software.
Self-service Hotel Software: Unlike hotel systems of the past, which were expensive and time-consuming to set up, the new generation of self-service hotel applications allows hotel owners to set up the tool quickly and easily, sometimes even with a free trial.
Meeting venues are becoming digital: The clunky RFP process is undergoing major changes; with new tools designed specifically for the conference room and event market, sales managers can distribute meeting room availability and prices through third-party channels, and customers and event planners can reserve seats online.
Personalization: Hotels collect a huge amount of guest data, but hoteliers rarely use this data to personalize guest experiences. With new customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Revinate and Cendyn, hotels can extract data points from the cloud and inject them into the room to create more personalized experiences.